At 79, He’s the Oldest New Priest

--William R. Schumacher is a father of six, grandfather of 13 and now, less than a month before he turns 80, is a father in the Roman Catholic Church. At St. Tarcissus Church in Chicago, Bishop Thomas Tschoepe of Dallas ordained Schumacher, making him the oldest man ever to take priesthood vows in the United States. He will be assigned to St. Patrick’s parish in Dallas. “The tears of joy were just streaming down my face,” Schumacher said later. “I wish my wife, Genevieve, could have been here with me. This is a great day and I hope she can hear me.” Schumacher’s wife died in 1984 after 52 years of marriage, and he entered the seminary in 1985. One of his sons, Gerry Schumacher, said: “It’s great to have a priest in the family.” A daughter, Fran Lipton, said: “As I was watching the service, I thought my mother would have been proud to be there; but of course if she was there he wouldn’t have been.” Schumacher, who attended Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., said other seminaries had discouraged him and rejected him when he began applying, and Tschoepe was among 50 bishops he wrote in search of one to sponsor him as a priest. Tschoepe, age 72, said the new priest’s background gives him a “special kind of understanding” of family problems that parishioners might encounter. Scores of parishioners lined up to be blessed by the new priest and Schumacher embraced them one-by-one, praying, laughing and talking with them.

--It was no miracle, but no stroll in the park, when Rene Bricka walked on water, across the Atlantic Ocean. The Frenchman, 39, using polyester floats strapped to his feet, reached Trinidad in the Caribbean after a 3,540-mile trip that had begun 61 days earlier in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, newspapers reported. A freighter picked Bricka up about 45 miles off Trinidad and took him to a hospital. He was reported in satisfactory condition despite losing 44 pounds and suffering vision problems and extreme hunger. Newspaper reports said he had survived on vitamin pills, fish he caught and distilled water. He used a double-bladed oar and towed a raft to rest in. The entertainer said he spent three years training for the journey.

--The home team won the Barbara Mandrell Celebrity Softball Classic. Mandrell’s AT&T; Ringers beat Bob Hope’s Pepsi Challengers 18-17 in the Nashville benefit for Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transplant program. Celebrities on hand included Oprah Winfrey, Dick Clark, former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann, actor Ron Perlman and Sheena Easton.