Fr. Mike Mclaughlin

Father Michael “Mike” McLaughlin, 66 passed away on Saturday, January 7, 2023, at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa as a result of on-going heart ailments.

The Most Rev. William M. Joensen, will celebrate a mass of Christian Burial to be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 14, 2023, at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Norwalk, Iowa.  Burial will follow the luncheon at the cemetery of Saint Patrick's Church in the Irish Settlement south of Cumming, Iowa.Visitation and a prayer service will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home in Urbandale, Iowa, with prayer service at 7 p.m.

Michael Raymond McLaughlin was born on July 8, 1956, at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines to Raymond Joseph McLaughlin and Agnes Celeste Kelleher McLaughlin, the oldest of their seven children.  Mike was raised on the family farm in the Irish Settlement in rural Cumming and graduated in May of 1974 from Martensdale-St Mary’s Community High School.  Mike was active in music, sports, including basketball and school plays. He then attended Iowa State University for a year before he transferred to Loras College in Dubuque, where he was active in music, preforming abroad with the Clarke-Loras Singers for both Mother Teresa in India and Pope John Paul II in Poland.  He then attended St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee before being ordained by Bishop Maurice Dingman in 1982. While he attended St. Francis as a seminarian, Mike was the cross bearer for the service at St. Patrick Parish at Irish Settlement, when St. John   Paul II visited this rural church community in 1979.

After ordination, he served at St. Anthony Parish in Des Moines for three years, then joined team ministry in the Leon region, where he served from 1985-1988. He served St. Mary Parish in Portsmouth for five years, then served St. Mary Parish in Shenandoah and St. Mary Parish in Hamburg for three years.

Following his service in Western Iowa, Mike served Holy Trinity Parish in Des Moines, and Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart Parish in Ankeny, St. Mary Parish in Guthrie Center, St. Cecilia Parish in Panora, and served as the chaplain at the St. Thomas More Center in Panora.  He also served St. John Parish in Greenfield, and St. Patrick Parish in Massena.

In 2011, he began 10 years of service to the non-Catholic hospitals within the Des Moines metropolitan area, a ministry from which he retired in May of 2022.

Mike loved to travel, especially to sporting venues throughout North America, seeing all major league baseball, football, basketball, and hockey venues, including a recent trip in December, 2022, to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.  He was proud of visiting all of the states of the United States and every continent other than Antarctica.  He also spent at least one overnight in every county in Iowa.    Mike also enjoyed new opportunities to try new foods and finding new restaurants to experience a unique cuisine.  He was a huge fan of the Boston Celtics, the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Bears and Chicago Black Hawks, following them passionately since he was a young boy.

Mike will be remembered for his energy and enjoyment of being with people including those he may have just met.  Mike had a phenomenal gift for finding commonality between himself and someone he just met to find a person they shared in common.  He was simply incredible and never seemed to forget anyone that he had met, recalling the names and backgrounds of people he had met years before.  He always felt the connection would put people at ease and they would be more likely to talk to him and remember him as well.

Remaining to carry on his legacy are his brothers, Rick McLaughlin of Cumming, Iowa, Brian(Debbie) McLaughlin of Farmington, Minnesota and Marty (Lisa) McLaughlin of Marion, Iowa, sister-in law, Char McLaughlin of West Des Moines, brothers-in-law Brian Smith of Des Moines and Arlan Herzberg of Bellevue, Nebraska; two nephews and eight nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces and many Godchildren, cousins and friends and thousands of parishioners and others who were recipients of his ministries that through the grace of God he was able to share.

Mike was preceded in death by his parents, Agnes Celeste Kelleher McLaughlin and Raymond Joseph McLaughlin, his brother Neal and sisters Maureen McLaughlin and Diane Herzberg and sister-in law Mary Agnes McLaughlin.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Patrick’s Church, Irish Settlement and to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America.