To Contact Us
Write:
PO Box 1603
Lafayette, IN 47902
Phone:
(765) 742-2050
Fax:
(765) 742-7513
E-mail
our office
Buy, Sell, Trade or Rent with Classified Advertising
Happening ... in the Local Church
 Father
Douglas McCormack died Feb. 15 at the age of 68. Ordained in May 1969,
he served at several parishes throughout the Local Church, including as
pastor of St. Alphonsus, Zionsville, from 1989 to 2006. He had retired
in July 2008. |
 Father
McCormack dons a hard hat for the June 2003 groundbreaking for a new
church at St. Alphonsus, Zionsville. |
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
Old friends remembered Father Doug McCormack — who died Feb. 15 at age 68 — as a kind, devoted priest with the twinkling eyes of a leprechaun and a gift for reaching out to others.
“He was a delightful Irishman with a typical dry, Irish sense of humor … stubborn and funny,” said longtime friend Tom Schemmel, a parishioner at St. Alphonsus Church in Zionsville, where Father McCormack was the pastor for 17 years.
“When he would have a job for me, he would say, ‘Let’s have lunch,’” Schemmel recalled fondly. “I knew two things were going to happen: I was going to get a job that I couldn’t say ‘no’ to, and I was going to buy lunch.”
But “Father Doug” always returned the favor. “Any time I needed a priest presence in whatever thing I was involved in, he was the man,” Schemmel said.
The son of Irish immigrants, Father McCormack was born in Cleveland on March 1, 1942. He attended Catholic schools, then Borromeo Seminary of Ohio in Wickliffe, Ohio; John Carroll University, Cleveland; St. Mary Seminary, Cleveland, and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
While in the seminary, he met Msgr. Tom Corrigan, Catholic Youth Organization director for the Diocese of Cleveland. Through him, he met Lafayette Bishop Raymond Gallagher, and decided to become a diocesan priest for the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana.
Bishop Gallagher named Father McCormack diocesan youth director, a position he held from 1976 until 1988. He also served as associate pastor of St. Paul Church, Marion, and of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Carmel. He was pastor of St. Charles Church, Otterbein; the former St. Bridget Church, Barrydale; St. Charles Borromeo Church, Peru; and administrator at St. Ann Church, Kewanna. He was pastor of St. Alphonsus, Zionsville, from 1989 until 2006. He was senior associate at St. Ambrose, Anderson, from 2007 until his retirement in July 2008.
Schemmel, a St. Alphonsus parishioner for 37 years, worked with Father McCormack on many projects: starting a Knights of Columbus council, starting a branch of the Serra Club, building a new church, raising money to build the Garden of the Madonna, starting a “Christ Renews His Parish” program.
Father McCormack, he said, always supported and promoted programs for youth. Schemmel’s sons were among the many beneficiaries, and they remain active in their parishes.
“I always found him to be a joy,” Schemmel said. “Being the parish priest of a growing and exciting parish is not an easy job.”
Aggie Weber, another friend and parishioner from St. Alphonsus, called Father McCormack “a very kind and gentle soul. He really was very unassuming. He certainly let the laity have an active part in the ministry. He would encourage people with different ideas for ministry. He was not dictatorial at all.”
She and her husband had six children. Father McCormack was involved in their first Communions, first confessions, and marriage preparation. He presided at four of their weddings.
Weber remembered him as a quiet man, probably more comfortable in small groups than large ones. He liked people, and enjoyed being a parish priest. The Webers invited him and another former St. Alphonsus pastor, Father Melvin Bennett, to their home for Christmas.
“I just talked to a woman who moved away,” Weber said. “She talked about how wonderful he was when her husband was in intensive care. He came every day and sat with her at the hospital.”
Her husband, Mike, said that Father McCormack enjoyed social gatherings, but he always was “a good one-on-one guy. Father was a very giving person, and he did a lot of things behind the scene. He certainly spent a lot of time with people in the hospital, and doing other things that many of us didn’t know about.”
Father Bennett, who delivered the homily at the requiem Mass, met Father McCormack in May 1969, when they both were ordained.
“He was a very kind, thoughtful person,” he said. “When I would have a funeral in my family, he would always show up. One time, somebody died unexpectedly, and I didn’t get a chance to call him, but when I went to the church he was there, ready to concelebrate.
“Family, and the priesthood, were the big things for him. He was the youngest of six children, and he always talked about his family.”
Father McCormack’s older sister, Agnes, lives in a Noblesville nursing home, and he visited her there almost every day. Only three days before his death, Father McCormack filled in for Father Bennett at a Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Carmel, where Father Bennett is senior associate.
“Doug was a very kind person, but also vulnerable to the unkindness of others,” Father Bennett said. “… He was happy and jovial, but not assertive. He was very proud of having once been the head of the (diocesan) youth office, and that love stayed with him all his life.”
As director of youth ministry, Father McCormack crisscrossed the diocese, visiting parishes. Parish youth ministry was in its infancy then, so he often worked with adults to get programs started. He took many groups to Catholic Youth Organization conventions, and he served as regional coordinator when the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry was forming.
“He had these youth days, which were very well-attended, with 500 or 600 kids,” Father Bennett said. “Doug was the driving force behind them. Bishop Gallagher referred to them fondly as ‘rah-rahs.’”
The highlight of Father McCormack’s pastorate at St. Alphonsus was construction of the present church, which Father Bennett called “one of the most beautiful in the diocese.”
Father W. Michael Kettron also has fond memories of Father McCormack, who was his associate at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Carmel, from 1972-76. Father Kettron was pastor of that parish from 1972-87, and is now pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Cicero.
“He had a good sense of humor,” he recalled. “His mother and sister came and lived in Carmel at that time, after we had settled in there.
“We had the Notre Dame Sisters at that time, and the school was really a center of activity,” Father Kettron said. Masses were celebrated in the school gymnasium; the rectory stood where the church stands now.
Father McCormack taught religion classes, and Father Kettron placed him in charge of the school buses. Gas prices were soaring, so Father McCormack parked the buses close together so that no one could siphon the fuel.
He drove a bus, and enjoyed interacting with his youthful passengers.
“He related well not only to the students, but to their parents,” Father Kettron said. “... He was a good worker.”
Deacon Patrick Gallagher, who serves in hospital and nursing home ministry at St. Joseph Church, Lebanon, knew Father McCormack for 20 years. He was his pastoral associate in Zionsville from 1999 until 2006.
“He cared about people, very much,” he said. “He was probably one of the most pastorally compassionate people that I know. He was a simple person with a big heart, always willing to talk at the person’s own level.”
Deacon Gallagher had been involved in RCIA, but Father McCormack encouraged him to pursue a master’s degree in pastoral studies and to ultimately work for the Church.
“He instilled in me a sense of being non-judgmental and to take people where they are (and) to understand that there are circumstances in everybody’s life,” he said.
Many times, he said, he heard adults say that “they were there because of Father Doug. He influenced them to be motivated and join the Church. That speaks to how he related to people. He was good at telling stories, in his homilies and everywhere he went.”
May he rest in peace.