Fr. Dolan: The call to discipleship draws every Catholic to the mission field

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“Todos los días nace el Señor.”

Pondering the missionary nature of the Church, Father Patrick Dolan called to mind the words of a Peruvian Christmas hymn: “Every day, the Lord is born.”

“For that to be true, we all have to be missionaries,” said Fr. Dolan, a priest of this diocese who grew up in Ireland, spent 12 years in the Peru Missions and now ministers primarily to Spanish-speaking Catholics in northeastern Missouri.

He noted that the Church has had forward momentum since the moment Jesus told His disciples to “go forth.”

“If that ever ceases, we’ll no longer be a Church,” the priest surmised.

Shamrock shore

Fr. Dolan was born and raised in Ireland at a time when almost everyone was related to at least one priest, sister or brother serving overseas.

“It would be very rare for a parish of any size not to have several people out in the mission territories,” he recalled. “There were constant reminders of people you knew who were out on mission.”

Fr. Dolan answered his own priestly calling, agreeing to serve in a mostly rural diocese where families tended to be large but priests were relatively scarce.

The late Monsignor Francis O’Duignan, also from Ireland, helped convince Fr. Dolan and many other seminarians in that country that this would be a good place to serve.

“My coming here was toward the end of a great missionary movement in Ireland to send priests and sisters to places all over the world where the Irish had migrated,” Fr. Dolan noted.

He came to Missouri shortly after his priestly ordination in 1971.

Later on, he answered a call to minister in the Jefferson City diocese’s missions in Peru, serving at Santiago Apostol parish in Nasca from 1983-95.

Fifteen years later, as pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jefferson City, he helped form a sister-parish relationship with San Francisco de Asis parish in Pisco, Peru.

A missionary spirit

Fr. Dolan believes the word “Catholic” aptly describes a missionary Church.

“By that, I mean that I am called to be concerned not just about myself and my local parish but also the whole global dimension of mission and being Catholic,” he said.

For that reason, he believes Pope Francis is right on target with his calling for a Church made up entirely of missionary disciples.

“It means the very nature of being a follower of Christ — a Christian — is to have a missionary spirit that is in the habit of asking, ‘What can I do to share my faith in Christ with others?’” he said.

He believes the praise and gratitude that constitute much of Catholic worship have greater resonance when accompanied by some sort of missionary outreach.

“I think it helps if the people in the pews are aware that some member of their family, going back how ever many generations, were part of a Church established by missionary efforts from some other country,” he said. “In that way, we are now blessed to be concerned about the needs of the Church in a very global way.”

Truly Catholic

Serving among the poor in foreign missions helped Fr. Dolan become more grateful for all he has.

“I have been inspired by the living of the faith of other people in their different daily circumstances, especially the poor, and the great love they have for the Church and their people, the great sacrifices that they make,” he said.

Working alongside other missionaries from all over the world — “all with a similar mission-minded awareness, in response to the Gospel” — gave him a greater sense of the “catholicity” of the Church.

He noticed that for many people in Latin America, making a living is challenging, but living is more enjoyable.

“Here, making a living is easier, but living itself seems to be more challenging,” he said.

“Maybe they feel more blessed by God rather than feeling the need for more and more, instead of being at rest when it’s time to rest,” he said.

Home and abroad

Fr. Dolan said it’s important to remember often the people who make great sacrifices and even put their lives in danger for the sake of serving as missionaries overseas.

“I hope the inspiration of those who are missioners in that sense remind us that we need to be mission-minded in our own communities,” he said.

He believes any number of things could make a person stand out as a great missionary — for instance, the sacrifices they’re willing to make, like changes in lifestyle and culture, or learning a new language.

“But what really sets one apart is the love they have for people who very often are in great need,” he said.

Missionaries often achieve a level of communion with the people they serve, so that they speak from within the culture rather than from outside it.

“A word we used a lot to describe that when I was in Peru was ‘accompany,’” he said. “That means walking with people, just as Christ walked with His people, especially the poor.”

That understanding fits together very well with Pope Francis’ vision of a Church that not only prays and opens its doors to the world but also reaches out to more and more people.

“We must start by realizing the great need right here in our own country to reach out to people who are missing some element of the Gospel in their daily lives,” he said.

“We must help make them aware of God among them,” he said.

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