Reverend Edward Bartsch

by Marian H. Nelson

St. Mary’s Church in Praha is one of over 50 churches in Texas listed as interesting to visit that I counted on the internet. Somewhere I read that some of the Texas churches rival the beauty and architectural detail found in Europe. I had the privilege of visiting many churches in Europe and the one noticeable difference is size. The small wooden churches especially have a pioneer spirit and Texas "wide open space" flavor.

Praha has a huge gathering every year on August 15th to honor Mary on the Feast of her Assumption. Thousands descend on the church grounds for homecoming and my husband, Charlie, and I were among the crowd. The church, larger than some of the "painted churches" probably held 400 comfortably. We were lucky and got seats right up front. During the 30 minutes or so that we waited for the Mass of Our Lady to begin we enjoyed looking at the beautiful frescos, statues, altars and stained glass windows. Much too much to remember all the details even though we came back after a delicious lunch to look some more.

Reverend Bartsch was ordained in 1949 and left his home in Rockne before then to attend school and seminary but he has stayed in touch through the years and is a generous supporter of the Rockne Historical Association. His father, Julius Bartsch, who lived to be 103, had a good memory of what happened in the early days of the Rockne community. He was helpful in putting together the early history of Rockne, written by Reverend Alois Goertz.

The Mass celebration at St. Mary’s was a beautiful tribute to Our Lady and to all the Czech descendents. The choir and many in the congregation sang all the hymns in Czech and the homilist spoke in Czech and in English. One did not need to understand the language to enjoy the pipe organ and the singing.

At precisely 10:00 a.m., the Knights of Columbus led the procession of six priests and three deacons. Two of the deacons were from Prague, Czechoslovakia. Reverend Edward Bartsch preceded the procession carrying the traditional cross. At the end of the service, the 82 year old pastor spoke with a pleasant, powerful voice thanking the participants and one sensed his deep devotion for his parish. He joked about retiring but somehow we all knew he didn’t want to retire – just yet.