Greetings to the Parishioners of St. Raphael the Archangel!

I am very excited to be named as your new pastor! This will be my first assignment as Pastor in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Although this is my 33 ^rd year in priestly ministry, I was a Benedictine monk for most of those years. I studied theology at St. Meinrad Seminary (Southern Indiana) in the 1980’s. I was ordained as a monk of Marmion Abbey in Aurora, and worked at Marmion Academy in my early years there. During those years I helped out at many parishes in the Fox Valley area, near DuPage County. Eventually I wanted to see what life at a more rural monastery would be like.

I spent 12 years at Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota, where I also was pastoral administrator (2 years) of a small parish located along the Minnesota state line. Blue Cloud Abbey eventually closed, and I returned to minister in Illinois in 2008.

While I was a chaplain in Lake Zurich, Fr. Jamnicky called on me a number of times for St. Raphael, in the farm building church. I was there on the morning of the fire around 2009 or so. I remember we had Mass in the social area that morning. I was interested in the unique architectural re-purposing here, and I attended the groundbreaking ceremony. I was very glad to be back in Illinois, but I never imagined at the time that I would one day become pastor for this new parish! Fr. Jamnicky called me from Texas, just this week to congratulate me.

I like being closer to family and old friends now. I was an associate with Fr. McGovern at St. Mary’s in Lake Forest from 2011 to 2014. That was my first full-time assignment at a Parish of the Archdiocese. Bishop-elect McGovern taught me much about what Catholics expect of their parish priests. Since 2014 I have been an associate at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge. St. Paul is one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese, and I hope my time there has prepared me for taking on the role of Pastor.

I was born and raised in the Archdiocese of Chicago. My family belonged to St. Theresa in Palatine, where I attended grade school. I have 3 sisters who live near Chicago with their husbands, and two older brothers who live in Michigan and Texas. I went to high school at Marmion in Aurora, which was partly why I joined the Benedictines as a route to priesthood. However, before the seminary I studied Chemical Engineering at Northwestern and worked briefly as an engineer. Through the years, I always enjoyed the open areas in northern Lake County. I have visited Illinois Beach State Park and the Chiwaukee Preserve many times. When I learned of Fr. Mike’s appointment as Bishop, I quickly contacted him as St. Raphael’s is just the kind of parish I was hoping for. Your uniquely beautiful church has almost no others like it! I look forward to getting to know all of you in the coming months.