Fr. Mark Soehner, OFM
TRIED BY FIRE
Fr. Mark Soehner, OFM
Director of Franciscan Postulants, Fr. Mark Soehner is a survivor in more ways than one. While pastoring an inner city parish in Detroit, MI., he took an antiquated elevator from the eighth floor friary of the chancery building. He was rushing to get to Mass. The elevator jammed between floors leaving him trapped. The emergency phone was disconnected and personal cell phones weren't yet a part of daily life. Eventually, his cries for help were heard by a woman who worked in a fifth floor office.
The elevator company came and re-started the equipment. Fr. Mark could see down below him between the iron gate and the brick walls of the shaft. There was an arc of electricity that caught onto a cloth that was wrapped around the cables below the cage. He saw a small ball of fire explode and flame up around his prison. Smoke bellowed. Temperatures spiked. Angry flames lapped around him. The firemen arrived. They did not have the Jaws of Life!
Fr. Mark Soehner, OFM, and Br. Al Mascia, OFM, the Mall Outreach of Christmas 2013
He inhaled scant oxygen by breathing into his cowl. He heard the firemen say to the woman, “You have to get out of here! “ I can't!” she screamed. “There's a man trapped in there!” “Don't worry about him! There's nothing we can do for him now,” they yelled over the roar of the fire. A volunteer fireman working at his day job in a downstairs bookstore had a tool that could pry open the gate. Fr. Mark doesn't remember a lot of what happened next when he was lifted from imminent death. He said because the fire department didn't have any oxygen he was taken to a local hospital.
As if this trauma weren't enough for anyone's lifetime, he also confided that one of his sisters, the one closest to him in age, was murdered by her husband. Every family who has experienced this kind of violent loss of a beloved member understands its lifelong impact. It was over 20 years ago and, the missed milestones, the anniversaries, the swirl of memories, continue.
Severe life traumas like these could weigh heavily on his shoulders. So much so that they could become impediments to moving forward. You wouldn't know any of this by his demeanor and positivity. He went on to use his wisdom and empathy in his priestly ministry to beleaguered, complex populations and to grieving hospice patients and their families. Tempered by those experiences, he integrated his skills and education into new work as a pastor, a guardian, as a homilist, as a counselor, as a spiritual director, and in formation as current Postulant Director.
As a young man of 23, he started in the way of Francis as a Brother working joyfully by “living his ideals” at Zacchius Friary in the Over the Rhine area of Cincinnati. He lived with the poor and homeless without a car or TV. He experienced their fears, stresses, miseries and losses. He worked with disenfranchised people living without money, job or shelter. For income, he got a job in a breakfast restaurant. “Some said we were playing at being poor! But it was so much more than play.” Fr. Mark even lived on the streets for a few days. “I slept in the shelter on mats with my shoes under my pillow to prevent them from being stolen. I was lucky to keep my glasses.”
The 2009 pilgrimage was featured in the Washington Post.
Soon after, he accepted the call to study further to become a Priest. He holds two master degrees, with a specialization in inter cultural missions and a post graduate certificate in counseling which allowed him to be licensed in Michigan He calls himself “a shy extrovert who has to talk to know what he is thinking.” Fr. Mark is not bound by labels, neither his own or ones that come to him. He models what he preaches. “I always tell my guys in formation, 'The grass is always greener on the side you water.' ”
Five years ago, the temporary professed friars proposed the idea of a 300 mile, seven week walking pilgrimage that would start in Roanoke, VA and end at the Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, DC. Inspired by the first friars of St. Francis, they would live without money, a place to stay, or possessions, trusting only in God. Fr. Mark was very open to it and strongly encouraged the idea. At the age of 51, he laced up his shoes and joined the group on the walk. He counts this journey “as one of the most treasured experiences of his life.” The journey made the front page of the Washington Post
SJB Provincial Council
Now, at 55 and a priest for 27 years, Fr. Mark is in his second term as a Provincial Councilor. He functions as the Province's Special Delegate for Child Protection. He is very good natured and laughs easily. He has a strong passion for his work and life as a friar. He keeps his life in balance. Mark has a covey of good friends, is a runner, and still finds time to create clever and lovely cards for his friends and family.
Posted in: Advent and Christmas, Missions, Prayer, Saint Anthony, Saint Francis, Vocations
