Amarillo—Father Robert Anthony Busch, Ph.D., who served as Pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Canyon and Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Amarillo, passed away Aug. 27. He was 57 years old.
Mass was celebrated Aug. 31, St. Ann’s Church, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, presiding, with priests of the Diocese of Amarillo and other dioceses concelebrating. Burial was in Memory Gardens.
Robert Anthony Busch was born April 3, 1962 in Amityville, NY, the son of Leonard Anthony Busch and Patricia Ann Busch. The family later relocated to Los Alamos, NM.
Busch attended West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University), Canyon, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Speech Communication.
After graduating from WT, Busch hosted the Catholic Bible Hour with then-Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen on KGNC-AM radio in 1988 and 1989. He also served as Youth Minister at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Amarillo and as a faculty member at Alamo Catholic High School (now Holy Cross Catholic Academy), Amarillo.
On May 30, 1992, Busch was ordained to the Transitional Diaconate by Bishop Matthiesen at St. Laurence Cathedral (now St. Laurence Church), Amarillo. He returned to St. Laurence on Jan. 9, 1993, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Matthiesen. Father Busch celebrated his first Mass the following day at St. Thomas the Apostle Church.
Father Busch spent a majority of his 26½ years in the priesthood in higher education. He taught at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., St. Mary’s College and Seminary in Baltimore, and at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla, where he was the Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. He also taught several satellite classes for Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio.
After earning a M.T.S. in Systematic Theology from Oblate School of Theology, Father Busch resided in New York City while pursuing a Doctorate in Systematic Theology from Fordham University. During his studies in New York, he assisted on weekends at St. Malachy’s Church near Times Square and Broadway, also known as
The Actor’s Chapel. Father Busch returned to the Diocese of Amarillo in 1994, where he was appointed Chaplain and Director of the Catholic Student Center at West Texas A&M University, Canyon. While at the CSC, he was an adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at WT and a priest in residence at St. Thomas the Apostle Church.
During his stint at the CSC, Father Busch also served for seven years as director of the Institute for Pastoral Ministry, a lay ministry formation program in the diocese, and was formation director and instructor for the Deacon Formation Program, coordinated the diocesan Fall Theology Seminar and the Spring Scripture Seminar.
On July 1, 1997, he was appointed Director of Christian Education and Formation for the Diocese of Amarillo. In this post, he coordinated the offices of Catholic Schools, Christian Formation, the Permanent Diaconate, and the Lay Ministry Program.
In 1999, Father Busch was named Parochial Administrator at St. Mary’s Church, Umbarger and was later appointed Parochial Administrator at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Dalhart and St. Mary’s Church, Texline.
On July 22, 2010, Father Busch was appointed Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Amarillo and later as Head of School at Holy Cross Catholic Academy where he also taught classes and founded and coached the award-winning speech and debate team. During these years, he served several terms as a member and president of the Presbyteral Council as well as on the Priests Retirement Committee.
On Sept. 1, 2015, Father Busch was appointed Pastor at St. Ann’s Church, Canyon, and remained in all three positions until he stepped down from his education responsibilities at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
In a Dec. 3, 2017 interview in
The West Texas Catholic reflecting on his 25
th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, Father Busch was asked to define his priesthood in one word.
“Well, you didn’t say it had to be an English word, so I’m going to go with the Greek word
kecharitomeno (
κεχαριτωμένῳ), the masculine version of a word which appears in some form only three times in the Bible (Sirach 18:17, Luke 1:28 and Ephesians 1:6). It’s a pretty difficult word to translate, which is why it seems so appropriate to me. But it essentially means “having been graced by God.” And that’s how I view this past quarter-century of ministry. It has been a graced time, a tremendous gift. Over and over again, in each of my varied assignments, I have felt a deep sense of gratitude for having been the unworthy recipient of so awesome (in the literal sense of that word) and overwhelming a gift! At our diocesan priests’ retreat in October, I was reviewing with Bishop Michael Boulette, the retreat leader (and my former spiritual director at Assumption Seminary), the many experiences and opportunities in which I have been privileged to participate as a priest, and as I did so, it became clear to me that if someone had told me on Jan. 9, 1993, that my priestly ministry would include encountering so many people in so many different contexts, I scarcely would have believed it possible! So
kecharitomeno—having been surprisingly graced by God—pretty much sums it up!”
Father Busch was preceded in death by his father, Leonard Anthony Busch.
Survivors include his mother, Patricia Ann Busch, of Los Alamos, NM; a brother, John Busch of Austin; a sister and brother-in-law, Doreen and Alan Stanton; a niece, Christina Stanton; a nephew, Brian Stanton, all of Santa Fe; three godsons; numerous friends; and his brother priests of the Diocese of Amarillo and beyond.