Chicago Catholic News: Chicago native at helm of Milwaukee archdiocese

Chicago native at helm of Milwaukee archdiocese

(POSTED: 8/4/09) He's all Milwaukee, all Franciscan, all Chicago and all bishop.

He's Chicago-born William Patrick Callahan, auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee since 2007.

This April he also was appointed administrator of Milwaukee's Roman Catholic archdiocese, running day-to-day operations since former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan was installed as 10th archbishop of New York and the spiritual leader of New York's 2.5 million Catholics.

A new Milwaukee archbishop has yet to be named. (While Callahan could be in the mix, the pope usually reaches outside a diocese to pick an archbishop.)

Callahan, 59, is the first Conventual Franciscan to become a bishop in the U.S.

He was raised in the 3200 block of South Lituanica in Bridgeport, that most political of all Chicago neighborhoods. It's famed as a breeding ground for Chicago mayors.

When interviewed, Callahan probably knew the question was coming, and his answer was:

"When I was a little kid, my cousins lived across the alley from the Daleys" in Bridgeport. That would be late Mayor Richard J. Daley, his wife Sis and their then-young family.

Callahan's cousins "went to school with the Daley boys" -- one of whom is now Mayor Richard M. Daley.

"Growing up in the 11th Ward was having an affinity with things political, and you knew every precinct captain," said Callahan.

He was born in 1950 in St. Bernard's Hospital. He's Irish on dad William's side and Italian on mom Ellen's -- a classic Chicago mix. He has three older siblings -- two sisters and a brother. His parents are deceased.

Callahan knew at an early age he wanted to be a priest.

But there was a slight roadblock.

He was an eighth grader in 1964 at St. Mary of Perpetual Help school in Bridgeport. It was time to take the entrance exam for Quigley seminary on the South Side, a high-school starting point for Chicago's future diocesan priests.

But a monsignor who knew him told Quigley's rector, "Don't take him. He doesn't have a vocation." Callahan may have been a cut-up at times, but he was determined to become a priest.

An eighth-grade friend told him about the Franciscans, a worldwide order with its own training program for its future priests. The friend's uncle was vocations director at the Franciscans' minor seminary in far northwest suburban Crystal Lake, and signed up Callahan.

"So I got into St. Mary's." And studied at junior college in Chicago before he was accepted in the Novitiate of St. Bonaventure in Lake Forest. He continued his formation there from 1969 to 1970. From then to 1973 he studied at Chicago's Loyola University, earning a bachelor's degree in radio and TV communications.

He explains that "I loved radio and TV, and wanted to establish the first Catholic television network. I saw it as . . . vital and important."

He earned his master's of divinity degree from St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto in 1976. He was ordained a priest in 1977 by Milwaukee Archbishop William E. Cousins. He served as associate pastor of Milwaukee's Basilica of St. Josaphat in 1977 and 1978, and was its rector and pastor from 1994 to 2005. He also served as director of vocations for the Conventual Franciscans from 1978 to 1984, and as associate pastor and then pastor of Holy Family parish in Peoria, from 1984 to 1994. From 2005 until becoming a bishop in 2007, he was spiritual director for the Pontifical North American College -- the seminary for Americans in Rome.

Pondering his priestly career, he says, "In all these things, it's God's will. I'm pretty happy the way things turned out."

Friends through the years have described him as a people person with a fine combination of enthusiasm, compassion, competence, attention to detail and conviction.

As for his sports interests, "This will probably enrage your readers. I grew up as a Sox fan as a youngster and traded loyalties to Cubby blue" later, maybe because he was on the North Side so much.

"I guess I'm still a Chicago fan. . . . One thing hasn't changed. I'm a Bears fan, which will probably enrage my congregation here" in Milwaukee.

However, "I consider myself very much a priest from Milwaukee."

Asked about trends in his archdiocese (which includes a flock of nearly 700,000), one he mentioned is "a great stirring of faith in the black Catholic community."

Callahan's Milwaukee archdiocese touches the Chicago archdiocese at the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, and some of his archdiocesan faithful travel to Chicago's Loop every workday. They live in and near Kenosha, just north of the Illinois line, and take Metra commuter trains from the Kenosha terminus to Chicago's Loop.

Not so incidentally, this is the 800th birthday of the Franciscan order. The church granted it approval in 1209.

By ChicagoCatholicNews
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com

0 comments:

Quick Hits -- updated daily

(JULY 31) Armenian "church" in Lake Bluff losing tax-exempt status.

Featured Video

Reader Support

Featured Column

Links

0 comments:

Leave a Reply

Welcome to Chicago Catholic News

Quick Hits -- updated daily