Faith at the Center: Paulist Fr. Tim Sullivan
by Elizabeth Baisley 
January 24, 2020
Fr. Tim with Paulist Fr. Bruce Nieli

At Immaculate Conception Church in Knoxville, TN., Paulist Fr. Tim Sullivan presides over a newborn’s baptism.

Since many of the extended family gathered here may not be familiar with Catholic song and prayer, he draws them in to the ritual. He leads them in an a cappella verses of “This Little Light of Mine,” and asks them to raise their hands to help bless the baby. 

“I think a lot of ministry is listening and caring for people,” says Fr. Tim. “It’s really partnering with people on their spiritual journey — being present to people to help them through those difficult times, and in the Paulist missionary spirit, to have the great opportunity to preach, to share the Gospel and make faith a central point of our experience.” 

For Fr. Tim, a cradle Catholic from a large family, parish ministry is where faith and action meet and make a difference.

“I feel that’s my calling — pastoral outreach and working with parishioners and programs,” he says. 

Over the course of three decades of Paulist ministry, Fr. Tim has served at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City, the St. Thomas More Newman Center in Columbus, Ohio, and at St. Leo the Great Church in Houston, TX.

“St. James tells us that faith without good works is dead,” he says. “I’ve been very blessed to have that as a premise because it’s inviting me into worlds I never would have gotten involved with. And so that’s good!”

LISTEN: The full, unedited audio of the interview with Fr. Tim is available on SoundCloud and StoryCorps.

The walls of Fr. Tim’s office at Immaculate Conception bear inspirational reminders of the importance of working for social justice in his vocation. There’s a poster from a recent forum sponsored by Knoxville’s Alliance for Community Transformation, an interfaith organization chaired by Fr. Tim that is dedicated to empowering the poor and giving voice to the underserved, including immigrants and refugees. There’s a photo of a famous sculpture by artist Timothy Schmalz depicting the crucified Christ as a homeless man. There are images of St. Teresa of Kolkata, whose blessing inspired him when he met her at the opening of a Washington, D.C. women’s shelter. 

“I went up to her in the greeting line and knelt and asked her for a blessing.” Fr. Tim says of St. Teresa. “She laid her hands on my head and said, ‘See the face of Christ in everyone you meet, and be the face of Christ for them’ …That was a life-changing moment for me.”

Fr. Tim credits his energetic and outspoken parents with modeling that charism through their faithful service to the poor and underserved in his hometown of Norwood, Mass., but notes that an early “inkling” of vocation didn’t catch fire until he’d graduated college and was working for the Massachusetts state legislature.

Fr. Tim in the 1980s

On the way home from work one day, he walked by the bookstore at the Paulist Center. A copy of Thomas Merton’s “Seven Storey Mountain” caught his attention, and he went in to get it. The bookstore’s clerk invited him to join in the liturgy and community at the Paulist Center. 

“I took him up on the invitation,” Fr. Tim says, “And the rest is history, as they say!” 

Fr. Tim worshipped at Paulist Center for several years and worked in a variety of community ministries, including to disabled persons, the homeless, and people struggling with questions of faith and reconciliation. “I think the Holy Spirit working through my experience at the Paulist Center helped me to solidify a vocation to the priesthood,” he says. He entered the novitiate in 1979, and was ordained in 1985.

Fr. Tim still keeps in his mind some words that he tacked on the wall in his room at seminary. 

“It said this: faith is how we know where we’re going. Hope keeps us going. But love is how we get there,” he says. “So the foundation is that faith is that sort of G.P.S. system, you know, that kind of helps us through rough times and helps us kind of corral our moral strength to put our faith into action.”

In addition to Mother Teresa and other advocates for social justice, Fr. Tim counts among his heroes Servant of God Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers.

“He was a real visionary, someone who is fearless,” said Fr. Tim.