Father Michael O’Loughlin ’01 believes he was neither holy nor smart when he started college at a school where, in his experience at least, students were expected to be one or both.
But when he transferred to Franciscan University, he says he found the support he needed to develop spiritually and academically, giving him the means to deepen his relationship with Christ and achieve more than surface knowledge.
While majoring in philosophy, he began discerning a religious vocation that had been on the back burner since he was very young. By his junior year, it had solidified, and after graduation, he entered SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh and was ordained a Byzantine Catholic priest for the Eparchy of Phoenix in 2005. He currently is pastor of the Proto-Cathedral of St. Mary in Los Angeles.
Father Michael also is known to many as the co-host with Mother Natalia of the Byzantine Catholic podcast What God Is Not, which seeks to reach people where they are and call them to a deeper relationship with Christ.
Although raised in the Roman Catholic Church in Albuquerque, Father Michael became a Byzantine Rite Catholic with his parents and four siblings when he was about 16. The family had gone to a Byzantine church for the first time, and Father Michael says, “All my siblings, down to my 4-year-old sister, absolutely loved the liturgy. Our parents decided we would give it a second try. After that, we were kind of hooked.”
During his time at Franciscan, Father Michael was one of only a handful of Byzantine Catholics on campus. He would participate in Roman Catholic Masses but also would travel to a Byzantine parish in Toronto, Ohio, whenever he could get a ride. Today, the campus has a thriving Byzantine Club with 25 to 35 students.
When he started at Franciscan, Father Michael says he did not warm to charismatic prayer, but after attending several Festivals of Praise, he gained respect for it by experiencing the joy of those participating.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Father Michael served 14 years in Denver, where he was invited to join three of his brother priests on their Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast. When he left Denver, he was encouraged to continue podcasting and What God Is Not was born.
The podcast’s mission is rooted in what Father Michael says he received during his years at Franciscan: “I fell in love with theology and philosophy and the Church and Christ in a way that gave me an evangelical zeal to share what I had found.
