Father Shane

Fr. Shane was appointed Pastor of St. Gregory the Great on September 14, 2004, after serving as the Parochial Administrator of St. Rafka Maronite Catholic Church in Lakewood, CO. He was ordained at the Cathedral of Saint Paul on May 28, 1994 by the late Archbishop John Roach. Following his ordination, he served as Associate Pastor for four years at St. Pius X in White Bear Lake. He was then appointed as the parochial administrator of St. Boniface and Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parishes in Northwest Minneapolis while at the same time as chaplain at the Academy of Holy Angels High School in Richfield. He also previously served as the associate pastor at Notre Dame Parish in Denver, CO.

Fr. Shane is a native of Garden City, Kansas, born in 1962. During his grade school years he grew up on a farm and attended Shallow Water Grade School. Following his high school graduation at Garden City Senior High School he went to Conception Seminary College in MO and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. In 1985, he moved to Minnesota and completed his college studies in 1990 at Saint Cloud State University with a BA in philosophy. His seminary studies were at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity University of Saint Thomas. During his priestly formation and as a transitionary deacon, he was at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park.

During his pastorate at St. Gregory the Great he has assisted in developing an RCIA Program, Stewardship Committee, Thursday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a Parish Summer Festival. On July 1, 2012, Father Shane took on additional duties when appointed as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Rush City. He likes to joke by saying that he serves one-half of Chisago County, MN and the northern most territory of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Beginning in January 2007, he was granted a six-month sabbatical where he lived in the Virgin Islands. He spent time assisting the Parishes on Saint Thomas and Saint John. He continues to return to the USVI each winter. Also, while in the Caribbean he wrote a book called “On Shifting Sand” which was published in 2009 by Singing River Publications in Ely, MN. Over one thousand copies have been sold.

His special ministerial interests include liturgical studies, youth ministry, lives of the saints, Maronite Catholics, Cistercian, and Jesuit spiritualities, and religious authors Fathers Thomas Merton and Henri J. M. Nouwen. He has been to Egypt and Burkina Faso in Western Africa through Catholic Relief Services; El Salvador and Guatemala with the Maryknoll Fathers and Sisters; and on a thirty Day Ignatian retreat. Fr. Shane enjoys college basketball, especially the Kansas Jayhawks, gardening, writing, history, reading.

He shares his rectory with his seven year old cat name Flannery. He began a sabbatical in late October 2018 and returned mid April 2019. The first two months were at St. Mary’s Monastery in Perth, Scotland, where he participated in a program run by the Redemptorist priests. Then he was in Cocoa Beach, Florida for four months where he wrote a memoir called: The Turtle Priest, A Memoir of Transformation. The book is now available by contacting Fr. Shane at shaneow@aol.com

Fr. Shane’s new address is: 133 N Brown Road, Long Lake, MN 55356