Bishop Lawrence Sullivan will lead with a ‘pastor’s heart’

When Bishop Lawrence Sullivan got the call from Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio, to tell him that he had been named an auxiliary bishop, he was in the process of sorting out what he needed to accomplish that day.

“It threw everything for a loop,” the bishop said. “A very humbling, overwhelming experience. It would even be hard for me to give you a verbatim of the conversation because I was kind of in shock.”

Bishop Sullivan, 58, has been named vicar general for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

He was most recently priest director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago and has served as pastor of St. Christina Parish in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood from 2008 to 2014 and Christ the King Parish in the Beverly neighborhood since 2014. He has served as interim vicar of Vicariate VI, covering an area on the South Side and in the south suburbs, since 2023.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Niles College of Loyola University and a master of divinity from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1992. He also earned a master’s degree in ecclesial management from the Catholic University of America.

After ordination, he served as associate pastor and then pastor of St. Celestine Parish, Elmwood Park.

In addition to his parish assignments, Bishop Sullivan has worked in the bereavement ministries of the archdiocese since 2013 as associate priest director and as interim priest director of Catholic Cemeteries. He is a member of the Archdiocesan School Board and has been a member of the College of Consultors and a member and vice-chair of the Presbyteral Council.

The call to the priesthood began in seventh grade for Bishop Sullivan.

“I was very fortunate I had a wonderful, wonderful associate pastor Father Mike Goergen,” he said. “He had just such a great interaction with the kids that really got me started thinking about priesthood. Now, the reasons you get ordained are very different from reasons a seventh grader is thinking about the priesthood, but that’s really where that seed got planted.”

That seed was able to grow with the support of his family and friends.

“When I was being ordained a deacon, I just remember really being almost petrified — we were on the stairs going up the steps of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at Mundelein — because I knew that this was the commitment,” Bishop Sullivan said. The priesthood was going to be a formality, but the diaconate was going to be the one setting me on that path.”

When he arrived at the top of the stairs and heard the music a feeling of peace poured over him, he said.

“I went from this trepidation of going up the stairs to just really feeling that I was where I was supposed to be,” he said.

That carried over to Bishop Sullivan’s ordination to the priesthood.

“I was expecting to have a lot of anxiety the night before I was ordained a priest, and I really didn’t,” he said. “I really felt that I was doing what I had been called to do.”

Having his family’s support was essential to his being able to follow his call, Bishop Sullivan said.

“They always made it very clear that I should do whatever would make me happy,” he said. “I felt that very, very strongly.”

Through his work as priest director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop Sullivan has been able to experience part of the church outside of being a pastor.

“I had an interest in serving the larger church. I believe that I am a happier person when my world is big,” he said. “Sometimes when your world is too small, too parish-centric, you get kind of bogged down with things that really aren’t all that important.”

Terry and Renee Sullivan were not surprised when their son became a priest, and they were very excited to learn that their son would be a bishop.

“He was certainly always interested in the priesthood growing up,” Terry Sullivan said. “That’s just what he wanted to do.”

Even the group of friends that he formed at Queen of the Universe School and whom he has remained friends with were supportive, Renee Sullivan said.

“They were very encouraging and that,” she said. “I guess they always knew that he was going to be a priest. Somebody said that they called him ‘the pope.’”

Bishop Sullivan was the first pastor Father Matt Litak worked with after he was ordained.

“He showed me the ropes and helped me to be who I am today and he still continues to do that. He’s a great listener and great at sharing his thinking, but also getting your feedback from that,” Litak said. “I think Bishop Sullivan’s strengths are in being a pastor. He’s very down to earth. He’s very reasonable. I think that he is very much a people person and loves God. He will be a pastor with a pastor’s heart.”