By Maryangela Layman Román

ST. FRANCIS — Shannon O’Connell could hear the friendly bantering among the seminarians as they drove out of town for a weeklong retreat just two weeks before their May 23 ordination to the priesthood. Sean O’Connell, 27, had called his sister from the car and she could hear them characteristically teasing each other – particularly the driver about his driving skills – as they embarked on a opportunity for spiritual renewal before ordination.

They’re a fun-loving, jovial bunch of guys said Shannon of her brother and the five men in his seminary class who, to her, break the stereotypical mold of a priest.

Describing her older brother as an “everyman,” Shannon, 26, director of Medicare Clinical programs for United Health Care, admitted she was surprised when Sean told her during his freshman year at Marquette University that he was considering priesthood.

“I definitely did not see that coming,” she admitted during a phone interview with your Catholic Herald. “Sean was not particularly religious or even spiritual so I was surprised, but the more I thought about it, there were things I remembered while we were growing up where it made more sense to me.”

Sean’s announcement came as a surprise as he had just completed four years of high school, the last couple at Sussex Hamilton where girls and dating were a part of his life. He dove into life at Marquette University as a business major with the same fun-loving approach, said Shannon, describing how her brother quickly adapted to the academic and social part of college life.

In an interview with your Catholic Herald, Sean looked back on his early days at Marquette and admitted one of the first things to go with his newfound freedom was Sunday Mass attendance.

“My family always went to Mass on Sunday – that was a non-negotiable – but when I got to college, I was feeling totally free and I felt I did not have to obey all the rules anymore,” he said.

But that rebel attitude lasted only about a month, he said, explaining how he awoke one morning with a strong desire to become a priest.

“I literally went to sleep one night and woke up the next day with a deep desire to become a priest. Basically, it terrified me and I thought, ‘This is not the right path for me at all,’” he said, describing how he tried to run from the call. “But God kept calling, he kept knocking louder and louder on the door of my heart and finally I decided I need to at least pursue it.”

He e-mailed a theology professor inquiring about groups on campus for men considering priesthood and was put in touch with a Jesuit group that met monthly to discuss faith and religious life. In addition to attending daily Mass at the St. Joan of Arc chapel, he said, “I started to understand my faith, what this calling meant in my life and what God was asking of me.”

But as the year went by, he also realized the Jesuit priesthood was not for him. He felt drawn to parish life and contacted the Archdiocese of Milwaukee vocations office. At the beginning of his sophomore year, he joined the college seminary program, at the time, located at SS. Peter and Paul Parish, Milwaukee.

Taking the advice of an assistant dean in the Marquette University College of Business Administration, Joe Terrian, and his father, Thomas O’Connell, Sean pursued his business degree, but added extra theology courses to prepare him for the seminary.

After graduation, he applied to Saint Francis Seminary and called the past five years a “great experience. I loved every minute of the seminary, I love my seminary brothers, particularly my classmates and have grown to love the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,” said the soon-to-be-priest who was born in Germany while his parents were in the service, and who spent much of his childhood in Minnesota.

The summer after his second year of theology, however, Sean explored another possible calling and spent a month in a monastery.

“For years I was drawn to the Trappists; they’re a contemplative order, and I’m not sure why I was drawn to them. Maybe it was a romantic idea to be in silence, in prayer. Something was stirring in my own heart calling me to check it out,” he said.

The month was filled with prayer, manual labor and silence. But the most difficult part, explained Sean, was not the vegetarian diet or the early mornings and nights, as he expected, rather it was the limited interaction with people.

“While those things are difficult, they weren’t what was making my heart restless. I realized I am a people person, I am a family person and need to be able to talk with family and friends and I realized that wasn’t my calling,” he explained.

The monastery seems an unlikely fit for the outgoing young man whose sister described him as a “very laid back, joking, jovial person” who likes to play practical jokes on his friends.

In fact, the legacy he leaves at the seminary most certainly includes his role as a founding member of the Fr. Don Hying fan club. He and his classmates surprised the much-loved rector by taking off their jackets one day after Mass to reveal the official fan club shirts, featuring an image of Fr. Hying and the words, “A profound and radical smackdown on the status quo since 2007.”

Another time, he and his cohorts created a stuffed Fr. Hying doll, complete with a milk carton for a head and placed him in a wheelchair outside the seminary kitchen with a sign that read, “pastor of Waukesha County at age 90,” a reference to the future where the shortage of priests dictates priests may have larger parishes to serve. They also created a scarecrow-like effigy of Fr. Hying and on another occasion surprised him with a stuffed deer head mounted in his room.

Sean expects to bring his sense of humor to his ministry.

“It’s always great to have a sense of humor because it draws people to you if you are not stuffy and serious,” he said, adding, “hopefully I don’t take myself too seriously.” Pointing to one of his role models, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, he noted the archbishop “was very good at easing tension with humor.”

“With Archbishop Dolan, I see a man profoundly in love with Jesus Christ. It just pours out of him that love for every person he sees, and the times when I had the opportunity to be with him, affirmed my vocation to the priesthood,” he said.

A strong prayer life and being available whenever needed are other qualities he hopes to incorporate into his priesthood.

Sean will begin his ministry as associate pastor at St. Dominic Parish, Brookfield, the parish to which his family, including parents Susan and Thomas and younger brother, Travis, belonged during their years in Milwaukee, and the one Shannon currently attends. Their parents and Travis, 19, live in Nebraska and belong to St. Joseph Parish, Lincoln.

As she looks forward to her brother’s ordination, she said she is struck by how happy and content he is with his vocation.

“I feel an overwhelming sense of pride, not only with him being my brother, but for him and his classmates. (They’re) such a great gift for the archdiocese,” she said. “When I question if there is really a God or if there’s something out there, when I see something as powerful (as Sean’s call to priesthood), and – I think I know Sean better than I know anyone – if someone like him feels a calling, especially when he’s not particularly religious and when it’s not an easy choice, nobody else we know is doing it, it confirms for me (God) is powerful enough to compel my own brother to take this life path.”

Sean knows he’s taking on a lifelong challenge, but it’s one he embraces.

“Being a priest in the world is a difficult task. Being a priest in any age is a task because you are acting and consecrating yourself to the person of Jesus, and you really have to love everything else more and love yourself less, have an open heart for every person you meet, no matter how tired, how stressed out you are.”

His time in the monastery affirmed his call to parish life, he added.

“It affirmed what God is calling me to is a life of service to the church, not as a monk but as someone in a parish, who will be around families to minister at hospitals, schools and I’m looking forward to doing all those things that God wants me to do. It really is a beautiful life,” he said.

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