Susan Tenbarge: Tyler Was Just Always Special

It was a splendid June afternoon when Susan Tenbarge left her vegetable garden and took a seat at her wooden picnic table. A friendly cat joined her as she started talking about her oldest son, Tyler.

He’s a seminarian studying for the priesthood for the Diocese of Evansville. He had been ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacon a few days earlier at the family parish, Sts. Peter and Paul in Haubstadt, and he’s on track to be ordained to the priesthood in June 2016.

Susan and her husband, Mark, are the parents of seven children. The family runs a cattle operation in Gibson County, and their property is filled with barns, a silo, a greenhouse and several gardens. There’s also a roadside stand filled with vegetables with a pay-as-you-go set-up. Tyler started the enterprise years ago, and then it was passed down to his younger siblings.

His mom says that although he grew up on a farm, he was drawn to the priesthood at an early age. “Even when he was a little bitty kid, he always talked about it.”

When Tyler was a third grader, his teacher invited her students to dress in outfits that they expected to be wearing as adults. Susan said his classmates probably expected him to wear farmer’s overalls, but he surprised them by dressing as a priest.

His mom says Tyler was the one who “always went out of his way to listen.” Instead of insisting “it’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine,” he was the child who said, “It’s okay. Have it.”

He was the one who told his siblings, “we will play what you want to play, not what I want.” Susan says he was “a kind little boy.”

In high school, he was a “regular kid,” filling his life with school, soccer and dating. “He was the gentle, nice guy,” she says, adding, “he was just always special.”

Everyone saw it. “His aunts and uncles saw it. They knew he would do something to change the world.”

In his teens, he served as the president of the Indiana Future Farmers of America, and he worked for that organization for a year. He then held a national title in the FFA, spending a year traveling around the country.

When it was time for his farewell address, Tyler spoke to a FFA crowd of thousands who filled Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. When he told them that he was going to be a priest “he got a standing ovation,” his mom remembers.

He headed to Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary at Marian University in Indianapolis for his freshman year, and for the last three years, he’s been studying at St. Meinrad Seminary.

As part of his training for the priesthood, he spent a semester studying in Rome and a summer doing clinical pastoral education as a hospital chaplain.

When Bishop Charles C. Thompson ordained him a deacon on May 30, Tyler promised him charity, service, prayer, celibacy and obedience.

Susan’s green eyes fill with tears as she reflects on the ceremony. “It made me proud,” she says, and then she is quiet for quite a while.

She composes herself, and says, “I know he will make one heck of a priest!”