Bishop-elect of Belleville grew up in large Catholic family on Chicago’s south side
The Rev. Michael G. McGovern grew up on the south side of Chicago, but he has spent most of his time as a priest in a rural county near the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
Perhaps that has helped prepare him for his new assignment as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville. The diocese serves about 70,000 people in more than 100 mostly small-town parishes, many scattered around Shawnee National Forest.
“It’s about 10 degrees colder here than it is in (Southern Illinois),” McGovern said in a phone interview Friday afternoon from his church in Old Mill Creek, a village with fewer than 200 people. “It’s not too bad.”
McGovern, 55, will replace Bishop Edward K. Braxton, who is retiring after 15 years heading the Belleville Diocese. He succeeded Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who was assigned to the Atlanta Archdiocese and later the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
McGovern now serves as pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Parish, dean of Deanery 1-A and interim episcopal vicar of Vicariate I.
McGovern couldn’t drive down to his future home and attend Mass, hold a press conference or meet priests and parishioners, as is customary. He’s sticking close to home because of state restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
McGovern will be Belleville’s ninth bishop since 1888. No date has been set for his installation. In a statement Friday, Braxton predicted it wouldn’t happen until late summer.
“We’re waiting a few weeks before we have a conversation about that,” McGovern said. “We want it to be a celebration for the diocese of Belleville, and we want people to come out and attend. But we really don’t know precisely when it will be safe for people to gather in a large crowd.”
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Resignation last summer
Braxton submitted his resignation to the Vatican on June 28, 2019, when he turned 75. Canon law requires that of all Catholic bishops, but it’s up to Pope Francis whether to replace them or extend their service.
The Vatican announced early Friday morning that Francis had accepted Braxton’s resignation and appointed McGovern to replace him. Shortly after, the Belleville Diocese sent an email announcement to media organizations in the St. Louis area and local parishes.
Braxton isn’t doing media interviews at this time, according to Monsignor John T. Myler, diocesan spokesman and rector at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville.
Braxton and McGovern released written and video statements on Friday. Braxton stated that he had congratulated and welcomed McGovern. He also asked people to pray for him.
“Since I am formerly from the Archdiocese of Chicago, I already know Bishop-Elect McGovern and I am appreciative of the contributions he has made to the Church in his various pastoral responsibilities,” Braxton stated.
“He is also known to some of our Belleville priests from their days of studying together at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary. I am confident that they, with the entire college of priests, will welcome and support him, praying that God, who begins this new work in him, will bring it to completion.”
Youngest of eight siblings
McGovern grew up in a large Catholic family with seven brothers and sisters. He’s the youngest.
His mother was an elementary school teacher who taught adult night classes in sewing. His father also was an elementary school teacher, but then he joined the staff of a public school for inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago.
“My parents truly believed in education,” McGovern said.
All the children attended Catholic grade school. The boys went to an all-boys Catholic high school and the girls went to an all-girls Catholic high school before heading off to college to pursue a variety of professions.
McGovern graduated from Christ the King Parish primary school and St. Ignatius College Prep secondary school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago and studied at DePaul University School of Law before switching to the seminary.
Most of McGovern’s siblings still live in the Chicago area. He told them Thursday night about his appointment as bishop.
“I think they have mixed emotions,” he said. “They’re happy for me, but they know it’s going to be different. I’ll be five hours away by car, but we’ll see each other. We’ll set up dates when I can come up and see them or they can come down and see me. And there’s always email, phone and text.”
Entering the priesthood
McGovern completed his ecclesiastical studies at University of St. Mary of the Lake’s seminary in Mundelein. He was ordained a priest for the Chicago Archdiocese in 1994.
McGovern formerly served as parish vicar at Queen of the Universe Parish in Chicago, St. Mary Parish in Lake Forest and St. Juliana Parish in Chicago; assistant chancellor and vice chancellor; delegate of the archbishop for extradiocesan and foreign priests; and parish priest at St. Mary Parish in Lake Forest.
McGovern has been at St. Raphael for four years. It has about 800 registered families.
Their large, five-year-old church sits in the middle of a field, including 19 acres rented to a farmer. It was built to accommodate expected growth in Lake County with a sanctuary that can hold 900 people.
