Brother DePorres Stilp, MM

Born: August 6, 1932
Oath: June 29, 1955
Died: June 19, 2024

Brother DePorres Stilp died on June 19, 2024 at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He was 91 years old and a Maryknoll Brother for 68 years.

Frederick Lawrence Stilp was born on August 6, 1932, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the son of George A. and Mary Bakesz-Tribsky Stilp. He attended St. Boniface Grade School and G.A.R. Memorial High School, both in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, before entering the Maryknoll Brothers’ Novitiate at Brookline, Massachusetts in September 1953, where he took the religious name of Brother DePorres.

Brother DePorres took his First Oath to the Maryknoll Society on June 29, 1955. He was assigned to Maryknoll, New York in 1957 as one of the Brother-trainers at the newly established St. Joseph’s Training Institute for Maryknoll Brothers.

In May 1960, Brother DePorres was assigned to Korea. He worked as a member of the secretarial staff of Bishop James V. Pardy of the Cheong Ju Diocese from 1962 to 1971. During those years he was also responsible for some of the diocesan youth activities.

From 1971 to 1973, Brother DePorres was part of the St. John Bosco Vocational Training Institute staff in Seoul, where underprivileged teenagers were afforded free training in practical skills. From 1973 to 1974 he was assigned to Pusan, where he worked with the Maryknoll Catechetical Committee in Korea developing catechetical textbooks and visual aids. In 1971 he became involved with the new Catholic Charismatic Renewal which first came to missionaries in Korea. By 1974 this new spiritual program was introduced to the entire Korean Catholic Church. Brother DePorres was the International Coordinator responsible for inviting leaders of the Renewal to Korea annually.

In 1974 he moved to Seoul to continue the work of the Catechetical Committee in that city. He was also an active member of the National Catechetical Committee of Korea, which developed many catechetical textbooks and visual aids. The most important of these works was an elaborate set of Sunday school textbooks for all grades.

In 1987 Brother DePorres was assigned to Rome, Italy. The following year he joined Father Thomas Forrest, an American Redemptorist priest and founder of Evangelization 2000, in Rome to assist him with his international magazine.

In 1991 he began working on an eight-volume book project entitled, Catholic Evangelization for the 1990’s: An Evangelization Reader, which he hoped to distribute to all the bishops of the world. Brother DePorres was assigned to the U.S. Region in 1994, and he joined the Retirement Community (now the Senior Missioner Community) in September 2000. For many years he resided in his hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He took up residence at the Society Center at Maryknoll, New York in 2013.

Brother DePorres is survived by his sisters, Elizabeth Stilp, and Josephine Helfrich; his nephew, Eugene Stilp, and many other nieces and nephews.

Wake services were held on June 24, 2024 in the Holy Spirit Chapel and the Queen of Apostles Chapel at the Maryknoll Society Center. Mass of Christian Burial followed at 11:00 a.m. and was concelebrated in the Queen of Apostles Chapel. Father James Najmowski was the Celebrant and homilist.  Brother Mark Gruenke read the biography and Father Robert Pellini read the Oath. Burial followed in the Maryknoll Society Cemetery.