Upon graduating from college with a degree in Theology in the mid-1980s, Michael began work as a catechist in various positions around the upper Midwest, including working as a youth minister, parish director of religious education, and as a high school religion teacher. After obtaining a master’s degree in religious studies, he worked as a diocesan director of religious education before deciding to switch gears and attend law school. He then spent the better part of the next 20 years as a civil attorney, practicing primarily in the areas of estate planning, tax, and securities law.

About six years ago, with one eye on his plans for retirement and the other on what was happening in the Church, he and his wife began a long process of prayerful discernment concerning what his wife euphemistically called their “priest project.” In 2018, he began the 3-year course of studies at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy for a license in canon law, and this past June he graduated.

Michael is a Wisconsin native, and it was there that he and his wife Caroline raised their eight children. Later this week they will drop off their youngest child for his freshman year of college in California, and will then fly to Rome, where they will spend the next year as Michael finishes his doctorate in canon law on the subject that he will talk to us about tonight: the right of a priest to a good reputation.