It didn’t take long for a young Mickey Conlon to get the who, what and why of ShareLife. And as in so many of my early lessons, it was a hard one to learn, one that brought another round of discipline crashing down on my head.

It goes back to my tender age of 13, and it started off as fairly innocuous. Archbishop Philip Pocock had recently announced that the Archdiocese of Toronto would no longer take part in fundraising for what is now the United Way. To a young teen, I likely shrugged, meant little to me as I had so much else on the go — hanging out with my buddies, playing sports and getting ourselves into all kinds of mischief.

Well, it was this mischief that gave me my first taste of the importance of what was to become ShareLife and what it meant to the faith.

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In those days, there was a walk-a-thon through city streets for just about everything, including the United Community Fund of Toronto. So as mischievous young souls, what better way to travel outside our ’hood and see what other parts of the city had on offer? That spring Saturday was going to send us on such a journey. I walked into the house, announced our intentions — and was met with the stunned faces of my parents and a stern, “No you will not!”

Now, as I explained to them, it was out of no great love for the cause, it was just another adventure to us. But that explanation cut me no slack. Our shepherd had taken the archdiocese out of the United Community Fund family for a reason and as a good Catholic I was to have nothing to do with it.

Like so many other 13-year-olds, I took this merely as a suggestion, not an order. That Saturday, I was up early, out of the house before my parents knew it and together with this rag-tag outfit on our way to a day of adventure. We joined the walk, did our exploring, caused our share of mischief, and when boredom set in, time to head home.

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Well, upon return to my devout Irish Catholic home, I soon found the temperature had been rising all day. I had been in trouble countless times for disobeying my parents, and I knew I could take it. But this time was different. For this time, it was not just my parents who had been slighted, as I was soon told, but I had turned my back on the faith. In a devout Irish Catholic home, that was as bad as it could get.

The punishment was swift. My usual grounding was expected, but this time a real example was to be made. Not a week of school, home and my backside glued indoors, no. It was something like a month. And where most punishments would lapse after a couple days, not this time. The punishment would fit the crime.

As any kid would, I couldn’t understand this. And my friends’ encouragement of this thought didn’t help. But with the passing of time, you really get a sense of where my parents were coming from. This was in no way a condemnation of the United Way — friends and family had long been committed to it and the good works done. No, this was a sentence for turning my back on the faith and the teachings of its leaders. The lesson Archbishop Philip Pocock taught was that as Catholics, we need to stick together and do what is right. 

When the Archbishop made his decision, it wasn’t condemnation. He was standing up for what Catholics should — and did — believe in.

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Thankfully, it’s been a lesson well learned, teaching me not only about turning my back on parental authority, but Church authority. Thankfully, it’s a lesson that has allowed me to gain growing fondness, admiration — and support — for ShareLife and a realization that we can work within a Catholic framework to make a better world, for everyone.

It was quite the introduction to ShareLife, then in its infancy, but a life-long lesson learned and one that has only been enhanced by watching ShareLife in action, from the stories told on these pages of people helped by ShareLife’s generosity to friends who volunteer with the agencies and sit on various boards. Seeing how it operates and has grown, understanding what it does and why it does it, and for whom — everybody, regardless of faith — this admiration is well earned.