Former lawyer feels obligated to use talents differently

By Candy Czernicki of the Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s new director of Catholic social action has hit the ground running — both literally, along Lake Michigan in his spare time, and figuratively, in his goals for this new position.

Rob Shelledy began his job on Sept. 20, having grabbed the baton from the members of the former Office for Social Concerns. Once in hand, however, the race was his to complete.

“A big part of my job is to help people live out their baptismal commitment,” Shelledy said. “It is the responsibility of the laity to bring Catholic social teaching into the public realm — businesses, communities, it goes beyond elections — and we hope to sponsor a forum on the idea of faithful citizenship in the early spring, in conjunction with Marquette University.”

According to Shelledy, the four major areas of Catholic social teaching are the protection of human dignity; the promotion of family life; social justice; and global solidarity.

“There are a lot of pressures in American society for us to separate into different camps,” he said. “One of the beauties of the Catholic Church is the idea of the unity of the faithful. I hope to promote an engagement of people at different places within the church with each other.”

Shelledy, 40, sees his primary focus as the promotion of formation in Catholic social thought. He recently spoke to the high school faith formation group at Holy Angels Parish in West Bend and hopes “to facilitate other types of events that will sort of expose people to Catholic social thought in different venues. I foresee and am hoping to facilitate other people doing presentations and would like to start some sort of electronic newsletter.”

Having been on the job only a couple of months, Shelledy said he is “just starting to get a sense of where parishes are. My sense is that all parishes have something within the broad spectrum of charity, justice and peace. Some parishes have lots of different programs in these areas, and some have a few, and it’s one of the archbishop’s goals to ensure that every parish has an active human concerns committee which includes both charity and justice. Within that framework would be all the issues that are dear to the Catholic faith, such as respect life, direct service, and peace.”

Shelledy began his educational career at Marquette University — a long way from Greybull, Wyo., where he was born and raised.

“My parents wanted me to go to a Catholic college,” he said, “and I wanted to go to a Jesuit school — my older sister went to Gonzaga (in Spokane, Wash.). I wanted to go to school in a big city.”

After receiving a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Marquette, Shelledy traveled to the Chicago area to attend law school at Northwestern University. After practicing law for a number of years in Milwaukee, he returned to school and earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Shelledy takes as one of his role models Fr. Tim O’Brien, for many years active with Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington.

“Since attending Marquette and being a student there, the interaction of religion and politics has always fascinated me,” he said. “A lot of my initial time (in this job) has been spent on issues around the presidential election. I’ve been introducing myself to people and developing an appreciation for what has happened in the past, and continuing to do that as well as addressing the important, substantive issues. The archbishop wants to enhance our respect life efforts, address the issue of affordable healthcare, and immigration.”

Shelledy is married with three children, two daughters ages 12 and 10, and a 5-year-old son. He said after practicing law, he felt “a moral obligation to use my talents in a different way.”

“We’re called to live out the resurrection with a sense of hope and enthusiasm,” Shelledy said. “I hope that in a small way I can do that in this job.”

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