John M. Shuster: September 18, 1951 ~ February 7, 2020 [Obituary]

WASHINGTON
Haven of Rest Gig Harbor

[Note: John Shuster dedicated much of his life to clergy sex abuse survivors. Following a brief stint in the clerical priesthood, he went on to serve as a vice president of CITI Ministries and a longtime leader of the Seattle chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). In his work with SNAP, he developed a healing model for adults who needed spiritual guidance and counseling as a result of being abused as children. John passed away in February. He is greatly missed.]

John M. Shuster, Port Orchard, was born September 18, 1951 in Pittsburgh, PA to Andrew and Catherine (Miller) Shuster. He passed away from complications of a stroke on February 7, 2020 at St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma.

John was ordained in 1979 by Bishop Joseph Francis to serve as a priest in the Roman Catholic missionary order, the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). He graduated from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1980 with a Masters of Divinity with specialization in cross-cultural ministry. During his four years as a celibate priest, he served in Mexico, and at parishes in East Los Angeles and South Central L.A. Due to his seeing the alarming disfunction that was present in the church, John left the clerical priesthood 1983, and began selling medical instrumentation. He had a successful career as a senior salesman of medical diagnostics at Abbott Laboratories, and retired in 2010.

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