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| Sr. Bernadette Prochaska, FSPA, has been playing the organ for the Apostolate to the Handicapped Mass broadcast on Sunday mornings on WISC-TV for over 25 years. (Catholic Herald photo/Shine Photografx) |
To some in the Diocese of Madison, Sr. Bernadette Prochaska, FSPA, is a friend they have seen regularly for the past 25 years, playing music for the Apostolate for the Handicapped Mass broadcast Sunday morning on WISC-TV.
Yet, Sister Bernadette has spent most of her life living elsewhere, starting when she left her home in rural Grant County at the age of 14 to attend St. Rose Convent High School in La Crosse.
“Bernadette has lived an amazing life and is definitely a vibrant and alive person,” said Bill Cross, a long-time friend and coordinator of the TV Mass.
Taught at St. Joseph School in Dodgeville
The young Sister Bernadette taught with Bill’s mother, Antoinette Cross, at St. Joseph School in Dodgeville when Bill was a young boy.
Mrs. Cross was the first lay teacher in the diocese, and at that time, lay teachers weren’t allowed to teach religion nor attend faculty meetings in the convent, said Sister Bernadette, “so my job was to let her know everything.”
Years later, when Mrs. Cross was teaching at St. James School in Madison with a young assistant pastor, Fr. Thomas Campion, she suggested there be a Mass for those who could not get to church.
Father Campion had a friend at WISC-TV, and the first Mass was televised on the First Sunday of Advent in 1967. Father Campion, who later received the designation monsignor, has since died. Msgr. Larry Bakke, Monroe, now directs the program.
Mrs. Cross recruited her son Bill, who had organized the Knights of Columbus at St. Paul’s Catholic Chapel, to help along with several other service organizations.
Bill later recruited Sister Bernadette when she was teaching at Marquette University to provide music for the Mass. He is pleased that she plans to play at least once a month in her retirement. “It can be said she truly lives the life of St. Francis and the words of Pope Francis of today,” said Bill.
Born in Castle Rock
Born nearly 85 years ago of devout Catholic parents, Frank and Ida Roh Prochaska, Sister Bernadette was one of 10 children. Her grandparents came from Bohemia in 1871, and both the Roh and Prochaska families settled in Castle Rock Township in Grant County.
The Bohemian families who brought their Catholic faith with them gathered in the old Rock school house at Castle Rock Ridge. Around the time Sister Bernadette’s family arrived, St. John Nepomucene Parish was founded and named for the patron saint of Bohemia.
Descendants of the founding families still attend Mass in the church, which was completed in 1892. The church is now part of the Queen of All Saints Parish, with St. Mary Church in Fennimore and St. Lawrence O’Toole, Mount Hope.
When Bernadette was a child, St. John Nepomucene was affiliated with St. Thomas the Apostle Church (started in 1925) in Montfort. The Bohemian pastor, Fr. James Mlsna, served both churches.
Attends convent school
Since the Diocese of Madison had not been established yet, the parish was part of the La Crosse Diocese. Father Mlsna took Bernadette to St. Rose Convent in La Crosse for high school.
She wasn’t expecting to become a Religious but said, “I was so happy there, I joined the order when I was 18. I never regretted a moment of that decision. My order is FSPA, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.”
She became a novice at the age of 18 and was ready for her first teaching job after a year of post-high school study. She soon received her degree from Viterbo College, now University, and by the age of 27, became the youngest school principal in her order and diocese.
Spent 10 years in Guam
For her graduate program, Sister Bernadette chose Notre Dame, but she was only there for one summer when her Mother General, Sister Joan, asked her to go to Guam.
On the plane to Guam, she was asked, “Are you accurate?” Strange question, she thought, but she soon found out that she would be the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Agana with 240 classrooms and 6,000 students. She credits an excellent secretary with helping her with all of the work connected with the job.
She was in Guam for 10 years and didn’t get to go home for the first five years. During that time both of her parents died. She wrote them every day.
Working as principal, earns Master’s degree
Sister Bernadette returned to Notre Dame and received credit for classes from the University of Guam. After four summers, she earned her Master’s degree in education administration and English.
While in summer school, she was the organist on campus and was chosen to play the organ at the Summer Baccalaureate Mass for her graduation from Notre Dame.
As she continued her work as a school principal, she took on an additional job of teaching a class at Viterbo. Wanting to continue her education, she said, “I asked my provincial director if I could renew my English, and she said ‘yes, apply now.’ So I applied at Madison and Notre Dame and Marquette.”
Marquette was the “best fit” for her, said Sister Bernadette. They gave her tuition remission plus a generous stipend over a five-year period. When she finished her Ph.D. in American Literature, her president, Sr. Patricia Alden, told her she could stay at Marquette “if she wanted.” At the age of 58, she stayed.
Taught at Marquette
For 36 years, she lived and worked at Marquette. She also served as a trustee at Viterbo for 16 years. Seventeen times she presented papers at Harvard University with the Literature and Philosophy Institute. Her papers are all published in a philosophy journal published in London by Scribners. She also sang in the Gesu Church choir and began her music ministry with the TV Mass.
As a Religious who taught during the school year, she was responsible to come up with summer work. Her interests in her heritage and languages motivated her to write to Charles University in Prague, asking if they needed an English teacher. “That’s how it started. So pragmatic. I just wanted to go,” said Sister Bernadette.
Taught in Eastern Europe
For 25 summers she taught in Eastern Europe, mostly in Prague, for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). She taught with the Office to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.
An interview with her on her experiences teaching in Eastern Europe is published on the website of the Global Sisters Report (http://globalsistersreport.org/blog/q/ministry/q-sr-bernadette-prochaska-33526).
Her interest in language started when she served in Guam. She said, “While I was there, I found that I couldn’t talk with the people who lived there very much because of the language barrier. I could sing some of the hymns, but that was it. So I realized through that experience the importance of communication.”
She keeps up with a network of friends from Guam. She visited there five years ago when she was in China to present a workshop on Robert Frost at Henan University in Louyang, south of Beijing.
Not slowing down
Traveling in her PT Cruiser and staying in contact with friends and family members and mentees, Sister Bernadette has no intention of slowing down in her recent retirement to St. Rose Convent in La Crosse.
She expresses gratitude for her vocation and for her superiors who “always said, ‘Go ahead!'”
Her siblings have all passed on, but she stays connected to her 45 nieces and nephews and returns when she can to Castle Rock, especially in August for the annual chicken noodle meal and festival at St. John Nepomucene Church.