Community turns out to celebrate the life of Cambria’s beloved priest, Father Mark
The spacious parking lot at Cambria’s Santa Rosa Catholic Church usually has plenty of room for the small town’s parishioners. But for the funeral Thursday for the parish’s beloved pastor, the Very Rev. Mark Stetz, some of the more than 500 attendees had to park their vehicles blocks away.
In fact, the lot and some nearby street parking had filled up two hours before the service began.
They were there to honor, mourn and bid farewell to the man who for 13 years had served as religious leader, teacher, counselor, fellow instigator/participant in lighthearted celebrations and fun, and, most of all, a dear friend.
According to his parishioners and others, Stetz was known especially for his generosity, sense of humor and welcoming nature.
For the funeral, the church was filled to overflowing with mourners, including parishioners, community members and many bishops, priests, deacons and nuns who’d come from near and far to memorialize a respected colleague. One of the four pew sections of the 300-person-capacity church appeared to be filled with religious leaders.
Seating and heaters were provided for people who listened from outside as part of the overflow crowd. About half the seating inside was reportedly reserved for clergy and family members.
Another service is planned at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 2, at Holy Cross Church, 126 High St. in Santa Cruz, another parish over which Stetz presided.
Remembrances of Rev. Stetz
Most Rev. Daniel Garcia, bishop of the Diocese of Monterey, presided over the poignant service, private burial at the Old Santa Rosa Chapel and the reception.
The Rev. Peter Crivello from the Monterey diocese presented the homily about Stetz, saying that “in the parishes he served, in the people he knew in the diocese that he was a part of for so many years, he tended the garden of God’s church” and “was a faithful steward.”
Crivello said Stetz “always had a great focus in the church of how he should reach out to the marginalized ... He cared about people. He realized that God’s people are all a part of God’s garden.“
Crivello said that Stetz, whom nearly everybody called “Father Mark,” did what few priests were able to do, “he paid it forward,” donating money so people could be educated to use their talents and “learn from the experience how that money could multiply when they put their talents, love and energy” toward stewardship and caring.
In Cambria, Father Mark’s donations and energy went toward his community, Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, preservation of the town’s Old Santa Rosa Chapel, the Cambria Historical Society, food banks and helping those who needed it most, among other causes.
In his detailed homily, Crivello reminisced, sharing serious, sweet and funny memories of the pastor, noting, for instance, that the two men had been friends since the shiny-pated men had “both had hair.”
At the end of the homily, everybody applauded for Stetz, something Rev. Crivello heartily encouraged them to do.
The funeral was followed by a reception that featured some of Stetz’s favorite things: Beef, chicken and vegetarian stews and polenta provided by Linn’s, sheets of tres leches cake from Carlock’s Bakery in Los Osos, and trays filled with a traditional, homemade Swiss bread-fruit-and-nut pudding known as torta.
About Father Mark
Stetz, 63, died suddenly on March 13. He had undergone a new surgical treatment for heart arrythmia at UCLA Medical Center, according to his sister, Kathy Stetz.
She said in a phone interview that it had been 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,’” 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.
In honor of their heritage, many of the decorations at the funeral, including a large balloon arch at the church’s entrance and table settings at the reception were in the vivid blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag,. Those colors have been on frequent exhibition worldwide in support of Ukraine. Likewise, the reception’s table decorations were sunflowers, a symbol of the embattled country.
Garcia said 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.”
In a letter to diocese leaders soon after Stetz’s death, the bishop said that “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.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 7:35 PM.
