Divine Word Father Dennis Logue, 99, an Army veteran and hospital chaplain, died July 21 in Techny.

Born in coal mining country in Pennsylvania, he went to work in farming, strip mining and milling lumber after finishing grade school. When he turned 18, he was drafted and trained for war in the Pacific. When the war ended, however, his unit was redirected to join the occupation forces in Europe.

Surrounded by bombed-out buildings and the devastation of war, he discovered his vocation.

Shortly after his discharge from military service in 1946, Father Logue began exploring religious life. A visit to a religious goods store confirmed his vocation. He heard a customer remark that rosaries had been made by religious brothers, and he immediately recognized where God was calling him.

He entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1947 and professed vows as Brother Dennis in 1950. As a brother, he worked at O-Neh-Da Vineyards in upstate New York; as an infirmarian for Divine Word communities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts; director of Health Services at Divine Word Seminary in Girard, Pennsylvania; and ministered to incarcerated young men at the Bordentown Youth Correctional Institution.

In 1975, he became the first permanent deacon ordained for the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, a milestone in the history of the diocese.

In 1979, after nearly three decades as a brother, Father Logue entered a program that recognized life experience toward priestly formation. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1983.

Father Logue’s first priestly assignment took him to Presbyterian University Hospitals in Pittsburgh, now part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he became the first Catholic priest in the hospital’s 100-year history to serve as a chaplain.

A decade later, Father Logue accepted an assignment to serve rural Appalachian parishes in West Virginia. During that time, he received an invitation to minister in the Byzantine Catholic Church, in which some of his extended family worshipped.

After extensive preparation, Father Logue petitioned Rome for permission to celebrate the Byzantine Rite. He was granted dual rite faculties, allowing him to celebrate the sacraments in both the Roman and Byzantine Catholic traditions, and he later served as pastor of Byzantine as well as Roman Catholic parishes.

He returned to Techny in 2011, where he served as sacristan and as a hospice volunteer.

Columban Father Francis D. O’Mara, 89, a missionary pastor, died July 21 in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Father O’Mara was born in Queen of Angels Parish and attended St. Margaret Mary School before entering St. Columban’s Minor Seminary in Silver Creek, New York.

After being ordained in 1961, he did postgraduate studies in Rome, receiving a doctorate at the Gregorian University. In 1967, he was sent to Australia to teach at the Columban seminary there. He returned to Chicago briefly in 1978 before being sent to study Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

By January 1979, he was working in the parish of Santa Luisa, Barrancas, Chile, where he was active in the local prison, which led to his work with those with alcohol addiction.

In October 1983, he was arrested, along with 19 other priests, religious and laypeople after a demonstration against torture under the Pinochet regime. In 1984, Father O’Mara was deported from Chile. After a stopover in Lima, Peru, he arrived home in Chicago.

In 1985, he was sent to a parish in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and in 1992, he was sent to Grand Prairie, Texas, where he served until 1999.

In 1992, after the fall of Pinochet, Father O’Mara was able to visit Peru.

“It’s great to be back, with the people being free and so much less tension in the air,” he said at the time. The Community of John XIII in Pedahuel, where he was working at the time of his arrest and expulsion, gave him a great welcome.

After his assignment in Texas, he became pastor of St. Philomena Parish in Chicago. That was followed by work with fellow Columbans in El Paso, Texas, and across the border in Juarez, Mexico. In July 2017, he retired to the Columban House in Bristol, Rhode Island.

He is survived by his brother, Stephen O’Mara.

Father August (Gus) Belauskas, 83, died July 17. He was a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Born in Chicago, Father Belauskas attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Niles College of Loyola University and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1968. He also received a master’s degree in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago after ordination.

He served as associate pastor of Sts. Faith, Hope, and Charity Parish, Winnetka, and St. Alphonsus Parish, Prospect Heights. He then joined the faculty of Niles College (1974), where he taught philosophy and was on the formation staff. He went to USML/Mundelein Seminary in 1986 to start the pre-theology program for candidates who were entering seminary for the first time. While on the faculty, he also served in various roles: vice-rector, formation adviser, spiritual director, adviser to seminarians in the residence halls where he lived and other duties. During his time at Mundelein Seminary, he also served as a weekend assistant priest for 40 years at St. Gilbert Parish, Grayslake. Father Belauskas retired in 2017 as the philosophy department chairman; he continued to teach and work in formation and spiritual direction part-time.

Father John Kartje, rector/president of USML/Mundelein Seminary, wrote about Father Belauskas in his Scripture column.

“Insofar as a priest is meant to be a ‘pontifex,’ a bridge to help lead others to Christ, Fr. Gus beautifully embraced that vocation,” Kartje wrote in part. “With a famously calm, steady demeanor, he could put the most anxious student or parishioner at ease with a self-effacing smile and a gentle word of encouragement.”

He is survived by his sister, Sylvia Phillips.

Deacon Faustino Santiago, 78, died July 11. He was ordained in 2012 and served at St. Bartholomew and Our Lady of the Rosary parishes.

Born in Puerto Rico, he worked in Chicago as a painter and wallpaper hanger.

He is survived by his wife, Jannett; his children Faustino Jr. and Taína; his mother, Maria; and his brothers Angelo, Damian and Manuel Jr.

Deacon Gregory Serratore, 96, died July 18. He was ordained in 1979 and served at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Parish and as a chaplain for the Chicago Police Department.

Deacon , a veteran of the U.S. Army, worked for the Santa Fe Railway and World’s Finest Chocolate and as business manager at St. Mary, Star of the Sea.

A fourth degree Knight of Columbus, he was married to his late wife, Rose Ann, for 74 years.

He is survived by his children Anthony Serratore, Gregory Serratore, Maria Coleman and Teresa Okrzesik; 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.