ARTICLES

Fr. Dorson retiring after 50 years of active ministry

By Jean Denton
Special to The Catholic Virginian

When Father James Dorson was a boy attending St. Paul Catholic School in Portsmouth he was concerned about the reputation of the church.

But his fifth grade teacher offered assurance. “Don’t worry about the church, Jimmy,” she said, “the Holy Spirit will always be with the church.”

At the end of this month Father Dorson, pastor of St. Thomas More Church in Lynchburg, will retire after 19 years as a religious brother and 31 years as a priest.

In a recent conversation as he recalled his teacher’s words, he recognized in retrospect the Holy Spirit’s hand in his half-century of ministry in the church.

Father Dorson said that when he was serving as a Holy Cross brother in the early 1960s, his long-held trust in the Holy Spirit flagged as he sensed a disconnect between what he saw in the church and what he knew about God.

“But my spiritual advisor broke down the phenomenon to where I could handle it. He said, ‘Yes, the Holy Spirit is always with the church, but our problem is that the church isn’t always listening to the Holy Spirit.’”

However, change came soon as members of his religious community went to the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

Brothers he’d seen going about their daily ministry without enthusiasm “came back changed men,” Fr. Dorson recalled.

“Now they had hope and optimism. They said we need to listen to all these people (referring to the laity) that we’ve ignored.”

So began his life’s ministry with Vatican II, that momentous time of transformation in the church, deeply influencing his priesthood marked by a continuing effort to balance serving the church and the Holy Spirit among the faithful.

Through Vatican II, he suggested, “the Holy Spirit made headway” in encouraging collegiality. “We began to listen to people’s hearts,” he remembered.

Fr. Dorson expressed concern that now there’s been some fallback from that attitude as he noted a lack of “nurture in sharing” in ministry.

“We forget that it’s not important who has the most power, but that the power is in each of us through our own baptism. The only thing we are concerned about in this world is how we serve each other, not how we can dominate each other,” he said.

Father Dorson’s commitment to shared ministry was largely influenced by his experience in the seminary as he prepared for priesthood. Washington Theological Union was “ecumenical” at the time, he said, explaining that he studied alongside seminarians — including many women — for other Christian churches.

Noting that students had access to a range of theological scholarship including Episcopalian, Presbyterian and other denominations, he said, “It was that wonderful time in the seventies when we were talking to each other as Christians.”

“Renewal led to a comfortable relationship with people,” Fr. Dorson added. “It keeps a wonderful balance. The Holy Spirit can’t work where we are divided.”

The last six years at St. Thomas More was Fr. Dorson’s fourth pastorate since his ordination in the Richmond Diocese in May, 1977. Previously he pastored Star of the Sea in Virginia Beach, Holy Angels in Portsmouth and Holy Family in Virginia Beach.

The oldest of five children in his family, Fr. Dorson grew up in Portsmouth and graduated from St. Paul’s (now Portsmouth Catholic School). From there he went to Notre Dame University where he received a “very specific” call to religious life.

Traveling with the university cross country team he visited a boarding school run by the Holy Cross religious community.

As the team was being given a tour of the school, he observed a 10-year-old boy receiving a severe whipping by a brother and shortly afterward asked the man what behavior had led to such punishment. He was told the boy had wet his bed.

“I went home after that and I thought, I can do better than this. And that was it,” he said.

He had served as a Holy Cross brother for 19 years when his call to priesthood came in a similarly specific way, he explained.

He was superior for the southwest U.S. region of his order and working closely with migrant workers in Arizona. While his community was providing continuing pastoral care for the people, priests from the local diocese came only occasionally to confer sacraments.

But their ministry was largely impersonal and inadequate to the families’ needs. The people said to then Brother Dorson, “Why don’t you be the priest?”

With the encouragement of then Bishop Edward McCarthy of Phoenix he entered the seminary.

Fr. Dorson recollects a couple of specific highlights in his priesthood: One was a successful “Renew” process at Holy Family Church in Virginia Beach that led not only to a renewal of vitality in parish life there but also to a long running ministry called “The Salvation Show.”

In this ministry parishioners went on the road to 30 other parishes to train them in Renew and other community building programs in their own churches.

The other highlight he mentioned was in the mid-1980s helping to establish Seton House, a state licensed independent agency in Virginia Beach serving young women in family crisis.

Fr. Dorson, along with Liz Crowling of Catholic Charities Hampton Roads and businessman Horace Cistola, founded the program first as a facility for 16 teenage girls, mostly victims of incest.

Since then, through continued efforts of a board and other volunteers, it has grown to include several “Seton Shelters” serving both girls and boys who are victims of various kinds of abuse.

Asked what wisdom, based on his experience, he would offer younger priests he was definite: “Have a spiritual director and don’t ever let go of that (continuing search for guidance).”

He added, “Nurture your own personal friendships and relationships — both inside and outside the clergy — with people who know you and give you honest feedback. Pay attention to the resources of that care you need that the institutional church isn’t going to provide,” he added.

In his own case, among those providing constant moral support and guidance were his parents, both of whom died only recently after living into their 90s.

“My parents were always there. That helped me get over some of the bumps,” he said noting that his parents lent a lifetime of encouragement to all their children.

“We were raised to be independent, but not separate,” he explained, adding that a close relationship with his siblings, their children and grandchildren also has strengthened him throughout his priesthood.

A few years ago Fr. Dorson bought a house in Bath County in anticipation of his retirement. He said he looks forward to spending time with other things he loves — reading (particularly biographies), his dogs and fly fishing.

He expects to spend the first months resting, traveling and hopes to take a 30-day retreat. Then he’ll be available occasionally to help parishes when priests are away.

The last Mass on June 29 at St. Thomas More will feature cookies and punch, but “not a big sendoff.”

“I’ve never wanted any big sendoffs,” he laughed.

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