TUKWILA — Carolyn Lassek, who served the Archdiocese of Seattle as a liturgist for more than 30 years, died Dec. 27, 2023. She was 91.
She was born Virginia Jane Lassek on Sept. 29, 1932, to Polish Catholic farmers Helen and Steve Lassek in Columbus, Nebraska. The oldest of five children, Lassek lived on the family farm in Duncan, Nebraska, until 1946, when she joined the Franciscan order of women religious.
She graduated from high school and college at the Franciscan Mother House in Denver before moving to a new campus in Colorado Springs. During her time as a sister, Lassek earned a master’s degree in history from St. Louis University, taught history and other subjects for many years and became an administrator at the University of Albuquerque.
In the 1970s, she left the Franciscan order and moved with four other former women religious to Seattle. Hired as the first director of religious education at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Seattle, Lassek was among the first lay religious education directors in Western Washington after the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Northwest Progress newspaper reported in a 2012 story about her retirement.
In 1976, Lassek earned a master’s degree in religious education from Seattle University. She then began her many years of ministry with the Archdiocese of Seattle, directing sacramental preparation — including implementing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — and eventually becoming co-director of the liturgy office before assuming the position of director in 1993, the Progress reported.
Lassek was a fixture at ordinations, rites of election and other major liturgical moments in the local church, the Progress reported. The paper noted she served under five archbishops: Thomas A. Connolly, Raymond G. Hunthausen, Thomas J. Murphy, Alexander J. Brunett and J. Peter Sartain. At the time of her retirement, Archbishop Sartain noted Lassek’s “expertise, dedication and depth of contribution to the church,” and her “immeasurable” contributions to “liturgical formation and celebration” in the archdiocese, the Progress reported.
She was a co-founder of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, which became a national organization for liturgical education and innovation. Lassek mentored many liturgy and worship directors in the western United States.
A longtime member of St. James Cathedral, in retirement she volunteered with the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul outreach committee.
Lassek is remembered for her compassion, joyful heart, ever-present smile, contagious laugh and dedication to the church and God.
She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings.
She is survived by her sisters-in-law Dorothy Lassek and Rosemary Lassek, godchildren Roberto Lucero-Miner and Marcilla Proudfit, many nieces and nephews and a large extended family.
Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Jan. 20 at St. James Cathedral, with recitation of the rosary at 10:30 a.m. and a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. A reception will follow.
Burial will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 20 at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline.