The first time Robert “Buzz” Grabner, 45, thought about becoming a priest was in 1987 while a priest led him on a tour of the Cathedral of St. Paul. “The thought just crossed my mind: Wouldn’t it be nice to do this full time?” he said of the priest’s job. But Grabner’s road to the priesthood took a round about direction. A deputy sheriff for Washington County, he got married in 1988 to a woman he had dated on and off for 10 years. The couple lived in Stillwater.
He soon realized he had entered the marriage for the wrong reasons — for “social convenience” rather than the sacramental meaning. He and his wife were
divorced by 1993, and the church declared the marriage null. They remain good friends. “It was my own stupidity,” Grabner said. “If I had understood marriage as taught by the church, I would not have gotten married.” During his marriage, thoughts of the priesthood had continued to crop up in Grabner’s mind. He had recurring dreams of “returning to an institution of higher learning.” “I pretty much dismissed it,” he said. “It kept coming back in different ways, more frequently and more strongly.”
Grabner, who grew up in Winona, had returned to his faith life gradually through the 1980s. In 1967, his older brother, Karl Jr., died in a car accident only six months after returning from the Vietnam War. The 12-year-old Grabner, wondering “how can a good God allow evil in the world,” decided he no longer believed in God. His disbelief lasted about a decade. Meanwhile, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University and moved from Winona to Washington County for better job opportunities. When he was in his mid 20s, Grabner slowly began to gravitate back to Christianity.
“I didn’t really think I wanted to return to the Catholic Church because it seemed so rule bound and archaic,” he said. But one day, the deputy had to deliver a warrant to an address that turned out to be the rectory at St. Michael in Stillwater. He didn’t find the subject of the warrant, but he met the pastor, Father Tom
Fitzgerald (now serving in Centerville). They talked, and “the conversation turned to faith matters.” Grabner found that the priest’s answers to his questions
“made sense to me” on an intellectual level and “also within. It felt like the right thing to do.” Grabner started going to Mass, and by the late 1980s, he was going daily. He attended a general confession service in 1987, which whetted his appetite for spiritual books, tapes and conferences. In the meantime, he married and continued his successful career in law enforcement. In 1991, Grabner made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, the town in Bosnia-Herze-govina where Mary is believed to have appeared.
The trip inspired him to begin spiritual direction. He sought out Father Richard Skluzacek, who had just become pastor of St. Michael. The connection, he
said, was rather providential. “I had hear about Father Skluzacek, that he was a good spiritual director,” he said. “Then he came to Stillwater.” Grabner described Father Skluzacek as “a very big piece in my entering the seminary — the pre-eminent figure.” Grabner explored the many feelings he was having as his marriage failed. He wanted to make sure his pull toward the priesthood wasn’t a reaction to his failing marriage or a mid-life crisis. Rev. Mr. Grabner
The pull eventually became “oppressive,” he said. “When I was finally accepted by the archdiocese to study at the seminary, it was a relief, more than a big
decision.” As a seminarian, Grabner spent an internship semester at St. Dominic in Northfield but continued to worship at St. Michael.
He worked with mentally ill and chemically dependent patients at the Willmar Regional Treatment Center in Willmar. He also volunteered at St. Stephen’s homeless shelter in Minneapolis, studied in Israel and sang with the seminary’s men’s choir. Grabner said his priestly work will resemble law enforcement in that he will continue “helping people, dealing with people when they’re not at their best.” His own experience with grief includes the loss of both parents, in addition to his only sibling. “Once you have been through (that), you become more com-passionate,” he said.
Although he won’t have any family to cheer him on at his ordination, Grabner will have a fan club of sorts — the Polka Lovers Klub of America, “an instant family” that shares his love of old-time music. Grabner, whose father was an accordian player, joined the group in the early 1990s. “My ordination day will be the happiest day of my life — no question,” he said. Grabner has been assigned to serve as associate pastor at All Saints in Lakeville. His thanksgiving Mass will be at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 28, at St. Michael. ( This obit came from The Catholic Spirit May 25, 2000 written by Emilie Ast )
The Reverend
Robert Grabner served at All Saints in
Lakeville and at St. Peter in North St. Paul. Most recently he
was associate pastor at St. Vincent de Paul in St. Paul before coming
to St. John's on April 19, 2004. Now he is at Holy Trinity and St. Augustine Catholic Church in South St. Paul. He is saying the Tridentine (Latin) Mass at St Augustine on Sunday and weekdays..
