SLO County town loses its beloved priest, leaving a grieving parish and community
Catholics and community members alike are mourning the sudden death of the Very Rev. Mark Stetz, who has for about a dozen years been the charismatic, gentle and deeply caring pastor at Cambria’s Santa Rosa Catholic Church.
Rev. Stetz, 63, whom nearly everybody called “Father Mark,” died Sunday, March 13. He had undergone a new surgical treatment for heart arrhythmia at UCLA Medical Center, according to his sister Kathy Stetz.
In a phone interview Tuesday night, she said that this was her brother’s fifth heart procedure. While he was eligible for a heart transplant, she said, he didn’t want one.
“‘I’ve already lived a good, long life,’” she said he told her, and “he wanted that donated heart to go to someone younger, so they could have a wonderful, full life, too.”
Being of Ukrainian descent, she said, she and her brother had been heartbroken about the Russian invasion and the suffering of so many innocents.
Rosaries/novenas in English and Spanish are being said nightly at the church through Tuesday, March 22, with the dual-language services honoring his love and respect for his Hispanic parishioners.
Mass of Christian Burial for Rev. Stetz will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at the Santa Rosa Church, the parish secretary told parishioners by email Wednesday. A reception in the parish hall will follow the services.
People wishing to send messages of condolence or Mass Intention cards to the family can mail them to Kathy Stetz, 15453 Borges Drive, Moorpark CA 9 3021. She will share them with their extended family.
The Most Rev. Daniel Garcia, bishop of the Diocese of Monterey, likely will conduct the services, according to a spokesperson for the diocese. For details, go to www.santarosaparish.org.
On March 14, Rev. Garcia notified priests and deacons in the diocese of Rev. Stetz’s death, noting that he was born May 6, 1958, in Hollywood.
On the next day, Rev. Garcia posted on the diocese’s Facebook page a plea for prayers for Rev. Stetz and his parishioners.
Those services are being delayed so an autopsy can be done to determine what had caused his death and what might have gone wrong with the new heart procedure.
It was what Rev. Stetz would have wanted, his sister said. “He wanted his body donated to science, to find out what happened, so UCLA can help other people. He wasn’t alone in having that anomaly.”
The pastor had been recovering at his sister’s Simi Valley home and had planned to return to Cambria on Wednesday, March 16, by hitching a ride with his good friend and parishioner, Jim Voge, undersheriff of San Luis Obispo County.
A mournful, nostalgic Voge shared some of his memories of Rev. Stetz, including the fact that before he entered the priesthood, he’d been a journalist and music critic for a Bakersfield newspaper.
Kathy Stetz said her brother had developed his love of journalism while attending a Catholic high school, where his primary extracurricular activity was the school newspaper. He graduated with a journalism degree from Cal State Northridge, then went to work for a Bakersfield newspaper, primarily reviewing concerts and record albums.
Voge said music remained a passion for Rev. Stetz.
“He had really solid knowledge of music, especially from the 1975-1985 era. His favorite artist was Karen Carpenter,” Voge said, but his friend also liked Abba and an eclectic assortment of other genres, from “‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies to punk.”
Voge used to time Rev. Stetz’s sermons, and then remind him that lengths in “single digits were better than double digits. Sometimes, at Super Bowl time, he’d cut it really short, and then tell me he did it just for me.”
How Cambria helped change his life
The pastor was equally passionate about walking, Voge and Kathy Stetz said.
In a way, Rev. Stetz’s love of Cambria and the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve there played a big role in his decision to become a priest.
“He’d vacation in Cambria at least once a year,” his sister said.
It was on one of those ranch walks that Rev. Stetz committed to enter the priesthood, Voge said. “Father Mark would put on a big hat to protect that folically challenged head of his” and walk all over the ranch.
Ultimately, Rev. Stetz served for seven years on the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Board of Directors, where “his humor, his expertise and his open-minded suggestions were gladly accepted and welcomed,” Joyce Renshaw, former chairperson and current member of the board, said Thursday.
The pastor was also known for unflagging generosity, humanity and genuine warmth, his never-ending flow of ideas, his flair in dressing up for holidays (from St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween to Christmas), for his pixie sense of humor and his devotion to various nonprofits, from the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve and Cambria Historical Society to the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County.
He was determined to help anybody who needed food, housing, services or a friend.
But the trait mentioned by so many was Rev. Stetz’s unhesitating acceptance and welcoming manner that included everybody.
“I’m a unique Catholic,” friend and parishioner Gloria Fiscalini said of her belief system. “He knew that, and he still welcomed me. That was so important to me.”
Rev. Stetz honored the way his flock wanted things done, she said.
When her husband Floyd Cusumano died in 2012, and his memorial was to be held on the family ranch, the pastor “asked if I would be more comfortable if he conducted the service in street clothes” rather than a priest’s cassock. Since most of those attending the service were not Catholic, she agreed, and said his casual attire put everybody at ease and helped them focus on their grief and good memories.
Fiscalini attended the first novena service for Rev. Stetz, at which she estimated about 80% of the attendees were Hispanic.
“When I walked in the church and saw his picture, it just slammed me,” she said. “At first, I was angry that he had died so young. Then I realized that, with his heart problems, he could have had a gradual decline,” and that would have been so hard for someone like the vitally interested and active priest.
That acceptance is helping her deal with her bereavement and focus instead on the last time she spent time with Rev. Stetz.
He was so beloved that, on his birthday during the pandemic, his parishioners organized a drive-through tribute in the church’s parking lot. According to parishioner Consuelo Macedo, the mostly Hispanic participants, who filled the parking lot and beyond, brought cards and balloons, because the pastor didn’t want gifts.
Macedo said Rev. Stetz had “learned Spanish on the job, mastering the conversational language and vocabulary specific to the church. He amazed everybody.”
Stetz’s history
Rev. Garcia said Rev. Stetz “served as the pastor at Santa Rosa Church in Cambria since 2009, as well as serving as the Vicar Forane for the San Luis Obispo Southwest Vicariate since 2013, and the chair of the Priestly Life and Ministry Committee since 2014. Father Mark also served at the following parishes for the Diocese of Monterey: Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in San Luis Obispo, St. Francis Xavier in Seaside, Sacred Heart in Hollister, Immaculate Conception in Tres Pinos, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Los Osos, and Holy Cross in Santa Cruz.”
Rev. Stetz had been a bit of a rebel, Kathy Stetz said. With their Ukrainian heritage, their religious upbringing was split between Roman Catholic and Byzantine Rite Catholic churches. When he decided to enter the priesthood, he challenged the requirement for him to become a Byzantine priest.
“The decision went all the way up to the pope,” his sister said.
Her brother won, and he selected the Monterey diocese as his faith home.
After his decision to enter the seminary, she said, “he sold his home in Bakersfield and joined the seminary in Camarillo.”
She believes her brother’s first posting, for about five years, was to St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, “then he was sent to Santa Cruz for nine years.”
After her brother’s interim postings, he was then was assigned to the home of his heart, Cambria.
“It was kind of a surreal full circle for him,” Kathy Stetz said.
Fiscalini said, “Father Mark’s death is a huge loss for our church, and for all of us who loved him so much.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 1:42 PM.
