By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
For years, Father Bryce Baumann has prayed the same prayer: “Lord, if it’s your will that I could be ordained a priest at my home parish, that would be such a gift.” On May 24, his prayer was answered. Surrounded by the community that shaped and fostered his vocation, Father Baumann was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Dallas at his childhood parish of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Plano.
“The Lord is never outdone in generosity,” the new priest remarked.
The son of Bruce and Wendy Baumann, and brother to Blair Picha, Father Baumann spent his early years attending the Plano church as a parishioner; his father has served there as director of faith formation for more than two decades. The older Baumann said that as a layperson serving the Church, he initially feared what he called the “preacher’s kid syndrome:” that his children would reject religion in an effort to be different from their parents. Instead, the opposite was true.
“I grew up going to youth group and everything with (my father) as my youth minister, and I just absolutely loved that,” Father Baumann said. “I did all these extra things in church in part because I loved my dad and loved being with him.”
Through middle and high school, Father Baumann’s involvement in the parish increased. He started regularly attending the youth program, retreats, and mission trips; since he was musically inclined, he also began to lead praise and worship for youth events as a freshman, which proved to be a powerful experience for the then-teenager.
“The first time I led praise and worship, I had a profound sense of the Holy Spirit, and it really made me want to give my life to the Lord and ask what He wanted for my life, probably for the first time,” the priest said. “I’ll just always remember that moment as the watershed moment in my personal relationship with the Lord.”
As Father Baumann’s devotion deepened, the idea of the priesthood slowly began to emerge in his mind; but the calling did not gain clarity until shortly before his senior year.
“A lot of people started asking, ‘So, what are you thinking about doing after high school,’” he recalled. “I really started feeling the tug on my heart toward telling people that I’m considering seminary.”
Perplexed by this inclination, Father Baumann began a Marian consecration to ask the Blessed Mother for guidance. At the consecration’s conclusion, he found that the idea of priesthood remained on his heart. Father John Szatkowski, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and a family friend to the Baumanns, recalled this time in Father Baumann’s discernment.
“Always in the back of my mind, I had an idea that he would be a priest one day,” the Richardson pastor said. “He mentioned he was thinking about the priesthood and was very open to discerning a vocation to priesthood. That brought a lot of joy to my heart… His face just lit up when he was talking about it.”
With a new confidence that he was called to concretely discern a priestly vocation, Father Baumann decided to apply to the seminary as an incoming high school senior. During that last year in public school, he made his intentions to enter seminary clear, even dressing as a priest for career day.
“The kids affectionately called him ‘Father B,’” Baumann said of his son. “From that point forward, he’s never looked back.”
In 2016, Father Baumann entered Holy Trinity Seminary and began attending the University of Dallas, where he studied philosophy and letters. Father Szatkowski, who served as Father Baumann’s formator during his freshman year, recalled the student’s perfect daily Mass attendance, which he said reflected a growing “love for our Lord, especially in the Eucharist.”
After graduating from UD in 2020, Father Baumann studied theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome 2020-2023, where he developed deep devotions to Saints Peter and John Paul II, whose bodies are buried a short distance from the seminary. He returned home to Plano for his pastoral year, serving at Prince of Peace Catholic Community, before returning to Rome to resume his studies.
“Most of the time, the diocese assigns you somewhere you didn’t grow up,” Father Baumann said, “so it was a great gift to already know the area and know even some of the people at Prince of Peace already.”
This May, after almost a decade of priestly formation, Father Baumann returned to Plano once again for his priestly ordination. Reflecting on the occasion, the young priest expressed “gratitude to the Lord for His faithfulness in helping me, gratitude to all the people that have been praying for me.”
Following ordination, Father Baumann will be a priest in residence for a summer assignment at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in McKinney before returning to Rome to complete his Licentiate of Sacred Theology, or S.T.L., a specialized degree in liturgical theology.
“He’ll be a tremendous blessing to whatever parish he is ultimately assigned to,” Father Szatkowski said of the newly ordained priest. “He really loves our Lord, and his entire life is based on that.”
Cutline for featured image: Father Bryce Baumann offers a blessing for, from left, Tiffany Rojas, Rosario Rojas, and Octavio Rojas during a reception following a Mass for his ordination to the priesthood at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Plano on May 24. For Father Baumann, who grew up attending St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the opportunity to be ordained in his home parish was an answered prayer. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
