Other Authors

A little book and a huge crisis reorganized his world

By Dolores Madlener | Staff writer
Sunday, January 6, 2013

Father Michael Shanahan, pastor, gives a blessing to Stephanie Minera, her son Marco and grandson David following Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on July 18, 2010. (Karen Callaway / Catholic New World)

He is: Father Michael Shanahan, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and former pastor of St. Mark Parish. Ordained at Mundelein in 1992.

Youth: “I’m the youngest out of six. We grew up in St. Germaine Parish in Oak Lawn. We had Fathers Emmet Reagan, Bob Kealy, Bill Goedert, Bill Burke and Bob Dovick at the parish. I graduated from Brother Rice in 1980. Dad was in real estate appraising. He’s known nationally in his industry. My parents have been married 63 years.

“I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign and became an electrical engineer. That was going to be my path. I worked for three years at Johnson Controls in the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning department, as an application engineer. It was a very good job — I loved that job. It was a lot easier than this job.”

Echoes of priesthood: “I had some distinct moments when I was 15-16 years old where there was this realization that the dimension of faith is ‘something.’ Somehow at that young age, everything I’d already learned actually became real for me. I was in high school. What I associate with it is expanding beyond the initial tribe -- home and parish -- taking those first steps outside of safe surroundings. Something about that triggered this world of Christ. I had found a little book on a shelf in the basement. I still have it. It’s all beat up. ‘My Other Self: In which Christ speaks to the soul on living his life,’ by Clarence Enzler.  It’s still available on amazon.com. I use it here, if I’m working with more traditional, especially ethnic Catholics. It’s wonderful and they love it.

“An even more significant event happened in my senior year. My brother Larry was killed in a car accident. Larry was my next brother and the two years before he died we’d become close friends. It was devastating — that classic story of when a crisis hits, a person’s whole world gets reorganized. Larry was a freshman in college. Preachers say all the time, ‘Life’s a gift. Don’t take it for granted.’ His death made me think twice about at least trying to do something significant, try to walk a good path whatever time you have.”

Parish life: Neither St. Mark’s or Our Lady of Lourdes are well-to-do parishes. Did the difficulties make him wonder if he’d made a mistake? “The question I asked myself was, ‘How did you ever put yourself in such deep water?’ That’s slightly different. When you focus on the wrong things in the picture, there’s a lot of heaviness to it. You have to watch out for that. The stock answer I’ve heard from priests is, ‘The people’s faith is what inspired me.’ That stock answer has become real for me.

“There’s some sort of illogical, mysterious process that takes place where a mutual energizing happens, yes, even in these anti-religious days. It’s quite real. I want to live up to what they’ve shown me is possible. I feel enormously gifted by the people I’ve come to know, and I’ve ministered mostly with immigrants. I grew up on the Southwest Side. It’s very different at Our Lady of Lourdes. I may as well go around the world. The way they assimilate God and faith and church is drastically different. It’s not a criticism of anyone.”

Another passion: “For the last 10 years I’ve gotten involved with priests and Methodist pastors advocating for comprehensive immigration reform. Demonstrations, marches, prayer services, or going to Springfield to advocate for things like driver’s licenses. We’ve started up a ministry here in the parish that directly serves families with issues around non-documentation. I was involved in an immersion trip where we worked right at the border in the desert about four summers ago.  It’s like how some pro-life advocates work really hard at the cause. Certain amazing human beings came into my life and pulled me in.”

Prayer: “I’ve been re-animated in praying the liturgy of the hours at night. In the morning I’m a musician. I play piano. I take some words of the psalms and sit at the piano, play some of the classics and then play improv.

Leisure: “I play piano professionally at Gibson’s Steak House on the near North Side on Sunday nights. I also do fundraisers, mostly for the parish. I enjoy jazz, blues or classical.

“I’m reading ‘Murder City,’ not very pleasant, about Juarez, Mexico, and the turbulence with the current immigration situation. There’s torture going on, and cover up – even the people themselves stay silent or they’re killed. And it’s five minutes south of the Arizona border.

“Normal routine on my day off is some extended prayer time, then two or three hours on the piano, the health club, and dinner with friends. Lately my mother’s been sick, so I’ve been going home. The family is taking all the time we can with her.”

Favorites: “I like the angels and Michael the Archangel, and I do like, ‘The truth will set you free.’”

Advertising