He found out ‘There’s no place like home ... ’

He is: Father John Sanaghan, pastor since July, of St. Matthias Parish. Attended Quigley (North and South), Niles College; was ordained at Mundelein Seminary in 1972.

Growing up: “We lived in St. Felicitas Parish on the South East Side. It was where my mom and dad were raised. Both sets of grandparents were still living there, with aunts and uncles.” (He has a younger sister and brother.)

He says his Mom would hand him a bag lunch on a summer’s morning and say, be home when the streetlights come on. “There was an abandoned farm across from our house in the 1950s. We’d find ponds, tadpoles, rabbits, play baseball and ride our bikes all over the place.”

“My Dad wrote bids for an electrical equipment company. He worked there for 47 years.”

Vocational roads: “I had known wonderful priests at St. Felicitas like Msgr. Jim Walsh and Father Joe Cusack.”

His first assignment after ordination was at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish for five years. Next he became a chaplain at Columbus-Cuneo-Cabrini Hospitals (eventually adding 18 months of pastoral study/training at Yale). When the head of chaplains retired, he became director of pastoral care. Then Northwestern University Hospital asked him to teach Clinical Pastoral Education students. He did that too, for almost 10 years. Perhaps to catch his breath, he moved on to the University of Chicago as chaplain at Calvert House.

As he tells it: “I loved what I was doing as a priest, but, at age 44, if I was ever going to try something new it had to be now. I talked to Cardinal Bernardin. He said, let’s call this a leave. He apparently never closed my file.”

“I worked at the Board of Trade for a year and a half. Then I decided to do something that could actually earn me a living. While at the University of Chicago I’d had conversations with one of the deans [connected with the Board of Trade]. The board had just had a serious scandal.”

It sparked his interest in business ethics. Down the road, “A non-profit organization I’d done some volunteer work for, got into ethics. They asked if I’d come out for two years to design a couple programs and teach futures/commodity brokers. I moved to Washington.” The work expanded and his project turned into 14 years.

Road home: “Everybody I worked with in the financial industry knew I was a priest, at least technically in my mind. But I was homesick for active ministry. Protestants and Catholics would talk to me about what was going on in the church. The abuse scandal, frankly, was one of the reasons I came back. I was proud of what I had done as a priest, and of the other priests I’d known. I thought, ‘All hands on deck!’

“I contacted a couple friends in October, 2005, and asked what it would take to come back? Cardinal George was incredibly gracious in welcoming me, after they checked my record, of course.” In July, 2006, he began ministering in the archdiocese as a chaplain at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s medical school.

“About a year later I was assigned as associate at St. Matthias. The pastor, Father Terry Keehan, was wonderful to me. When he moved on to another parish, I became administrator, and a year later pastor of St. Matthias and also of Transfiguration Parish at the time.”

Leisure? “I’m alone here and still learning to be a pastor! But I enjoy listening to jazz and I’ve always liked books where philosophy and theology kind of intersect -- writers like John Caputo and Jean-Luc Marion.

In D.C. my office was four blocks from the White House. I lived in Georgetown, so I walked four-miles round trip every day. Now I walk 30 feet to our church! I try to stroll Lincoln Avenue with its stretch of German and Italian restaurants. I’ve gotten more than one convert into RCIA over a glass of wine in one of those restaurants.”