The Priest Who Left His Religion

Having left the priesthood and Church behind, John Shields enters life as a Layman at the age of 31 with $30 in his pocket, but quickly adapts to his new life and becomes a leader of the Canadian labour movement. During the most intense crisis of his career, he uncHaving abandoned the priesthood and the Catholic Church, John Shields entered life as a layman at the age of thirty-one with $30 in his pocket, but he quickly adapted to his new life in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, and became a leader in the Canadian labor union movement. During his intense career, Shields discovered an inner mythology that both guided him to do his best work and intensified his search for a higher consciousness. By the time of his death, he had retired as the head of British Columbia's largest union after many successes, including negotiating equitable salaries for women and nondiscriminatory hiring practices, become an environmentalist, and embraced cosmic spirituality-and there was no one who had grown up in Victoria who didn't know Shields's name. When New York Times reporter Catherine Porter heard that Shields was suffering from a painful, incurable disease and planning to become one of Canada's first legally assisted suicides, she went to Victoria to meet him and was present for the celebration he hosted on the last day of his life as well as for his death. Her story about Shields appeared on the front page of the Times on Sunday, May 25, 2017, under the headline: At His Own Wake, Celebrating Life and the Gift of Death: Tormented by an incurable disease, John Shields knew that dying openly and without fear could be his legacy, if his doctor, friends and family helped him. And they did.