My Uncle Bill Bauer died last month, and this has hit me pretty hard. His diabetes had flared up pretty hard over the last decade, forcing him into early retirement. As a priest, early retirement is not a good thing, as the church houses you as long as you can say the occasional mass, but doesn't pay you enough to go out and buy your own home once you retire. Bill was a brilliant man, from a brilliant family that seemed to marry the best of faith and reason, and combined with a remarkable empathy, left a deep impression on those he served. He had very firm principles, and he would battle for what he believed, even if that meant stepping on some toes in the Diocese administrative offices. In conflicts between dogma and the lives of real people, Bill looked to the people first, ensuring that nobody suffered needlessly from inflexible dogmatic pronouncements of the church.
My far-flung family got to see Bill in his last week before he died, and hard as it was to see him in such pain, I'm glad we were able to gather round him in his last days. In the hospital and at his funeral, I played a lament for him on my fiddle. Bill has gone on the longest journey and we will all miss him terribly.
Good-bye, bold William.
My notes for Bill's eulogy:
I was born on William Bauer’s 22nd birthday, on Sept. 23rd, 1969. Ever since I’ve known that we shared a birthday, that day has been extra special; not because it was my birthday, but because it was his birthday. I also found out that Uncle Bill and I share our birthday with Bruce Springsteen, but neither Bill nor I ever held that against him.
I come from a very big family, and family gatherings were raucous, boisterous affairs. The white-hot glow of the many competing personalities forced us each to jostle for a slot in the conversation. Bill burned particularly bright in that scintillating crowd. He was brilliant, funny, friendly and approachable. But in all those numerous, rambunctious family gatherings, at no time had I ever really been alone with my uncle.
It wasn’t until I was 28 that I felt I really got to know Bill at all.
In March of 1997, I had been living for a few months in Germany, sorting through the then current shambles of my life, when I headed to the Vatican City for Palm Sunday weekend where Uncle Bill was on Sabbatical. As a male relative, I was allowed to stay in a spare room in Bill's dormitory at the North American College. I took the train through the Swiss and Italian alps, Lugano, Milan and Florence to Rome. I was one of thousands of people pouring into Rome for Holy Week. Street vendors and pickpockets hoped in their own way to separate us from our tourist dollars, and the chaos that is Rome was ratcheted up another notch, for the celebration of the highest holidays of the Catholic Church.
Bill met me at the railroad station where he taught me my first lesson. As in any venture, there are rules and there are realities.
Rule: Pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks, and any motorist involved in a fatal accident involving a pedestrian loses driving privileges for life. To be fair, the pedestrian loses her life. For life.
Reality: So long as pedestrians move at a constant and predictable speed in the cross-walk, it is a simple matter for motorists to avoid the pedestrians (without slowing down), and nobody need lose anything.We safely made it to the dormitory, and I got a lesson in faith and trust and the comfort of safe havens in our journey through chaos.
The next morning, I met Bill in his room before we were to head out and visit a few of the achievements of Imperial Rome and the Catholic Church. As I arrived, Bill was checking his email, and we received news that my sister, Liz, had just given birth to my nephew, Robert Carter Parke. I was an Uncle for the first time. There was no time to revel in that news though. We were due at the Vatican Museum when it opened if we had any hope of visiting all the sights I had hoped to see.
At this point in Bill’s life, the diabetes had already started to take its toll on his mobility. I don’t think I knew quite how much I pushed him over the course of those two days until long after we had both returned home, but Bill led me past the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps and the Colosseum on our way to see the magnificent Byzantine mosaics in the Basilica of Sts Cosmas and Damian at the edge of the Forum. While wandering the grounds of the forum, Bill pointed out a 
particularly striking young woman, braving the cobbles and rubble in her improbably high heels and outfit as glamorous as it was abbreviated. He turned to me and said, “when the Lord invented Italian women, he certainly knew what he was doing.” I agreed wholeheartedly, but felt I should at least register some level of shock. “Uncle Bill!” He turned to me and said, “I’m a priest, Robert. I’m not dead.” We continued to wander through the ruins of the palaces of past emperors, and as we descended a stone staircase on the 
side of the Palatine hill, I saw an empty niche where a statue used to rest. I decided to climb up into the niche, a fleeting chance to be a stone angel or saint, emperor or hero. I decided to try for sainthood, fashioning my face into a most beatific countenance, clasping my hands as in prayer, eyes cast skyward looking for heavenly blessing. Bill took my picture then, laughing to himself.
The next morning burned hot and clear with the Mediterranean sun giving everything a white halo. It was Palm Sunday, and the Vatican had granted the College some tickets for the Palm Sunday mass on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica. There were enough tickets for me to go as well, so I joined Bill and his fellow students at the great square, already teeming with people waiting for their chance to see Pope John Paul II say the Palm Sunday mass. Even with preferential seating, we were back far enough in the square that the pope was only as tall as a nickel held at arm’s length. With the pointy hat. The pope said mass with appropriate pomp and pageantry. Messages for the youth were spoken in a dozen languages, exhorting peace and spirituality in all endeavors, and the 200,000 people from all parts of the earth who gathered in the spirit of harmony and love remained in remarkable spirits in the heat of the day.
