Raised in the Garden City, Newton, and in its Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Parish, Father John E. Sheridan is an alumnus of Newton South High School and archdiocesan seminaries. He is the eighth of the nine children of the late Denis and Elizabeth (Henebury) Sheridan born on Jan. 30, 1964. He has four brothers: Denis, James, Mark, and Patrick; and four sisters: Catherine Carver, Elizabeth Harris, Ellen Geary, and Mary Martin.

On June 16, 1990, Cardinal Bernard Law ordained him and other members of the Class of 1990 to the priesthood at Holy Cross Cathedral. He celebrated his First Mass at Holy Name Church, West Roxbury, the following day.

The cardinal also gave him his first assignment as parochial vicar at St. Joseph (French) Parish, Salem.

Over the next 36 years, he would receive additional assignments, all of them to archdiocesan parishes, pretty much across the archdiocese in each of the pastoral regions except Merrimack.

Cardinal Law gave him the following assignments after Salem: parochial vicar, St. Ann in Dorchester's Neponset section (1996-1998); St. Cecilia, Ashland, with chaplaincy at Marian High School Framingham (1998-2002); and his first assignment as pastor at St. Matthew, Dorchester.

Archbishop Seán P. O'Malley named him as administrator of St. Benedict Parish, Somerville, in May 2004, and later that year, pastor of St. James Parish, Salem. While at St. James, he was also named pastor of neighboring St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Salem.

The Disciples in Mission Program saw the creation of collaboratives where two or more parishes were linked with one pastor for the yoked parishes.

Father Sheridan was well versed in the process and ultimately served in four collaboratives of varying sizes.

The first was Sacred Heart Parish in Middleborough, which had been merged with St. Rose of Lima, Rochester; and Sts. Martha and Mary Parish in Lakeville. While consisting of two parishes, there remained three churches or worship sites, and three towns. Initially, the collaborative was named "Cranberry Catholic Collaborative" but became St. Isidore Parish when the parishes were later merged.

In 2018, he was pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish, which served both Chelsea and Everett and St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, Revere. The latter parish's church can still be seen from Route One.

While pastor of both parishes, he directed their merger in 2021 into a new parish, Blessed Mother of the Morning Star, serving sections of the three contiguous municipalities: Chelsea, Everett, and Revere. During his tenure there, he also served at vicar forane of Vicariate IV of the North Region.

In November 2022, he was back in the Central Region, not too far from his most recent assignment, now as pastor of the Charlestown Collaborative, consisting of two of the venerable parishes of the archdiocese, St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena and St. Francis de Sales. Heading north on Interstate 93 as traffic crawls along, off to the left from the Zakim Bridge, you can readily spot St. Francis de Sales Church atop the Hub's historic Bunker Hill, with its gleaming gold cross. During his pastorate of the two parishes, he was again vicar forane, this time of Vicariate III of the Central Region.

He had been experiencing health issues, some serious enough to recommend his being named a senior priest. Thanks to excellent health care in Boston, he is back and able to take up new responsibilities at his new residence, Regina Cleri, where he is also serving as chaplain.