Submitted by: Dan Rich
June 28, 1931 - Nov. 3, 1996
South Bend Tribune 11/5/1996
Father Andrew Joseph Kopsca, 65, of Langley Drive, South Bend, Ind., died Sunday afternoon, in his residence.
Father Kopsca retired from the Priesthood in 1987, with a physical disability. He was born on June 28, 1931, in South Bend, to Andrew Paul and Helen M. (Torok)-Kopsca. His father preceded him in death.
He is survived by his mother, Helen M. Kopsca of South Bend; four sisters, Joanne Bauer, Beverly Morris and Susan Reed, all of South Bend, and Margaret Gotsein of St. Joseph, Mich.; and a brother, Frank Kopsca of Ft. Wayne, Ind.
Father Kopsca graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1949. He served as Assistant to the Chaplain in the United States Navy from 1952 to 1955. He attended Loyola University in Chicago, Ill., and on May 28, 1966, was ordained a Priest at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Ft. Wayne. His First Mass was Con-Celebrated on May 29, 1966, at Our Lady of Hungary Church, in South Bend.
Father Kopsca was Assistant Pastor at St. Vincent Catholic Church, Plymouth, Ind., in 1966, St. Michael's Catholic Church, Plymouth, in 1968, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Ft. Wayne, in 1969, and St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church, New Carlisle, Ind., in 1972.
In 1973, he was Chaplain at St. Annes Nursing Home and at the Veterans Administration Hospital, both in Ft. Wayne. In 1976, he became Assistant Pastor at St. John's Catholic Church in New Haven, Ind. In 1978, he was the Pastor at St. Louis Besancon Catholic Church, New Haven.
In 1986, he became the Assistant Pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Mishawaka, Ind., retiring in 1987.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, in St. Matthews Cathedral in South Bend. Burial will be in Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Friends may call from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, in Guisinger Colonial Chapel Funeral Home, 3718 S. Michigan St., South Bend, and from noon until 1 p.m., Thursday, at the funeral home. A rosary will be recited at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, in the funeral home.