Humor, love, life's work of priest remembered

As a few men gathered to ponder their memories about a friend and confidant, one issued a profound insight about the man, who at age 6 knew that he wanted to serve God as a priest.

As deep as he dug, Geoff Rupert, who with his wife Cecilia is head of an interparish sharing ministry, couldn't think of one time his friend, the Rev. Bill Shields, ever said a negative thing about another human being.

Shields, the second pastor of Hoffman Estates' St. Hubert Roman Catholic Church, where he was for more than 15 years, died Sept. 9 but lives in the memory of the parishioners and community he served with passion.

One of his favorite sayings, an obvious play on the adage "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well," was his version: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly."

In other words, take risks, stretch yourself, don't linger, just accomplish it. The priest, who earned a master's degree in clinical psychology and spent several years teaching at Harper College, formed a weekly women's support group at Hubert's when such groups were scarce.

An amazing man and a lover of the poor, Father Bill, as he preferred to be called, readied himself for his retirement.

In anticipation of his leaving St. Hubert and his forthcoming retirement at 65, Father Bill prepared by immersing himself in the Spanish language, something he needed to fulfill his desire to serve the Hispanic population. He enrolled in one of Costa Rica's Spanish language programs, according to his sister Mary Williams, who said her brother never stopped learning.

"From then on, Bill continued to study Spanish by listening to tapes, reading and talking in Spanish to anyone and everyone, even to those of us who didn't speak it," Williams said.

Humor was ingrained in the priest, who always had time to tell a story. The Rev. Michael Michelini, pastor of Hubert's sharing parish St. Aloysius at the time, recalls that humor.

"He was a great storyteller with a natural sense of humor, but quietly, he always had a love for the poor," said Michelini, whose parish and parishioners were and continue to be recipients of the friendship and financial sharing efforts of St. Hubert.

Now pastor of St. Adalbert, Michelini, a spiritual director of Chicago's Catholic Cursillo, remembers Father Shields' involvement as a leader in the evangelization movement known for its three-day weekends and lively song "De Colores."

Mourners who attended the priest's funeral Sept. 14 in Santa Maria Del Popolo Roman Catholic Church in Mundelein sang that song, which translates to "All the Beautiful Colors." Never seriously considering a bona fide retirement, when he left St. Hubert he became associate pastor at Santa Maria to serve and minister to Spanish-speaking parishioners there.

A little-known fact, at age 75 he earned his real estate license to better guide the poor in making wise choices when purchasing a dwelling.

Himself a Cursillista, the Most Rev. Raymond Goedert, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus, who was in the same 1952 ordination class as Father Shields, gave the homily at the Mass of Christian Burial presided over by Cardinal Francis George, also a Cursillista.

"It's always a priest's dilemma whether to give a eulogy or a homily at a funeral," Goedert said, "but in Father Bill's case it is clear, because as homilist at his brother's funeral just three months ago -- Father Jim Shields died June 22 -- he said his brother wouldn't want a eulogy, and neither would Father Bill."

Goedert told the full church that both the brother priests, ordained May 1, 1952, were "brilliant" and at the "top of their class" in the seminary.

The Rev. Bill Zavaski, pastor of St. James Roman Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, remarked after the liturgy that the men in his seminary class of 1969 "looked up" to the class of 1952.

"Those men were our models," Zavaski said. "They were our heroes."