Biography
Michael Sheridan was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to John and Bernice (née Moore) Sheridan, and studied at St. Louis University High and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he obtained his doctorate in theology. He was ordained to the priesthood by John Cardinal Carberry on May 29, 1971, and then did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He also taught on the theological faculty of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
On July 8, 1997, Sheridan was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis and Titular Bishop of Thibiuca by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 3 from then-Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali, with Bishops Edward Joseph O'Donnell and Edward Kenneth Braxton serving as co-consecrators. He chose as his episcopal motto: "Virtus in infirmitate perficitur" (2 Cor 12:9, meaning, "Strength is made perfect in weakness").
Sheridan was named Coadjutor Bishop of Colorado Springs, Colorado, on December 4, 2001, later succeeding as Richard Hanifen as the second Bishop of Colorado Springs upon the latter's resignation on January 30, 2003.
Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Sheridan sits on the Committee on Education. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, of the Board of Directors of Catholic Relief Services, of the International Dominican Foundation, and of the Kenrick Seminary Board of Trustees.
Sheridan excited controversy in 2004 when he said any Catholic who does not reflect church teaching in the voting booth "makes a mockery of that faith and belies his identity as a Catholic," a remark widely held to refer to supporters of John Kerry, though the bishop stated "the church never directs citizens to vote for any specific candidate." The directive was reported to be the first in the nation "that would apply to voters the same controversial sanctions proposed by some bishops against abortion-rights Catholic politicians...also one of the most drastic—equating a particular vote with sinful activity."
Read more about this topic: Michael John Sheridan
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)