Meet Fr. Tomas Karanauskas

Pastor Fr. Tomas Karanauskas was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, whose mother was a nurse and his father was in the construction industry. He received his first Holy Communion and served as an altar boy at the nearby St. Anthony Church. Prior to the seminary, he studied nursing at Vytautas Magnus University. After a year in medical school, he decided to enroll in the Faculty of Catholic Theology, the only Lithuanian faculty approved by the Apostolic Congregation for Catholic Education in Vatican for ecclesiastical studies. He took further courses in Pastoral Theology at Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany.

As part of his pastoral training, he served as chaplain of the Sandoras Catholic High School and City Hospital of Siauliai. He was ordained on May 1, 1999 on the feast of St. Joseph at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul by Bishop Eugenijus Bartulis of the Diocese of Siauliai.

His first assignment was vicar pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church and a few months later, to become the pastor. In 2001, he was sent as chaplain, to the Immaculate Conception Spiritual Renewal Center in Putnam, Connecticut. The Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a congregation founded by Blessed George Matulitis and they are engaged in pastoral and social work, religious education, caring for the aged, sick and the poor.

Three years later, he was asked by Msgr. Jonas Kucsingis of St. Casimir Church in Los Angeles to be his associate pastor. Archbishop Jose Gomez appointed him pastor in 2010.

Fr. Tomas also serves as spiritual director of the Lithuanian Ethnic Ministry of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and director of St. Casimir Lithuanian Heritage School.

Pastor:
Rev. Tomas Karanauskas (323) 219-4663