Obituaries

Chicago, IL (June 7, 2018) – Rev. James A. Colleran, pastor emeritus of St. Mary of the Lake Parish on N. Sheridan Road in Chicago, died on June 2, 2018, at the age of 80. He was a resident at The Admiral at the Lake nursing home.

Fr. Colleran was born on November 7, 1937, in Chicago. He attended St. Ignatius Elementary School and Quigley Preparatory Seminary both in Chicago, and earned a master’s degree at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., in 1962.

Fr. Colleran was ordained to the priesthood on May 1, 1963, by Albert Cardinal Meyer, Archbishop of Chicago, and celebrated his first Solemn Mass at St. Ignatius Parish in Chicago, on May 3 of the same year.

After ordination to priesthood, Fr. Colleran served at the following parishes in Chicago: St. Bonaventure Parish on Diversey Parkway, St. Vitus Parish on Paulina Street, Our Lady of Lourdes School on Ashland Avenue and St. Mary of the Lake Parish on N. Sheridan Road. In 2007, he received the title of pastor emeritus.

Rev. Robert G. Darow, pastor emeritus of St. Hilary Parish on California Avenue in Chicago, remembers his classmate as a “good priest and an accomplished artist.”

Visitation hours will be Thursday, June 7, 2018, from 9 until 11 a.m. at St. Ignatius Church, 6559 N. Glenwood in Chicago, followed by the Funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Rev. William Grogan, the Archbishop's delegate for Health Affairs, will be the main celebrant and homilist. 

Interment will take place at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Ill.