Fr. Robert Wachter passes away at age 75
“‘You’re going to Heaven!’”
It was one of the most memorable things Fr. David Lies had heard Fr. Robert Wachter say, perhaps made even more memorable by the fact that he had repeated that phrase several times over the years.
So began the homily from Fr. David Lies at the funeral Mass for Fr. Wachter, although an important clarification would follow. “One would think that such a statement would be exactly what a priest should say,” Fr. Lies said, “until you realized that, for Fr. Robert Wachter, ‘Heaven’ was synonymous with Pittsburg, Kansas.”
It was in his beloved hometown that Fr. Wachter died, in its Our Lady of Lourdes parish where his funeral Mass was celebrated, and in its Highland Park Cemetery at which he was laid to rest.
Priest as pencil
During his homily at the funeral Mass, which was held Saturday, Aug. 9, Fr. Lies noted that the congratulations about his heavenly destination came after Fr. Wachter had learned that Fr. Lies’ first priestly assignment was at Our Lady of Lourdes in 1998. Fr. Wachter was at that time the pastor of Fr. Lies’ home parish of Christ the King in west Wichita, and was still its pastor three years later, when Fr. David Lies’ brother, Fr. Jarrod Lies, was ordained and celebrated his Mass of Thanksgiving.
“I’ll bet Fr. Jarrod also heard those blessed words, ‘You’re going to heaven!’ when he likewise received his first assignment to Our Lady of Lourdes,’” Fr. Lies said. “Anytime, Fr. Wachter spoke of Pittsburg or made a visit to his beloved hometown and family, he would declare that he was going to Heaven, or that he had been in Heaven. So, it was with surprise and sadness tinged with joy that I heard the news from that Fr. Robert Wachter had died at the home of family, in Pittsburg, in Heaven.”
Fr. Lies recounted a conversation with Fr. Wachter’s younger brother, Paul, in which he recounted them sharing a bedroom and earning money during the summers by picking blueberries and mowing yards. “He played football for his beloved Colgan High Panthers and loved to return to watch games throughout his life,” Fr. Lies noted.
And while Fr. Wachter’s earthly home helped form him into the man and priest he would become, it was his true home, the actual Heaven, to which he had directed his life. Fr. Lies cited Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the priesthood, Pastores dabo Vobis, “I will Give You Shepherds,” quoting, “The human personality of the priest is to be a bridge and not an obstacle to others in their meeting with Jesus Christ, the redeemer of the human race.”
Fr. Lies went on to say, “Fr. Wachter was endowed by God with his unique ‘human personality,’ which he expressed through his priesthood to be a bridge for many souls to meet Jesus. Another image of the human personality of the priest that came to mind as I reflected on this saying of St. John Paul II was that of a pencil; an everyday instrument; a cylinder of lead held within a wood or mechanical housing to be used for writing. As a priest, Fr. Wachter communicated through his human personality, his strengths and his weaknesses, to share the Good News with his parishioners and many others.”
Fr. Lies noted that the Mass readings from the Book of Job and St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians included references to communicating faith and the divine inscription that God imparted through his ministers.
“A priest’s human personality is that humble element – like lead – that God, the divine alchemist, transforms into gold when he conforms his life to imitate the life of Jesus Christ,” Fr. Lies said. “God mysteriously changes his baser element of humanity into the nobler element of divinity, the in persona Christi relationship that every priest shares with the Lord. The Spirit of the living God uses him to write on the hearts of the people he serves.”
And Fr. Wachter cooperated with the Lord by allowing him to work through his human personality, Fr. Lies continued, “to communicate his word and write a love letter from God on the heart and soul of each person to whom he ministered as he presided over countless baptisms, Masses, marriages and funerals.
“In these and so many other priestly ways – so unique and singular to who Robert Wachter, a child and son of God, and Fr. Robert Wachter a priest of Jesus Christ – the Lord used the humble lead of his human personality. He was God’s instrument, God’s bridge, to bring souls to heaven, and I’m not just talking about Pittsburg, Kansas.”
Obituary
Fr. Robert B. Wachter, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita for 49 years, passed away on Friday, Aug. 1. He was 75.
Fr. Wachter was born on June 4, 1950, to Paul and Rosemary Wachter in Pittsburg. He studied at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver and Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas and was ordained a priest on May 8, 1976, at Our Lady of Lourdes in Pittsburg.
His first assignment was as an assistant at All Saints Parish in Wichita. In the next few years his positions included working as the diocese’s assistant chancellor, chaplain at St. Francis Hospital, and a full-time teacher at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School.
On Aug. 31, 1983, he was named pastor of Holy Savior Parish in Wichita, where he served for five years. He went on to serve as pastor for:
• St. Mary, Newton;
• St. Joseph, Conway Springs;
• St. Martin of Tours, Caldwell;
• Christ the King, Wichita;
• St. Patrick, Parsons;
• St. John, Iola; St. Joseph, Yates Center; and the St. Martin Oratory, Piqua; and
• Mary Queen of Angels, Fort Scott.
In 2019, he was named chaplain of the St. Dismas Ministry to the Incarcerated. He retired from active ministry in June 2020.
Fr. Wachter was preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Rosemary Wachter, his sister, Jo Wachter; his brothers, Pete and Jeff Wachter; his sisters-in-law, Melanie and Becky Wachter, and his brother-in-law, Greg Evans. He is survived by his brothers, Mike, Tom, and Paul (and wife Teri); his sisters, Meg Evans, Beth Smith (and husband Chuck), and Jean Adams (and husband Frank); as well as countless nieces, nephews, and parishioners whose lives he touched with his compassion and pastoral care.
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”
