Obituario

Chicago, IL (August 8, 2018) – Rev. Michael A. Olivero, retired pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Mount Prospect, Ill., died on Saturday, August 4, 2018. He was 70 years old.

Born on July 9, 1948 in Chicago, Fr. Olivero attended St. John Berchman Catholic School and Quigley Preparatory Seminary North, both in Chicago. He graduated with a master’s degree in Divinity at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., in 1974.

Fr. Olivero was ordained to the priesthood on May 8, 1974, by John Cardinal Cody, archbishop of Chicago, and celebrated his first solemn Mass at St. Alexis Church in Bensenville, Ill., on May 12 of the same year.

After ordination to priesthood, Fr. Olivero served the archdiocese as associate pastor at the following parishes: Queen of the Rosary in Elk Grove Village, Ill., St. Cecilia Parish in Mount Prospect, Ill., and St. Cyprian Parish in Chicago. In 1993, he was appointed pastor of St. Stephen Protomartyr and served in that role until 2005 when he became pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Mount Prospect, Ill., where he retired on June 30, 2018.

Msgr. John Pollard, retired pastor of Queen of All Saints Basilica, remembers his classmate as a good and faithful priest. “He spent all his years in the priesthood in parishes dedicating himself to the people of the archdiocese,” said Msgr. Pollard. “He was a very fine liturgist and preacher, always present to his people who were always and foremost in his mind.”

Rev. Terrence McCarthy, pastor emeritus of Immaculate Conception in Highland Park, Ill., remembers Fr. Olivero’s special gift in directing a number of seminary seasonal productions and musicals. “He had a great talent for theatre,” Fr. McCarthy said.

Rev. Curtis Lambert, former pastor of St. Alphonsus Liguori in Prospect Heights, Ill., and one of Fr. Olivero’s 14 classmates, remembers him as a priest who was “very bright, a good preacher, and very dedicated to his people.”

Visitation hours will be Sunday, August 12, from 3 until 8 p.m. and Monday, August 13, from 12 to 1 p.m. A prayer service will be held on Sunday, August 12, at 7 p.m. and the funeral Mass will take place on Monday, August 13 at 1 p.m. following visitation.

All funeral services will take place at St. Cecilia Church, 700 S. Meier Road, Mount Prospect, Ill.

Classmates Fr. Lambert and Msgr. Pollard will be the main celebrant and the homilist respectively.

Interment will take place at St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery in Palatine, Ill.