Fifty years of ministry for Fr. Ray Doherty, SSE ’51
By Mark Tarnacki

A rugged, affable young priest wearing a sweatshirt and holding a baseball glove made a favorable first impression on eight-year-old Mike Donoghue 50 years ago. “I was walking across the Saint Michael’s campus with my father, who worked here, when we ran into Fr. Ray and I remember thinking, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool: a priest who plays ball!’” Donoghue recalled.

Like most of the hundreds streaming in for 11 a.m. Mass at the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on April 13 to celebrate the 50th ordination anniversary of Fr. Ray Doherty SSE ’51, Donoghue had come to honor a long friendship with the gentle former Marine and one time varsity pitcher known for his skilled preaching, welcoming manner and devotion to community. Donoghue is now an adjunct in the journalism department that his father, John Donoghue, writing and public relations mentor for Fr. Ray when the priest was a Saint Michael’s undergraduate, helped to start.

Fr. Ray’s fans and friends from Saint Michael’s and the wider Burlington area came out in force on an unseasonably snowy and blustery morning and filled the chapel nearly to capacity.

That Fr. Ray should be honored on the World Day of Prayer for Vocations and Good Shepherd Sunday seemed almost divinely inspired. As several admirers noted, Fr. Ray’s career has embodied the best possibilities of a priestly vocation, both in the way he eloquently preaches the Gospel and in the way he lives it.

Waiting in the chapel foyer before making the official call to worship, Donoghue had serious competition getting in a word with Fr. Ray. “You married us,” reminded one middle-aged couple as they passed the honoree before the opening processional. “You baptized me!” called out another. “I remember Fr. Ray confirming me 40 years ago,” the next man said. Don Sutton, former dean of students and Fire & Rescue Squad founder, commented, “He’s been just the right guy to have around at the right time and a great friend. He confirmed both my daughter and me.”

Even the weather seemed symbolic. “He loves snow,” said fellow Edmundite Rev. Stan Deresienski ’74, who waited for Mass to start near the entrance with other priests, both Edmundite and diocesan, about to join their brother on the altar. “He’s an avid cross-country skier, so for him it would be a sign from God that he’s doing it right.”

Those who didn’t have time before Mass to visit with Fr. Ray got the chance for more extended remembrances at a reception in the Hoehl Welcome Center afterward. The line stretched out into the parking lot. Twice during Mass, worshippers rose for standing ovations in response to appreciative remarks about Fr. Ray, who was visibly moved.

Six of Fr. Ray’s fellow Edmundites were concelebrants for the Mass, along with the Rev. Francis Holland of the Diocese of Burlington and the Rev. John Brennan ’73 of the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts. Fr. Ray was the chief celebrant, and Edmundite Superior General Rev. Mike Cronogue gave the homily. A number of classmates from the Class of ’51 and others who have stayed close to Fr. Ray also traveled some distance to be at the celebration.

In his homily, Fr. Cronogue recounted the evolution of Fr. Ray’s vocation, which had been “pretty much a constant thought” as with many youth of Fr. Ray’s generation who experienced 12 years in a parish school followed by four years at a Catholic college. But according to Fr. Ray, it was during his two years of active duty as a public affairs writer with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Korean conflict that his thought of a vocation became ever stronger to the point where he felt the need to look further into it, Fr. Cronogue said. Shortly before he was due to return to civilian life, he sent a letter to the Edmundite vocation director, and after a day-long discussion with him, entered the novitiate and has “never seriously looked back.”

Fr. Ray was an English major and athlete at Saint Michael’s from 1947 to 1951 before the Marines. After his studies for the priesthood, his assignments have included a short period on the Saint Michael’s English faculty, secretary to the Society’s superior general, vocations director in Mystic, Connecticut, and for a long time, chaplain to Saint Michael’s students. He also spent a year as chaplain and religious studies teacher at Rice High School in South Burlington and two at St. Edmund’s Parish in Whitton, England. At Saint Michael’s he has assisted the admissions, alumni and public information offices and performed other duties.

Fr. Cronogue told of an Edmundite brother’s recent comment that “Ray has been a good community man,” a remark which, the homilist suggested, captured Fr. Ray’s humility and best qualities well. “Ray has modeled a life of spiritual discipline,” Fr. Cronogue said, pointing to the veteran priest’s avid interest in spiritual books, faithfulness to his formal prayers and strict adherence to a regular physical regimen of cross-country skiing and biking.

The superior general concluded by thanking his friend “for carving the word of God in my heart and in the hearts of those here present.”