If you meet Fr. Charles Bartek once, you’ll never forget him. He is a big man who talks in a rich, deep baritone voice. And he is a man of deep conviction and strong opinion.
Even the landscape in which he moves is big. His congregations are located in the Bridger National Forest in west central Wyoming, where tall mountains form a backdrop in every direction.
The colors are strong in Fr. Bartek’s world too. Intense white cumulus clouds interrupt the color-saturated blue sky and give panoramic importance to the reaching mountains and their supporting valleys. Rock formations with golden hues become the super muscles that seem to elevate the rugged landscapes for all visitors to see.
Fr. Bartek is pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains parish in Jackson, Wyoming and of it’s missions in Teton National Park and Afton.
Extension’s visit with him focused in on the mission of Holy Family in Afton. “Our mission here in Afton,” noted Fr. Bartek, “is huge in geographical terms but small in numbers of people. We have in fact, only 18 families or forty Catholics.
“The whole parish, which includes Jackson and the mission at Teton National Park covers a good part of Western Wyoming. We run about 100 miles wide and 175 miles long – and that’s big by anybody’s yardstick.
It is big indeed – but no bigger than the priest who tends it as his vineyard.
Fr. Bartek was born in Ford City, Pa. In 1920 and made an early decision to become a priest. He started his seminary at age 13 by enrolling in St. Vincent’s Preparatory School. His rigorous seminary regimen was supported by hard physical work during the summers at Alcoa Aluminum and Pullman Steel.
Prior to his theological studies at St. Procupius in Llsle, Illinois, he applied to and was accepted by the diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming. So after he was ordained in 1945, he came to Wyoming and immediately drew a mission assignment.
For the next eight years he moved in and out of a number of mission locales – all of which served to prepare him for his first pastorate.
In 1953, he received that first appointment as pastor. It was for the towns of Pinedale and Big Piney – and included a large mountainous area due east of his present parish.
Fr. Bartek remained in that assignment for eleven years. During that time he designed and built the first Catholic church in Pinedale. His enthusiasm was so great for the project that he helped with the actual construction work.
But missionaries are on the move, so he spent the next twelve years in Douglas then Rock Springs and finally Kemmerer where he built another new church.
It was in 1976, however, that he received his present assignment with a home parish in Jackson and one of it’s two missions in Afton.
Afton which is located 70 miles south of Jackson, did not have a church at that time. It’s small group of Catholics came together to worship in a rented VFW hall. It drew members from the area of Star Valley in which Afton is located.
Part of Fr. Bartek’s assignment was to build a small chapel in Afton – not only to care for the area’s Catholics but also to encourage growth of the group. But it wouldn’t be easy because there were fewer than 16 families and the financial burden would fall too heavily on the small handful of bread winners.
The problem was not new to Fr. Bartek. He had built before where conditions for funding were equally bad and he had managed. In each case he had relied on advice he received when he was ordained back in 1945. His ordaining bishop had been the Most Reverend William O’Brien, then president of EXTENSION. Bishop O’Brien said, “If you ever need help in your missionary work, please call on Extension Society.
“That,” said Fr. Bartek, “was an extremely useful piece of advice. And I did call on the Society on three different occasions. Each time Extension help made the difference between success and failure.”
“Here in Afton I used Bishop O’Brien’s advice for the fourth time – it was the only possible way we had to fund our building – so I asked for help.”
“At that time we had 16 families in our normal Afton congregation. During the summers we had a percentage of tourists but they dropped in number during the long hard winter months. So our plans and hopes were realistically based on our own 16 families.
” The church building that Fr. Bartek and his Afton parishioners hoped to build would be 30 feet by 75 feet and have a full basement. It would, they felt, accommodate 150 people for Mass and the basement could be used for CCD and a wide variety of parish affairs. And most importantly, the proposed building would be sufficient to handle a good bit of parish growth.
EXTENSION’s answer to Fr. Bartek’s request was made only after reviewing an on site report by the Society’s field representative, receiving a confirming opinion from the bishop of Cheyenne, and assessing the mission’s present status and growth potential.
All assessments were positive so Fr. Bartek’s request was granted and $20,000 was set aside to be given the mission after it was under roof. In June 1977, ground was broken and the construction of Holy Family chapel.was under way.
Today, Holy Family chapel is a viable entity, furnishing all that it promised and more. It’s simple lines and earth tone colors give it a look of strength and security as it compliments the mountains that form it’s backdrop.
It’s congregation has grown by two families so it now boasts 18 families or 40 Catholics. If that doesn’t sound like much growth, think of it in terms of percentage – Holy Family has grown by 121/2 percent since it’s chapel went up.
Meanwhile, the rest of Fr. Bartek’s world has not changed.. The mountains, the sky, the valleys, the rock and the colors are still big and strong. They still compliment this missionary priest whose horizons seem to grow rather than recede as he extends his labors further into the vineyard of the Lord.