Trading tinsel of Hollywood for priesthood

He is: Father Theodore (Ted) Schmitt, pastor of St. Monica Parish on the Northwest Side. Ordained at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in 2002 at age 57.

Home: Grew up an only child. His dad was a Chicago police officer for 30 years, starting with the Chicago Park District. Then as a sergeant worked out of Cragin and Shakespeare stations. Mom was a homemaker.

Youth: Schmitt was an altar boy at St. Genevieve Grammar School. Attended DePaul Academy. “I was involved in athletics and continue to be all my life. I spent a lot of time at Blackhawk Park playing baseball, football, all those good things. In eighth grade I was selling refreshments at Café Brauer at the Lakefront to put me through high school.”

Thoughts of priesthood? “Yes, because we had wonderful role models at our parish and the Vincentians at DePaul Academy. My mother was a big factor. Her maiden name was Lydon. Her parents were from County Mayo. The greatest gift you could have was a priest in the family.”

He went to St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Ind., with a double major in English and speech.

Career: After graduation Schmitt taught sophomore and senior English and was assistant and then head football coach at Driscoll Catholic High School in Addison, Ill., and took summer courses at Northwestern studying film. “I wanted to become a college football coach or a recruiter.” But he went on an interview at the regional office of Universal Studios in Chicago. “I really wasn’t interested. I went to placate my parents who wanted me to get into business. I got the job.”

He worked for Universal for the next 16 and a half years in Chicago, New York and finally for about eight years at their world headquarters at Universal City, Calif.

“I was an executive for the studio working in pay TV and Home Box Office. They became such lucrative markets we had direct input into film production at the theatrical level. I was the point man for that.

“At first my work was all sales. Then the ability to read scripts, to project what trends were going to happen, see what actors, or producers were hot — it became all creative.”

The peak: “I found the Coen Brothers who went on to win the Academy Award. I discovered them at the Cannes Film Festival around 1984. They had made an independent film, ‘Blood Simple.’ It was released in some markets, but you need studio ‘muscle’ to get in important theaters. We restructured the whole thing, sent it out region by region with publicity and got great reviews like Siskel and Ebert’s.”

Breaking point: “I was fortunate to become successful — but the more prestige I had, the lousier human being I became. It came to a head when I was at a Sinatra concert at Universal. I was angry the whole time that I was in the fifth row instead of the first. I knew there was something radically wrong.”

Church life: “I always went to Mass, but I was just going through the motions. Then a wonderful priest, Msgr. Arthur Kiefer, pastor to the North Hollywood community, asked me one day, ‘Are you doing something positive for humanity? Are you really happy?’ And the answer was ‘No.’”

Holy orders: Schmitt turned his life around, came back to Chicago and was accepted at Mundelein Seminary. “I went there screaming and kicking. I was in my 50s. I wanted to do, I didn’t want to listen to. I was a working guy.

“By my second or third year I loved it. The teachers were fantastic. It was a great experience.

“Father Greg Sakowicz is a great friend. When I was ordained he said ‘It takes five years to really understand what the priesthood is and to get comfortable.’ He was right.”

Prayer life: “I’ve had some great spiritual directors. I have a wonderful one now, Father Jim Socias, a member of Opus Dei. Father Bill Zavaski, my first pastor at St. James, preached a personal relationship with Jesus. At first it sounded too evangelical to me. Now I get that the most important thing I do each day is to close that gap a little more by having Jesus as God, but also Jesus as my friend.”

What old habit helps most today? “It’s the discipline of realizing what ‘busy’ really is. We had to be very organized in what we did. Have a plan of where we wanted to go and how to get there. I do that in our parish.”

Day off: “I love to work out and I love to catch up on sleep. Right now I’m reading John Allen’s new book, ‘The Future Church.’ He spoke before our priests’ convocation a year ago.”

Favorite movies: “‘A Bronx Tale,’ a Robert De Niro-directed film. And the masterpiece, ‘A Man for All Seasons.’ The George Clooney film ‘Michael Clayton,’ because it had insight into business and the morality of business.”

Favorite saying: “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it’s too low and we reach it. Michelangelo.”

Any special projects? “I do have one. We’re looking into a new ministry in the church. We want to try to use athletics as an evangelical tool for Catholic grammar schools, high schools and non-Catholic ones. Athletics, done right, can be a wonderful way to grow closer to Jesus Christ.”