“It’s a beautiful church,” said McGovern, whose parishioners call him “Father Mike.” “It’s actually made out of parts of churches that closed, so we have stained-glass windows and marble altars that came from churches in the city of Chicago, and those works of art have been incorporated into our church building.”
McGovern is a Chicago White Sox fan who also enjoys music, including classical, country and oldies. He’s a member of the Art Institute of Chicago and tries to visit the museum two or three times a year.
McGovern likes watching talks on YouTube, mostly those by Catholic speakers, and reading novels and short stories. He recently has been revisiting classics such as “Lord of the Flies” and “Of Mice and Men” that he studied in high school.
“I love being a pastor most of all,” McGovern wrote in his statement Friday.
Braxton’s long career
Braxton also was born in Chicago. He attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Niles College Seminary and University of St. Mary of the Lake’s seminary in Mundelein before being ordained in 1970.
Since that time, Braxton:
- Served as associate pastor at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago and Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka.
- Earned doctorate degrees in religious studies and systematic theology at Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he continued with parish ministry at American military bases in Germany and Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Brussels.
- Returned to the United States and served as associate pastor of St. Felicitas Parish in Chicago.
- Taught at Harvard University and did pastoral ministry at St. Paul’s Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Taught at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
- Became a chancellor to Bishop James A. Hickey of Cleveland, Ohio, and later Hickey’s special assistant when Hickey was named archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 1980.
- Served as scholar-in-residence at the North American College, the U.S. bishops’ seminary in Rome.
Directed Calvert House, the Catholic student center at the University of Chicago.
Acted as a peritus for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Congo).
Worked as theological consultant to William H. Sadlier Inc., a New York-based publisher in Catholic religious education from 1986 to 1992 and did pastoral work at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village and Notre Dame Parish at Columbia University.
Returned to Chicago and became pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish.
Was appointed by Pope John Paul II as auxiliary bishop of St. Louis in 1995.
Was installed as second bishop of the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 2001.
Was appointed bishop of the Belleville Diocese in 2005.
‘Listen, learn, think, pray, act’
“My spiritual journey as a priest, like that of every priest, has been filled with many exhilarating joys and not a few deep sorrows,” Braxton said in a 2015 BND profile. “But I have never been sorry that I was a priest.”
Braxton has led the Belleville Diocese through change and controversy, including the formation of parish partnerships in the face of a priest shortage and the priest sexual-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church nationally and locally.
Braxton, who is black, also has sought to help parishioners understand the U.S. racial divide and encouraged them to take positive action. He is known as a serious-minded theologian who values education, tradition and quiet reflection.
His mantra is “listen, learn, think, pray and act.”
“You must listen to other people, to other experiences,” Braxton said in a 2018 talk on race. “You must learn from those experiences. Then you must think about what you learned and how that suggests you must change some aspect of your life.
“You must think hard, talk to others, family members who disagree with you (and) talk to others whose lives are different than yours. Then you must pray. ... In prayer, you may discern what you can do.”
Braxton supporters describe him as intelligent, knowledgeable and skilled at giving the Catholic perspective on important issues of the day through writings and lectures. Critics argue that he can be rigid, insensitive, arrogant and non-transparent.
Braxton has had run-ins with Catholic groups such as the Faithful of Southern Illinois and Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and some retired priests had called for his removal.
The coronavirus effect
Both Braxton’s and McGovern’s statements referred to the effect of coronavirus on the Catholic community and upcoming leadership transition in the Belleville Diocese.
Braxton noted that on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 26, parishioners could not have imagined all the anxiety, suffering and death that would be present in the world during Lent and that they would be “sheltering at home” and practicing social distancing.
“I feel closer to the priests, deacons, seminarians, religious, faculty and students in our Catholic Schools, lay pastoral leaders, and the Christian Faithful of this Local Church than ever,” he wrote.
Catholic churches all over the country have been posting videos or live-streaming Masses and other programs on websites and Facebook pages, and those in Belleville and Chicago are no exception.
“There’s a lot of anxiety,” McGovern said. “It’s unsettling. That’s a word I’ve used a lot. People are concerned about being healthy. They’re concerned for their loved ones. Will they become ill?
“I think people are also concerned about the economy. I feel for the farmers in Southern Illinois. They had such a rough year last year with all the rain that we had. It was so hard to plant a corn crop, and now this year with the COVID-19, what will be the impact for the farming community?”
This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 1:38 PM.
