Father Thomas L. Culleton recalled as a good listener

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, blesses the casket of Father Tom Culleton during the funeral Mass on Dec. 3 at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. IC photo/Marie Mischel

SALT LAKE CITY — Father Thomas L. Culleton, who died at Saint Joseph Villa on Nov. 30, 2011, following a long illness, was recalled as a good listener and a reflection of Jesus the Good Shepherd during the vigil service and funeral Mass in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

"Tom was one who had a great ability of listening for meaning. ‘Who hears you hears me,’ said Jesus, and Tom was one who will be remembered for his listening ability," said Monsignor Michael Winterer, a retired priest of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, during the vigil service for Fr. Culleton on Dec. 2.

Thomas L. Culleton was born Jan. 23, 1927 to Thomas and Marcella Brown Culleton in Los Angeles, Calif. The family moved to Midvale, Utah, where he completed school, then served three years in the United States Air Force, and then worked for two years as a merchant seaman.

In 1952 he entered the Trappist Our Lady of the Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah. He remained there as a lay brother until 1973, living a contemplative life of prayer and penance. He also worked as manager of the abbey’s dairy. After leaving the Trappists he moved to Santa Clara, Calif., where he assisted the Carmelite nuns.

In 1986, at the age of 59, he entered Mount Angel Seminary in Saint Benedict, Ore., to study for the priesthood under the auspices of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. He was ordained a priest on Aug. 25, 1991 at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale.

Fr. Culleton served as parochial vicar at Saint Ambrose Parish in Salt Lake City and as pastor of Saint Bridget Parish, Milford and Saint Helen Parish, Roosevelt. He was chaplain at Saint Joseph Villa and for the Carmelite nuns in Holladay.

In his final years, Fr. Culleton, who retired from pastoral ministry in 2004, was in the Alzheimer’s ward of St. Joseph Villa, where he was a "graced presence," Msgr. Winterer said.

During the funeral Mass on Dec. 3, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, quoted a biographical sketch of Fr. Culleton prepared by Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general emeritus of the diocese, that "People saw Jesus the Good Shepherd reflected in Fr. Tom."

"Fr. Thomas Culleton teaches us in life and in death what it means to be a shepherd in Christ’s church," Bishop Wester said. "He cared for people and he listened to them, as does Jesus the Good Shepherd. They say that music is a beautiful work of art painted on a canvas of silence. Christ the artist, the Good Shepherd, had a wonderful canvas in Thomas on which to paint…. Fr. Tom provided for his people. In his compassion he cared for them as pastor, as confessor, as spiritual leader. He put his listening heart to work in his love for others…. He gave his life for his sheep and that’s the best and most compassionate act that any shepherd can do."