Msgr. John Prendergast is pictured in a 2015 file photo. (The Catholic Post/Tom Dermody)

Msgr. John Prendergast, a senior priest of the Diocese of Peoria and a highly decorated former U.S. Army chaplain, died at Christian Buehler Home in Peoria on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. He was 74.

Burial took place at St. Mary Cemetery in Msgr. Prendergast’s hometown of Streator — a community he served for nearly a decade as its parishes merged to form St. Michael the Archangel Parish in 2010. He was the new parish’s founding pastor.

Because of the coronavirus directives, the burial was private. A memorial Mass will take place at a later date.

STREATOR NATIVE

Born Oct. 31, 1945, in Streator to Dillon and Audrey (McClary) Prendergast, he attended St. Anthony Grade School and Streator Township High School.

After high school graduation in 1963, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and for four years served as a chaplain’s assistant at Lackland Air Force Base, where soldiers trained for combat in Vietnam. He spent an additional two years with the Air Force Reserve.

At the end of his enlistment, he had the opportunity to go to a preparatory school for the Air Force Academy. But he took the advice of a superior who told him he would be happier as a priest.

Msgr. Prendergast was accepted into the seminary program for the Diocese of Peoria and, after studies and St. Ambrose College in Davenport, earned a sacred theology degree from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He also completed a year of advanced study in moral theology at the Pontifical Institute of St. Alphonsus, also in Rome.

He was ordained by Bishop Edward W. O’Rourke on the Fourth of July in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial year. The ordination took place in his home church of Immaculate Conception, Streator — a rarity caused by final exams at his seminary studies in Rome taking place later than those of classmates in the U.S.

His first assignments in the diocese were as parochial vicar of St. Matthew Parish and assistant chaplain at St. John’s Catholic Chapel, both in Champaign. Four years after ordination, Bishop O’Rourke released him for service as a U.S. Army chaplain.

PARATROOPING PRIEST

During his 22 years of active duty, Msgr. Prendergast served as chaplain to the Infantry (Berlin Brigade Chaplain), Airborne Infantry (Batallion, Brigade and Assistant Division Chaplain of the 82nd Airborne Division), Mechanized Chaplain (4/8 th Infantry Batallion Chaplain) and Field Artillery units (VII Corps Artillery Chaplain). He would take part in hazardous duty and combat operations during Operation Just Cause (Panama), Operation Desert Shield (Saudi Arabia), Operation Desert Storm (Kuwait, Iraq) and the Kosovo War (Macedonia/Kosovo).

A paratrooper, he would jump from airplanes 55 times, including once into a combat zone —  in 1989 from just 500 feet with the First Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Just Cause in Panama.

He received many personal accolades, including the Master Parachutist Badge with one Combat Star (for the Panama jump). In 2000, he was promoted to colonel and also named a prelate of honor with the title of monsignor by Pope John Paul II. And upon retirement from the Army two years later, he received the Legion of Merit, one of the highest awards for military service.

“ONE SOUL AT A TIME”

Returning to the diocese, he was pastor or administrator at various times of Immaculate Conception, St. Stephen, St. Casimir, and St. Anthony parishes in Streator as well as for a brief time at St. Patrick, Ransom. Msgr. Prendergast led Streator Catholics through the lengthy and sometimes contentious consolidation process that led to the creation in 2010 of St. Michael the Archangel Parish and became its founding pastor.

In 2011, he was named pastor of St. Patrick, Washington, and the following year added duties as pastor of St. Monica, East Peoria. He then served the diocese as episcopal vicar for Religious, episcopal vicar for retired priests, and vice chancellor until his move to senior status in 2015.

In an interview with The Catholic Post prior to his retirement, Msgr. Prendergast expressed gratitude for his “vocation within a vocation” as a military chaplain. He said the most joy and satisfaction during his priesthood came from supporting God’s desire to be present to soldiers and others in need, whether it be bringing the Eucharist to one soldier in the jungle or hearing the confession of someone in Streator.

“I had some very prominent positions in combat units, big jobs. But they’re basically still one person at a time, one soul at a time,” he told The Catholic Post. “I was privileged to do that.”

Msgr. Prendergast is survived by three brothers, Dillon (Connie) Prendergast of Corinth, Texas; Patrick (Beryl) Prendergast of Hampton, Virginia; and James (Barbara) Prendergast of Ottawa. He was predeceased by a sister, Audrey Glowicki.