Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap. has announced the appointment of two new pastors for parishes in the archdiocese’s South region. Father John L. Sullivan completed more than a quarter century of service in forming seminarians for the priesthood when he was named pastor of St. Gerard Majella Parish in Canton. Father John Carmichael, who had been a student of Father Sullivan at the archdiocesan seminary will become pastor of St. Ann by the Sea Parish in Marshfield on Nov. 1, 2006.

Father John Sullivan

Father Sullivan, a Boston native, was raised in the city’s Roslindale section and attended the parish grammar school at Sacred Heart. When he was graduated from Boston College High School he enrolled at Boston College. He obtained a bachelor of arts degree in classical languages and then entered St. John’s Seminary for his theological preparation for the priesthood. Cardinal Humberto Medeiros ordained him at Holy Cross Cathedral on May 18, 1974.

Immediately following ordination he was assigned as an associate pastor at Natick’s St. Patrick Parish. During his two years there he was ably mentored by Father James O’Leary, presently pastor of St. Camillus in Arlington. He said of his former coworker and longtime friend. “He’s a great priest and smart....he liked people and they responded to his gentle demeanor.” Father O’Leary also concurred that Father Sullivan “had a wonderful wit and winning and self-deprecating sense of humor.”

In September 1976 Father Sullivan began studies for a degree in Scripture which he completed at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute at the Gregorian University. He returned to the archdiocese and to the seminary where he served in various capacities for 25 years. He was professor of Old Testament; and while remaining in that position, in October 2001 he was named administrative assistant to the rector and in September 2003 he was named vice rector.

Students, contemporaries, and priest friends readily testify to Father Sullivan’s great academic ability and at the same time his genuine pastoral love for people and abounding kindness. These virtues are well-rounded out by his sense of humor and his ready smile and laugh.

In August 2005 he was named as a parochial vicar at St. Columbkille Parish in Brighton “with special responsibility for the former parishioners of Our Lady of the Presentation Parish.”

Father Sullivan had been named administrator of St. Gerard Parish in Canton on Aug. 1, 2006 following the illness of Father Bernard McLaughlin. Father “Mac” retired on Sept. 17 from the Canton parish and Cardinal O’Malley named Father Sullivan as the new pastor effective Oct. 10, 2006.

Interestingly, both Fathers Sullivan and McLaughlin were at one time seminary faculty members. As Father Sullivan succeeds Father McLaughlin he goes to an active parish with a large Sunday Mass attendance and multiple parish activities.

Father John Carmichael

A Boston native who spent his early years at St. Anthony cal studies at St. John’s Seminary and was ordained by Cardinal Law on May 22, 1997 at Holy Cross Cathedral.

His first assignment was as a parochial vicar at Lynn’s St. Pius Fifth Parish. He served there from ordination to June 1998. Immediately following his year at St. Pius he was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Mary, Wrentham. On Nov. 2, 1999 he was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Dracut. He served the burgeoning parish with two fine pastors: Fathers Brian Kiely and Robert Blaney. He moved in June 2003 to St. John the Evangelist in Swampscott and served as parochial vicar there until Sept. 1, 2005 when he was appointed to the Emergency Response Team of the archdiocese.

Father Carmichael has seen duty in various parishes and various regions of the archdiocese in his almost 10 years of priestly ministry. By coincidence, he has connections to two parishes mentioned elsewhere in this week’s issue: He served as administrator of St. Gerard, Canton before Father Sullivan’s arrival and has lived in residence while a member of the ERT with the recently deceased late Father John Crispo at St. Margaret, Burlington.