Joys of the priesthood: Part II
From auditing to evangelizing, Fr. Dennis Walker shares his thoughts on priestly life
By Eileen Jevis
Staff writer
Father Dennis Walker was ordained a priest in 2021. He said he first felt called to the priesthood when he was in his early 20s and was working as an auditor. He said it was a gradual call. It took him time, he said, to realize that God was calling him and to envision himself in the role of a priest. He entered the seminary four years after he graduated from college. We asked Fr. Dennis about his life as a priest, who influenced and supported him through his discernment, and the joy and fulfillment he finds in serving God and the Church.
Q. What are the biggest joys and challenges of priestly life?
A. I feel like my answer to this question is different every month. I have been the pastor of Church of the Nativity for two years, and I get a lot of joy from the simple life in the parish, especially celebrating Mass every Saturday and Sunday with the community in our four parishes. Recently, we had several parishioners in the hospital and nursing homes, and I have found joy in being able to make a visit to bring the sacraments to them, especially during the Advent season. I find that the greatest joys of the priesthood aren’t necessarily the big moments but instead found in the small things: celebrating Mass with the community, celebrating baptisms and other occasions with families.
As for challenges, time management is one of them. As priests, there are a lot of demands for our time, and we would like to say yes to everything, but we can’t.
Q. How do you find fulfillment in your vocation?
A. In all honesty, through prayer. There is a tendency for people to look for fulfillment in our accomplishments or experiences. I’ve found that those come and go, so it’s important not to base our happiness on that. Daily prayer helps me to remember that it is most important to seek out communion with the Lord every day and to rely on Him.
Q. Was there a specific person or persons who influenced your decision to become a priest?
A. I would say it was a “team effort” in regard to the people who influenced me. Obviously, most vocations start in the home, so my parents laid the groundwork for my vocation with how they lived out their everyday faith. There were also priests who were examples to me, including my pastors Fr. Dan O’Hara and Fr. John Manno at St. James, now Our Lady of Hope in Syracuse, as well as Fr. Dan Muscalino, who was my teacher at Bishop Ludden. My home parish also had several seminarians living in residence during my college and working years. They helped me to see seminary and priestly life as an option. But finally, and perhaps especially, the community of my home parish was a great influence because I grew to see Our Lady of Hope as a home and a family that I belonged to. It helped me to love parish life.
Q. What do you envision in your priestly life as the years go by and the changes in the Church, a declining congregation, etc.?
A. People joke to me sometimes and say, “Father, you have four parishes; they can’t give you any more!” I often respond, “We’ll see what happens!” I don’t know what the future will look like, but as a pastor, I believe there will be moments when we need to look where we are going as the Church and lead the discussion of “What does it mean to be a parish?” and “What could we change or improve to make our church and faith more vibrant?” When there is talk about reformatting parishes, oftentimes we tend to look first at the negative: “Is my church going to close?” or “Will I lose the Mass time I like?” Instead, why not spin it into a positive, “What are some potential opportunities that can arise from our situation?” or “In what ways is God asking us to be creative?” One good fruit of some recent parish mergers in our diocese is that people are starting to realize that the Catholic community is broader than just our individual churches, and there are great benefits to working together as a bigger team.
Q. As practicing Catholics, what is our responsibility to evangelize? How do we encourage, inspire, and motivate those who stopped going to Church to return?
A. Jesus commanded us to “go make disciples of all nations,” so this responsibility is great since it comes directly from the Lord. That responsibility reminds us that we have a great purpose: to bring people to Jesus through his Church. In order to fulfill that purpose, we need to be unabashed in our enthusiasm about our faith. Our faith should not only be something we hold privately, but it is necessary to share the joy that the Lord brings us with the world. Even if we just tell people how much we love our faith in Jesus and tell of the good things He has done for us, it might be enough to inspire someone to come back to Church.
One big hurdle that prevents people from coming back is that somewhere along the line, religion became falsely viewed by a great number of people as irrational and unreasonable. In fact, that’s really not the case. We have a God who is rational and the source of all reason. I have noticed that there are several young people returning to our parishes because they are hungry for true meaning. They are looking for community, but they are also looking for Truth. They find both in the Catholic Church.
Q. What message would you like us to share about the fulfillment of committing to a religious vocation?
A. It’s important that we encourage the young people in our parishes to see a religious vocation not only as an option but as a very fulfilling way of life. We can do this by building a greater culture of vocations within our parishes. I can’t even tell you the number of people at my home parish who asked me or encouraged me to consider the priesthood over the years. Through high school, college, and while I was working, they asked me with just a simple comment. And over time, I realized that these were the type of people I might serve one day as a priest. That helped me in my discernment because I could look at a human face and see that the priesthood was about giving my life for them. So don’t be afraid to say something to a young person that you feel may have a vocation. That might just be what they need, to see your face and hear God’s voice through yours.
Q. If you were having a conversation with someone after Mass, in a meeting, or when an opportunity presented itself, what would you say about your experience in religious life?
A. Sometimes I do get asked this question, and I say that it is a joyous experience. No two days have been alike, and these years of seminarian and priesthood have been a great adventure. This life has brought me more joy than I could have imagined, because God has a greater imagination than we do. I have been surprised by the experience and opportunities this life has afforded me and the number of people I’ve been able to serve.