After mass, on our way to lunch at the College, Bill told me of the audience Pope John Paul II had granted to the priests at the college. Bill told me he was struck by the brilliance of the mind of a man trapped in a frail and failing body. These last 3 years, it has hurt me to see my uncle experience the same frustrations and limitations.
I left Bill to his continuing studies that evening on a northbound train, returning to the confusion of my own life. The ailments that had slowed Bill at that point in his life had paused briefly, then continued their relentless consumption of his body, leaving the hotly burning fire of his spirit to battle with the ever greater restrictions and confinements. My mother later told me Bill considered his time in Rome to be the high point of his life. I was so glad to be able to share some of that time with him, a brief but searingly bright moment in my own life. We were able to see behind the facades we had each constructed for the benefit of others. I showed Bill some of the pain I had been feeling, pain I was reluctant to admit even to myself. In turn, my uncle showed me aspects of himself I had never seen before.
To him I say now, You are a priest, William, and you are not dead. You’re pain and suffering are over, and in all our hearts there is a home for you. You have all the time in the world now to come visit us and share with us the peace you have now found.
Obituary (Troy Record):
Rev. William M. Bauer
TROY - The Rev. William M. Bauer, 59, a priest of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, entered into eternal life on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007, at St. Mary's Hospital in Troy while being cared for by his family with the assistance of the Community Hospice of Rensselaer County.
Father Bauer was born in Buffalo, on Sept. 23, 1947, and was the son of the late Elmer M. and Mary E. Niles Bauer.
Raised in Buffalo, until the age of seven, Father Bauer then moved, with his family, to Troy where he graduated from St. Mary's Grammar School and Catholic Central High School, Class of 1965. He then entered the Mater Christi Seminary in Albany and later Christ the King Seminary, from where he graduated in 1973.
Father Bauer was ordained into the priesthood on May 19, 1973, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany by Most Rev. Edwin B. Broderick, DD, eighth bishop of Albany. Following his ordination, Father Bauer served briefly as chaplain at the Albany Medical Center and as an educator at Cardinal McCloskey High School in Albany.
He served as associate pastor in various parishes in the Albany Diocese, including Sacred Heart, Cairo; St. Stanislaus, Amsterdam; St. Ambrose, Latham; and St. Alphonsus in Glens Falls, where he also served as pastor from October 1982 until September 1987. His final assignment was to serve as pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Greenville from Sept. 13, 1987, until ailing health forced his retirement on March 1, 2004.
In his earlier years, Father Bauer was a volunteer firefighter and was a member of the Brunswick Fire Company 1.
In recent years, he enjoyed traveling, with his friends, to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He had a lifelong love of books, especially science fiction, movies and crossword puzzles.
Father Bauer was the dear nephew of the late Rita (Edmond) Pascucci and Mary Pillsworth. He was the much loved brother of Rita T. (Paul) Rohr of Enfield, CT, Anne M. Dowling of Troy and Mary C. (John) Maxwell of Troy; cherished uncle of Paul C. (Kathy Evans) Rohr of Massachusetts, Elizabeth (Bill) Parke of Buffalo, Jennifer (John) Goode of Maryland, Robert (Margot Schips) Rohr of Burlington, VT, Liam Dowling of Coconut Creek, FL, Seamus Dowling of Troy, Sean (Cindy) Maxwell of Coconut Creek, FL, and Casey Leibach of Troy; special great-uncle of Emma and Braeden Leibach as well as to several other great-nieces and great-nephews; dear cousin of James Pascucci, Edmond and Mary Rita Pascucci, Nicholas and Karen Pascucci, Martha and Bill Bridgewater, Mary E. (Walter Schooler) Pascucci, Rita Madigan, John and Anne Pascucci and the late Anne Weaver, whose husband, John Weaver, survives.
Funeral services for Father Bauer will begin on Friday at 4 p.m. with the reception of his body into Our Lady of Victory Church, Marshland Court at North Lake Avenue in Troy.
Visiting hours will immediately follow, on Friday, from 4:30 until 7:30 p.m. The evening will conclude with an Evening Prayer Service at 7:30 p.m.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be concelebrated on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Our Lady of Victory Church, Troy, where the Very Rev. Michael A. Farano, V.G., will serve as principal celebrant. Interment will follow in St. Mary's Cemetery, Troy.
Contributions, in memory of Rev. William M. Bauer may be made to the CHOICES Program at St. Peter's Hospital, c/o Care for Life, 40 North Main Ave., Albany, NY 12203.
For on-line guest registry, please visit www.parkerbros memorial.com.