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He discovered the Catholic faith at a secular college

By Dolores Madlener | Staff Writer
Sunday, September 15, 2013

Father Neil Fackler, pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, 4646 N Austin Ave., in his church on Sept. 3. (Brian J. Morowczynski / Catholic New World)

He is: Father Neil Fackler, pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish on the Northwest Side since 2006. Ordained at Mundelein Seminary in 1998.

Youth: He grew up in Hyde Park and attended University of Chicago Lab Schools for elementary and high school. “I didn’t grow up Catholic. My parents were non-denominational Protestants. We moved to Chicago from D.C. in 1960 when my father got a job at the University of Chicago. Mother still lives in Hyde Park. Dad taught economics in the graduate school of business at the University of Chicago, and directed the executive program of the graduate school of business, an MBA program for business people. I had an older brother who died a year ago and have a younger brother, a professor of agricultural economics at North Carolina State in Raleigh.”

Amazing grace: “I became a Catholic in the ’70s because of the Eucharist, while at Denison College in Granville, Ohio. Kind of a bizarre story, but one night I was praying or meditating and it came to me that John 6:56-69 was literally true: ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you do not have life within you.’ I asked a Catholic friend and he said ‘Talk with a priest.’ I talked to a priest in Granville and he said, ‘Yes we believe that to be literally true,’ and explained why. The school year was almost out, so he said to go to my parish priest for instructions when I got home. I met with a young newly ordained priest at St. Thomas the Apostle in Hyde Park over the summer, was baptized, confirmed and received Holy Communion, in the context of a daily liturgy, before I went back for my junior year! My parents were surprised, but OK with it.

“Lots of kids I went to college with went to church. It was a small town in central Ohio with very few Catholics. We didn’t have a Newman Club, so the priest came up from the village (our campus was on a hill) on Sundays at 4 o’clock and said Mass at a little café on campus that was closed Sundays.”

School/career/priesthood: “I got a B.A. in economics from Denison, and my MBA from the University of Chicago in 1979. I was in the corporate world for 15 years, employed by McGraw-Edison, an industrial company in Elgin at the time, by Baxter Travenol Labs in Deerfield, then by Fiat-Allis Construction Machinery, also in Deerfield. It was all corporate finance. I was the controller of the corporation’s retail operations on my job at Fiat.

“Well, God is ‘weird.’ I joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 1982 at age 27. It was through that I began practicing the faith as more than a Sunday Christian frequently hung over at church. At the end of 1990 I was asked to shut down Fiat’s retail operations and put myself out of a job.

“I had become involved in a Christian businessmen’s group. These young guys got together Friday mornings to read Scripture, pray and talk. One said to me, ‘You’d make a good minister.’ Being Catholic that meant a priest. I told myself I couldn’t be a priest because I had girlfriends, I was a convert and I was a sinner.”

He came back to Chicago in 1991 to look for a job. “A friend suggested getting a spiritual director and someone to help me with my career. I began working with a Jewish lady on the career, and seeing Father Dick Mueller for my spiritual director. He was connected with Niles College Seminary at the time. He told me one day Cardinal Bernardin had asked him to start a new program for second-career vocations called InSearch, and invited me to be one of the first members.”

He told the priest the impediments he thought would keep him from priesthood and Mueller said, “Read Augustine.” My corporate career coach told me, ‘With your background and resume, you could go anywhere. If you want to take a year or two to work for your church, it wouldn’t hurt. I think you need to do this for you.’ With her blessing I joined InSearch in 1991 and worked as business manager of St. Mary’s in Buffalo Grove.” A couple years later he applied at Mundelein Seminary and was ordained in 1998. “I stayed a sixth year to study for the STL degree.

“Father Gus Belauskas was key. He’s been in charge of the pre-theology program at Mundelein forever, due to retire next year. He was so good at saying, ‘It’s only one year at a time, just make a commitment for this year. Don’t worry about the future. Take it easy. It’s a discernment process.’ He was wonderful, but firm. He was a great influence for the five years I was a seminarian.”

Prayer life today: “I learned this in AA, you start the morning with a quiet time -- some meditation, read the Scriptures, pray. Some days you’re just going through the motions, that’s everybody. The liturgy of the hours is a requirement for priests, and became such a part of my routine in the seminary -- I feel it’s a wonderful gift -- it anchors my day. My favorite retreat house is Bellarmine in Barrington. I’ve been going there for AA retreats for 30 years. (Interestingly enough, the name of this parish is St. Robert Bellarmine, and he was a Jesuit. It has been a wonderful experience for me, and hopefully for the parishioners.)

“The Jesuits were my first spiritual directors and they’ve been a great influence on my spirituality and life – the Ignatian Exercises – the examination of conscience I do frequently. That fits very well in the AA program and how you turn to God each day. I’ve done my annual retreat there, and at Mundelein and other Jesuit or Benedictine houses. I like Mundelein’s retreat house. It’s a privilege to have that facility so close and the grounds are beautiful. I think you take it for granted during the years you’re studying and living there.”

Leisure: “Since my mother’s been a widow for 20 years I take her to doctors’ appointments, grocery shopping and we’ll have lunch. I try to get to the gym three times a week. I used to be a distance runner before my knees started going out from running on pavement. I did a lot of 5k-20k races in my 20s and 30s, but now I’m into weight-lifting and resistance training. That’s a great stress-reliever.

“I do a lot of spiritual reading, but enjoy science fiction and murder mysteries, too. “My favorite authors are Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, popular in the ’60s. Currently I’ve been reading a lot of Richard Rohr. I just finished his ‘Falling Upward’ about spirituality in the second half of life. What I’m looking at now, because it’s my philosophy, is “Breathing Under Water,” basically 12-step spirituality and Catholicism. The philosophy of trusting in God and getting out of the way, confession and all that, those are all basic. I wouldn’t be here without AA, much less have a vocation.

“I love nature, so on my day off I may drive to a forest preserve and hike around. I stay in touch with our small family. And I like to go out to dinner and the movies a couple times a month with good friends.”

Favorite Scripture: “Besides John 6:56, I like 1 John 4:19, ‘That God loved us first.’ I like that because it was God entering my life when I was in the throes of alcoholism when I was clearly not a loveable person outwardly, where God sees the spirit and soul inside and reaches out with unconditional love and draws us into that relationship. I lose sight of it in some moments, but try to keep that center, as my motivation for what I do every day.”

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