Age: 43
Home parish: St. Pius X, Mountlake Terrace
Seminary: St. John’s, Camarillo, Calif.; previously at Mount Angel, St. Benedict, Ore.
Degrees: Bachelor’s in philosophy; Master’s of Divinity in Theology.
First Mass: June 11, 2006, 11 a.m., St. Pius X Church.
Born: Lynnwood, graduated from St. Pius X School.
Parents: Eugene and Jane Radermacher.
Siblings: Four sisters.
Hobbies/interests: Woodworking, gardening, hiking.
Relatives in religious life: Five of his father’s cousins: three priests in the Midwest, and Benedictine Sisters Jarlath Rademacher and Nathalie Karels of St. Placid Priory in Lacey.
Influences on his faith: Parents, uncles, his siblings and their husbands in the way “they live out their daily vows.”
Unusual or memorable occurrence: 2001 one trip to Cambodia as part of Catholic Relief Services’ Global Fellows program. It was a “life changing experience” to witness the priests, sisters, lay missioners and CRS and Maryknoll workers ministering to people in such difficult situations. But they “did it with a sense of joy, not a sense of burden. It was a real inspiration for me.”
Just as Jesus tutored under Joseph, Michael Radermacher as a boy would help his carpenter Dad and uncles install the pews and altar furnishings they had crafted for Catholic churches in Western Washington. No surprise, then, that the altar server who loved building things would go on as an adult to carve out his own 18-year career as a carpenter. Now as he prepares to enter the priesthood, he notes the similarities between the two vocations. When you look at a finished house, he said, you don’t see much of the carpenter’s handiwork because it’s hidden by the skills of the masons, painters, carpet layers and tile setters. Still, the carpenter’s talents remain. So it is in parish ministry, he said, where the pastor builds the structure “in which other people can allow their ministries and talents to shine forth.”
Quote:
I first heard God kind of tugging at (my) calling when I was in the fourth grade. The parish priest came in and talked to our class. He said, ‘I want all you girls to think about becoming (religious) sisters and all you boys to think about becoming priests.’ And I remember we had recess right after that. We all went out on the playground and said, ‘No way! Not me, not me!
Michael Radermacher |
As a boy, Radermacher enjoyed carpentry so much that instead of entering the high school seminary – as his parents had suggested – he went to Lynnwood public High School because it offered woodshop.
His father and his uncles, Roger and Howard, taught him the trade. The three men also became role models of integrity, being faithful, doing good work, and “responding to the goodness of God,” Radermacher said. Radermacher and his father worked for Pay ‘n Pak and also helped Eagle Hardware get off the ground. Traveling to company stores throughout the West, Radermacher was on the road six months a year. He said he was inspired by the men who also traveled extensively yet remained faithful to their wives and families. At one point he was engaged to be married but those plans fell through. “I wasn’t called to that vocation,” he said.
He was active at St. Pius X Parish, serving on the confirmation prep team for approximately 15 years and serving as an adult Boy Scouts leader for 20 years, five of them as Scoutmaster of the parish-based Troop 60. “Life was going very well,” he recalled, “but it seemed like there was something more – and that was the tug of God calling.” For guidance, he turned to the archdiocese’s Vocations Services. Since entering the seminary, Radermacher hasn’t abandoned his love for building things. While serving his pastoral internship at St. Joseph Parish in Ferndale, he joined with parishioners and the ecumenical community in building a Habitat for Humanity house. He also remodeled the reconciliation chapel, kitchen and entryway at St. Joachim Mission on the Lummi Reservation. While assisting at another parish, he found time to make improvements at CYO Camp Don Bosco and help build the chapel at Camp Hamilton.
