{"id":69729,"date":"2018-03-23T15:31:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T20:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=69729"},"modified":"2018-03-23T15:31:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T20:31:38","slug":"one-priests-journey-from-the-second-city-to-the-eternal-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/one-priests-journey-from-the-second-city-to-the-eternal-city\/","title":{"rendered":"One priest’s journey from the Second City to the Eternal City"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Larry Flynn <\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Fr. Tom McCarthy is in his element. He wears the Augustinian Black Robe. He fills the immediate space around him with gestures and a Chicago accent. He faces 32 students at All Saints School in Rossford, Ohio, and plants a seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many of you here have thought about being a priest or sister?\u201d<\/p>\n

The question matters to McCarthy because he once had to answer it. Sister Catherine Hanlin posed the same proposition to his sixth grade class at St. Adrian\u2019s on the south side of Chicago \u2013 in room 205, he remembers. He recalls little else from Sister Hanlin\u2019s speech other than the question itself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here at All Saints School, seven students raise their hand, answering McCarthy\u2019s question. It\u2019s normal, McCarthy says, for only a few to respond, leaving dozens of silent and shy faces. Some are afraid to admit they\u2019ve considered the priesthood. Others are absorbing the question and its gravity for the first time.<\/p>\n

Back at St. Adrian\u2019s, McCarthy didn\u2019t raise his hand. But now, he has answered yes to a question that requires another leap of faith, accepting a position as the English-language official of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.<\/p>\n

4,807 miles away. At the Vatican.<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

Rome came calling on December 6, 2017 in the form of an email from Vicar General Fr. Joe Farrell, a former vice president at McCarthy\u2019s alma mater, Villanova University. In 2011, St. Benedict XVI had created the council to promote \u201cNew Evangelization,\u201d a term coined by Pope John Paul II, to answer one central question \u2013 how should the Vatican invigorate and innovate its preaching of the Gospel around the world? Pope Benedict had always felt an American should be represented on the council, and now Pope Francis was honoring his wish by hiring McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the \u201cMayor of the South Side\u201d by Chicagoans and the Midwest Augustinians, McCarthy was an obvious choice for the role. He concluded his nine-year term as the Augustinian Vocations director in June with five consecutive years of growth in vocations and 32 men in formation to become friars. That\u2019s the largest candidate group the Augustinians have seen in 40 years. McCarthy also led roughly 3,000 middle and high school students every year in retreats and campus ministry events.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old priest believes his work in the office of student life at Villanova University may have pushed his candidacy over the edge. He initiated the \u201cFestival of Forgiveness\u201d at the St. Thomas of Villanova Church on campus, now running in its fifth semester. The trick, in McCarthy\u2019s spirit of simplicity, was to keep the church open 24 hours for the sacraments of adoration and confession. Over 1,400 students, nearly a quarter of Villanova\u2019s entire student body, participated last semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get much more Catholic than that,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cWhy can\u2019t that be done around the world? Why can\u2019t we challenge universities, schools, parishes, shrines to make a difference using normal, everyday stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy hesitated at first on the job offer. He he wasn\u2019t interested in a desk job, he told Farrell. But the vicar general reassured McCarthy that the new position was quite the opposite, calling the posting \u201cthe accessible, friendly face of the Vatican and the Pope.\u201d So he turned to prayer and his closest friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my friends, a priest, says to me, \u2018how many times have we told people to follow our heart and told people to trust in God, that God has a plan?\u2019\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cSo I had to look in the mirror and do the same, myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy has a mirror on the wall of his office at Villanova. It\u2019s decoupage, with pictures of red and green and yellow fish along the exterior. Matthew 4:19 is written along the top boarder of the mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow me, and I will make you fishers of men.\u201d<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s mirror, as well as most of his office possessions, will be stored in the basement of St. Rita\u2019s parish in Chicago \u2013 where McCarthy attended high school and served as school president \u2013 during his five-year stint at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Upstairs in St. Rita\u2019s, David Relstab is in application to become an Augustinian friar. He lives at the parish after graduating from college in December. His life changed when he emailed McCarthy as a junior in college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was your altar boy when your parish mission came to my parish, St. Patricia, in 8th<\/sup> grade,\u201d Relstab wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about the priesthood. I remember you introducing me to the Augustinians and I have since been enthralled by them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relstab attended McCarthy\u2019s \u201cbuon viaggio\u201d party at St. Rita\u2019s on March 1 as a friend and mentee. He\u2019ll live above McCarthy\u2019s decoupage fish mirror, roaming the halls McCarthy once walked as a student and preaching the same liturgical calendar McCarthy will use thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n

McCarthy left Chicago on March 13, arrived in Rome on March 14, and began work this week. In the meantime, the \u201cmayor\u201d has kept himself busy with five vocations speeches in the last month, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky and Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, I\u2019ll miss it,\u201d he says. \u201cI loved it, I loved my ministry. I always say, if you\u2019re saying it\u2019s hard to leave, you know you\u2019ve been doing the job well.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy doesn\u2019t yet know what his work will look like at the Vatican. He\u2019s taking a leap of faith as he has encouraged others to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike today. Who knows? Maybe I planted a seed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Fr. Tom McCarthy poses with a student from his alma mater in front of the Vatican. (Larry Flynn\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Larry Flynn Medill Reports Fr. Tom McCarthy is in his element. He wears the Augustinian Black Robe. He fills the immediate space around him with gestures and a Chicago accent. He faces 32 students at All Saints School in Rossford, Ohio, and plants a seed. \u201cHow many of you here have thought about being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":483,"featured_media":69742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,28,3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-general-interest","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nOne priest's journey from the Second City to the Eternal City - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/one-priests-journey-from-the-second-city-to-the-eternal-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One priest's journey from the Second City to the Eternal City - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Larry Flynn Medill Reports Fr. 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