Dear Friends in Christ,
I am very glad to introduce two seminarians of the Archdiocese of Chicago who have been assigned to Our Lady of Mercy for the year ahead: Deacon Tim Berryhill and Luke Lato. As you know, I spent the last seven years of my priestly ministry working in the formation of our future priests, so I am very glad to be able continue that work here in our faithful and joyful parish. This means that Our Lady of Mercy is now part of the Tolton Teaching Parish Program (TTPP). Named for Venerable Augustus Tolton, the first known African-American Catholic priest (who also served here in Chicago) now on the path to sainthood, this program accompanies our seminarians from Mundelein Seminary in their pastoral preparation for priesthood. The program strives to help the seminarians build long-term relationships in the parish, so we will plan on seeing seminarians here for years to come ahead. Please make them welcome!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Thomas J. Byrne
Hello OLM Community,
I am Deacon Tim Berryhill, a Seminarian for the
Archdiocese of Chicago. I was ordained a Deacon on May 13th, 2023 and I anticipate ordination to the Priesthood in May, 2024. I grew up in Houston, Texas and came to Chicago to attend Loyola University of Chicago from 2007-2011. I then became a Medical Evacuation Pilot in the Illinois Army National Guard and remained in Chicago. I did not grow up Catholic, but it was shortly after I completed Flight School at
Ft. Rucker, Alabama that I came to know and love the Catholic Church and was received into the Catholic Church when I was 25 in 2014. I began discerning the Priesthood very soon after and entered Mundelein Seminary in the fall of 2018. I am very excited to serve OLM this year. I spent this past summer in Antigua, Guatemala learning Spanish for 8 weeks and serving as a Deacon in a Spanish liturgical setting. I had the opportunity to meet many in the OLM community already and I look forward to getting to know the whole community.
In Christ,
Deacon Tim
Dear parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy,
It is a great honor to introduce myself to this beautiful faith community. My name is Luke Lato, I am a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Chicago. I grew up in Glenview, a suburb a little north of the City. I have been in the
seminary for three years now, and currently entering into my configuration stage one in seminarian formation, which means I have 4 more years until priesthood. With that said, we will have a lot of time to get to know one another and build the Kingdom of God together. Be
assured of my prayers and may Our Lady of Guadalupe watch over us as we grow together as a parish family. May God bless.
Peace,
Luke Lato