Detroit— Fr. Joseph A. Janiga was “a humble, hard-working priest,” said Msgr. Stanley Milewski, former chancellor of the Orchard Lake Schools.

For 32 years of his ministry, Fr. Janiga taught at the Orchard Lake Schools, “which he loved with a passion,” Msgr. Milewski said.

It was as a student at St. Mary’s Preparatory that a young Stanley Milewski first encountered Fr. Janiga, who was just beginning to teach chemistry there, said the monsignor, a 1947 graduate of the school.

“I’m afraid we were a bit mischievous in welcoming him to the faculty, for which we ask the Lord’s forgiveness,” Msgr. Milewski recalled.

Fr. Janiga died May 11. He was 92.

Fr. Norbert Maciejewski, now a senior priest, also remembered his days in Fr. Janiga’s chemistry class: “He almost flunked his own nephew — me! But I somehow managed to pass. He was a tough teacher, but a fair teacher.”

Fr. Maciejewski, a 1961 St. Mary’s grad, said his uncle was “a very quiet man, a very holy man,” but also as possessing “a terrific, very dry sense of humor.”

He recalled a time when they were preparing to take a test, and Fr. Janiga came into the classroom and set his briefcase down on the desk: “He had put some kind of chemical in it beforehand, so that smoke started billowing out as he opened it to remove the tests. ‘Hot off the presses,’ he quipped.”

The students looked up to Fr. Janiga, said Fr. Maciejewski, who credited his uncle as having played a big role in his own vocation discernment.

“I spoke with him, and talked to him about how I thought I might have a vocation to the priesthood, and he told me, ‘You sit down and talk to God, and listen to what God has to say to you,” he recounted.

Born Nov. 4, 1919, in Detroit to Adalbert and Karoline Janiga, he studied for the priesthood at St. Mary’s College, Orchard Lake, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts, and at the Catholic University of Americain Washington, D.C. He also earned master’s degrees from both the University of Detroit and from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

Fr. Janiga was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit on Oct. 27, 1945.

His assignments included serving on the faculty at St. Mary’s Preparatory School and SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary, Orchard Lake; as a weekend associate at Our Lake of the Lakes Parish, Waterford Township; associate pastor at St. Michael Parish, Pontiac, and at St. Cletus Parish, Warren; and as pastor at St. Helena Parish, Wyandotte.  

Fr. Janiga was granted senior priest status on July 1, 1989.

He was predeceased by his parents and siblings Julia (Edward) Maciejewski, Helen (Stanley) Patrus and Edziu Janiga. He is survived by his sister Loretta Janiga and many nieces and nephews. 

A funeral Mass was to be celebrated by Archbishop Allen Vigneron on May 17 in the Shine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake on the Orchard Lake Schools campus. Msgr. Milewski was to deliver the homily. Burial was to be in Holy Cross Cemetery, Detroit.

Condolences may be sent to his niece, Aurelia Dobrosz, 2724 Oliver Road,Royal Oak 48073.