Detroit — Fr. Erwin Bauer was a down-to-earth priest who loved a good joke and lived the Gospel in ordinary ways.

“He would find Christ in everyday things, whether it was playing baseball or throwing catch or telling a joke,” said Lorry Domagalski, a longtime friend who worked with Fr. Bauer during his pastorate in the early 2000s at St. Philip Neri Parish in Columbus Township. “He lived the Gospel and the Gospel was part of his life all the time.”

Fr. Bauer, a longtime priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, died April 19. He was 93.

Domagalski said she first met Fr. Bauer as a high school student decades earlier — not knowing she’d one day work for him as director of religious education at St. Philip. He would come in for lunch at the hotel where she worked, she said, and “he would always tease me,” Domagalski said. “He loved to play practical jokes on people.”

Forty years later, Fr. Bauer’s zest for life hadn’t worn off.

“As a DRE working with him, it was just enjoyable,” Domagalski said. “He brought life to St. Philip. He brought life into the church so that the church felt like it was part of the whole world.”

Fr. Bauer loved to spend time with the children of the parish, she said, and enjoyed traditions such as the blessing of the pets on St. Francis of Assisi’s feast day.

Another of his passions was the Detroit Tigers, Domagalski said. Fr. Bauer would always go downtown looking to score tickets for games, and it wasn’t uncommon that he would bring back gifts for those he knew.

“He just enjoyed real life. He wasn’t a preachy kind of person, but he lived the Gospel in his own life by the way he lived,” Domagalski said.

Born Aug. 7, 1921, in Redford to Erwin and Mabel Bauer, Fr. Bauer was a graduate of Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and St. Mary’s of the West Seminary in Norwood, Ohio, and was ordained May 31, 1947.

Fr. Bauer served a number of parishes during his 68-year priesthood, including early in his ministry as associate pastor of St. Vincent Parish, Detroit (1947); Sacred Heart Parish, Dearborn (1947-52); St. Gregory the Great Parish, Detroit (1952-56); St. Agatha Parish, Redford (1956-61); St. Mary Queen of Creation Parish, New Baltimore (1961-63); and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Detroit (1963-65).

He served his first pastorate at St. Donald Parish in Roseville from 1965-69, later also serving as pastor of St. Mary Mystical Rose Parish, Armada (1978-83); St. Hubert Parish, Harrison Township (1983-85); St. Barnabas Parish, Eastpointe (1985-87); Holy Rosary Mission, Smiths Creek and St. Philip Neri Parish, Columbus (2001-03). Fr. Bauer also served as administrator of St. Mark Parish, Harsens Island (1991-93, 1997) and St. Barnabas (2000-01).

Fr. Bauer is preceded in death by his parents and siblings William, Richard and Sally. A funeral Mass was April 23 at Holy Family Parish (St. Philip Neri site) in Columbus. Interment will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield.

—Mike Stechschulte