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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Father
Ted Rothrock at the groundbreaking ceremony for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Parish’s new rectory in 2002. |
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
CARMEL
— Father Ted Rothrock, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, started
hearing the call to the priesthood when he was about 7. On May 7, he
celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination with family and friends.
“He has a presence about him. He really connects with people,” said Doug Fields, chairman of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s pastoral council. “He is one of those guys that when he talks, you want to sit up and listen; you want to hang on every word.
“When he delivers a homily, he has a real passion for it,” he said. “There’s always a good, solid message. He has a great voice and an awesome singing voice.”
The son of a physician, Father Rothrock lived across the street from the Bishop’s House, on Lingle Avenue, Lafayette. As a boy, he knew Bishop John G. Bennett, the grandfatherly first bishop of our Local Church, who was one of Dr. Rothrock’s patients and a friend of the family.
“I was aware of priests, nuns and bishops all my life. Inevitably, they had some influence on me,” said Father Rothrock, 56. He attended Mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, the bishop’s church.
The second bishop, Bishop John J. Carberry, confirmed him. The third, Bishop Raymond J. Gallagher, ordained him to the diaconate. The fourth, Bishop George A. Fulcher, ordained him a priest in 1983.
“It snowed that day. There was snow on the daffodils and the crocuses,” Father Rothrock recalled.
It was Bishop Fulcher’s only ordination class. He died in a car accident in 1984, and was succeeded by our present bishop, Bishop William L. Higi.
Father Rothrock chose to be a diocesan priest, to know and serve God and the people of Northcentral Indiana. “A diocesan priest is on the front lines; they’re like the infantry, rather than the airborne,” he said.
“I am one of those fortunate people who is doing what he is supposed to be doing, and that is pretty luxurious,” Father Rothrock said. “People say, ‘You have given so much.’ Not really, when you look at the sacrifices that others make for their families, their country and the Church.”
At about the time he started thinking about the priesthood, he met Msgr. Fred Potthoff, who was then the new pastor at the cathedral.
Msgr. Potthoff gave him first Communion and attended both of his ordinations. They have shared Christmas dinner for 40 years.
The Rothrocks, who had five sons, had a summer cabin and a sailboat on Lake Freeman. Msgr. Potthoff knew the family well, and would often swim and relax there.
Following a year of Latin instruction, Father Rothrock, at age 10, became an altar boy. He served Mass in the cathedral and at the Monastery of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood.
He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1969, then studied at DePauw University and Indiana University. He did post-graduate work in comparative religions at the University of Virginia, but he also was interested in the life sciences and worked in a virology lab.
“I knew when I was 7 or 8 what I wanted to do, but I drifted in high school and college,” he said.
Father George Loner, who taught history and religion at Central Catholic, was a major influence. So was his father, Dr. Phillip Rothrock, a charter member of the Lafayette chapter of the Serra Club, which promotes religious vocations.
After graduate school, Father Rothrock worked as a restaurant cook for a while. He came to Msgr. Potthoff for counsel before enrolling in the seminary at the University of Notre Dame.
“I wasn’t totally surprised,” Msgr. Potthoff said. “I never made any attempt to come up to people and say, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be a priest?’ but if they asked me, ‘What do you think?’ I’d tell them.”
By example, Msgr. Potthoff taught him that a priest must be faithful and consistent, with a firm grounding in Church teachings and the ability to put theology into everyday terms.
“He taught me to be the man that you are, and that man has to be a Church man,” Father Rothrock said.
“When I entered the seminary, I went in not to discern anything, but because that was what you had to do to enter holy orders,” Father Rothrock said. “I was in only three years. I had the theology, Church history, languages and philosophy.”
He is a former diocesan vocations director. To him, the priesthood is not a job; it’s a way of life. The challenge is to identify men and boys “born” to be priests and invite them to say “yes,” he said.
Msgr. Potthoff praised his broad knowledge, business sense and administrative ability: He has retired millions of dollars of debt at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, and built two major buildings.
Father Rothrock’s first assignment was associate pastor at St. Mary Church, Anderson, where he had been a deacon. There, he faced anti-clergy sentiment. A store clerk refused to wait on him, and a stranger made a point of spitting near his feet.
The pastor, Father Joe Ruffing, shrugged it off, saying that such people were “all bark and no bite,” he said.
“He served there very well — he was enthusiastic about his work,” said Father Ruffing, now retired and living in Thomasville, Ga. “He’d do everything required of him, and more. He liked to go into the school. He liked the kids and they liked him. He taught religion classes. The kids were always glad to see him.”
After four years at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, West Lafayette, Father Rothrock was named director of the diocesan office of worship and adult formation. In 1991, he took on the added duties of pastor at St. Patrick Church, in the small Benton County farming community of Oxford.
There, Father Rothrock first saw the practicality, thrift and resourcefulness of country people. Years ago, they built their church themselves. When the belfry was damaged, they used welding equipment to fix it. When the ladies’ restroom was painted, they painted around a mirror, to save paint.
“It’s that farmer mentality,” Father Rothrock said, with obvious affection. “It’s duct tape and bailing wire, save every little nut and bolt because you might need it. Coming from the city, I never understood that.”
At St. Patrick, Mass attendance was as large on a holy day as on a Sunday. When a farmer was hurt, other farmers brought their equipment and harvested his crops.
“That said to me, ‘These people know how to live as a community and a family,’” Father Rothrock said.
He has been pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish since 1998. The parish, north of Indianapolis, has approximately 5,000 members. He also is president of St. Theodore Guerin High School in Noblesville, and dean of the Carmel Deanery.
Fields, the parish council president, credited Father Rothrock with the leadership needed to build a new rectory, construct a new parish life center, and develop programs.
“He is really one of those guys who, although he’s only 56, has such a wealth of knowledge. You’d think he had been a priest for 50 years,” he said. “He is very intelligent, very worldly. He has a vast amount of knowledge about a lot of different things.”
Some of Father Rothrock’s favorite memories are tied to conversions.
“When they begin to see the truth of who Jesus Christ is, they really change,” he said. “They change their spots. They are no longer living in darkness. Most of the time, I see that in confession.”
Confession, he said, “really is the priest’s sacrament. It is really when we all are most priests of Christ. It is when we take people’s lives and change them forever. To be part of that is just awesome. That, and the Eucharist, are what we do, and they are based on who we are. That is very humbling.”
Modern culture is so pervasive that it warps people before they even know it, he said. Priests must have the theological background to know the truth and share it.
Twenty-five years have passed since that snowy May day when Father Rothrock was ordained. The most important thing he has learned about people, he said, is that “most people — the vast majority — are good. There are not many bad people out there.
“People basically want to love and be loved, and there is nothing more loving than the Gospel. I am very optimistic about people,” he said with a smile, “except in election years.”