Shawn G. Sheehan
1912 - 1990
1912 - 1990
Shawn Sheehan was born in Brockton, MA, in 1912, graduated from Holy Cross College in 1933, and was ordained a presbyter for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1940 by Richard J. Cushing, an auxiliary bishop at the time. He received his Ph.D. from Catholic University of America in 1944, delivering his doctoral thesis on medieval church teachings on war and peace. As a church historian, he taught at seminaries in Little Rock and Boston, always specializing in pastoral liturgy. Through writings and action, he demonstrated the liturgy-and-life relationship, climaxed by his ministry in later years as a courageous and zealous pastor in an inner-city parish of Boston.
Rev. Shawn Sheehan was a leader in the Catholic liturgical and social justice movements, a constant witness for that unified vision of Christian renewal that marked the American liturgical movement: not only a renewal of worship, but a linking of worship with the whole of life. His vision took him to the board of directors of The Liturgical Conference, serving as president from 1956-1959, and to the freedom marches in Selma. He joined the farm workers in their quest for a decent life, and he worked for world peace in the time left over from pastoring urban parishes.