Father Michael Flanagan recalls receiving his call to the priesthood when he was an eight-year-old altar boy at St Peter Church and school in Columbia, Pennsylvania. That call was confirmed by many people in multiple places and ministries, but “I wanted to make sure the call was from God and not from what people were telling me,” Father Michael said.
The call became stronger when he began the practice of attending daily Mass and he continued discernment to the priesthood when he was ordained as a permanent deacon in May 20, 2000 in the Diocese of Allentown. Still receiving prods from friends who asked him to consider priesthood, a friend who knew Bishop Ronald Gainer, then-bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, suggested that Lexington might be the place for him. Deacon Michael made an application, was accepted and began attended seminary at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. In 2010, he was ordained by Bishop Gainer as a priest of the Diocese of Lexington.
Noting that his first impression of the diocese was that there are few Catholics, Father Michael recalls thinking of how that mirrors the early church. When he spent a weekend at Christ the King, though, he was invited to Bible study and expected to see eight to 10 people at 9 a.m. on a Thursday. Over 250 attended the Catholic Way bible study and he was told the numbers were down a bit that week. That experience gave Father Michael some insight into the diversity of his new diocese.
Father Michael adopted St. William, London, as his home parish and after an initial year at Christ the King, was assigned as pastor at St. Clare in Berea, St. Paul in McKee and Our Lady of Mount Vernon; he learned that the small to mid-sized parishes are far more common and he settled in the routine of covering all the needs of the parish—both sacramental and non-sacramental.
“Father Jack-of-All-Trades” also describes his time at Sts. John and Elizabeth in Grayson, Price of Peace in West Liberty and St. Michael in Paintsville, which was his last assignment. Paintsville is the latest location where Father Michael made use of his extension computer skills that he acquired when he worked in information technology before going to seminary. He created a database that included information about the St. Michael parishioners and enables his successor, Father David Wheeler, to update information about sacraments and visits.
He has found the shift from parishes where he was called to do almost everything to one with a large staff and hundreds of volunteers fairly easy. “The people are so friendly,” he said, and has noted that flexibility is part of the charism of the parish. He enjoys and feels called to visiting people who are sick and in the hospital and would like to begin a healing and deliverance ministry in the parish, an outreach in which people are healed spiritually and physically.
“We’re all in need of healing of some kind,” Father Michael said.
Father Michael looks forward to continuing to meet the people of his new faith community, saying that folks might need to tell him their names more than once!