Page "Daniel A. Helminiak" Paragraph 1

Helminiak was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a Polish Roman Catholic community on the South Side.

He frequently refers to this experience in his popular writings on spirituality and community.

He attended parochial grade and high schools and at age seventeen entered seminary to study for the priesthood at Our Lady of the Lake Seminary, Syracuse, Indiana, and St. Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he was awarded a BA in philosophy ( 1964 ).

He completed graduate studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning an STB ( 1966 ) and an STL ( 1968 ), Bachelor and License in Sacred Theology, and was ordained there at the pope's parish church, St. John Lateran Basilica ( 1967 ).