Here is a short biography I did of one of my favorite people who happens to be a cousin of mine. If you would like to be a part of helping Fr. Mike's kids. Let me know. I have lots of ideas.

Mary





Fr. Michael Shea

Fr. Michael Shea was born in Armstrong, Wisconsin July 30, 1938, the eldest child of John W. Shea and Eileen O’Conner Shea.

He was ordained a Redemptorist priest on July 2, 1964. Two years later, on January 31, 1966, he began his ministry in Thailand. His first challenge was learning the language. Then, for nine years, he cared for 12 villages strung along the Mekong River and inland.

His next assignment was in the Loei province, tending some mountain villages and also Hmong refugees in the Vinai refugee camp for six years.

In the early eighties, he built and staffed the Prince of Peace minor seminary, completing the building in 1982 and staying until 1984 when he returned to the Mekong River, staying until 1996 when he became rector and director of novices in Nongkhai in northeast Thailand.

Currently, Mike pastors four parishes. He has also established a hostel for Aids infected children called Sarnelli House in Don Wai. There are 36 Aids infected children in the hostel. Along with the Aids hostel he has a boys home called St. Patrick’s with 17 boys and a girls hospice called Viengkhuk Girl’s Hospice with 36 girls. These 53 healthy children have been orphaned and abandoned, usually because their mothers, dying of Aids were forced out of their homes because of fear of the disease.


The following is a paragraph from Fr. Mike’s Christmas 2002 letter to his friends and family.

“After 3 years with our kids, I have come to the conclusion that God made Christmas especially for children. Each year, after Midnight Masses at our four churches, kids in our hostels perform Christmas skits at the parties. This morning the Vienkhuk hostel girls told me excitedly that they are already having play practice. In their plays, the baby Jesus gets separated from His parents and never sees them again. He wanders from home to home, and the people refuse to invite Him to eat or stay with them. This achingly mirrors their lives before being taken in by us.”


Mike brings photograph albums of the children whenever he comes home, pictures of the children all dressed up for plays or playing or in school. They are all scrubbed and wide-eyed and beautiful. Someone asked him why he doesn’t show pictures of the sick children or as they arrive to invoke sympathy like some ministries do. He said that he lets the kids put the albums together and they want to put pictures of themselves and their friends looking good. Wouldn’t your children?