From professor to pastor
NTC/Juan Guajardo
HE IS: Father Dan Pattee, TOR, pastor of St. Andrew Church in Fort Worth.
CATHOLIC START: He grew up in Minneapolis with five siblings, and he attended Catholic schools from elementary through college.
COME AND SEE: While he was a pre-med sophomore at Creighton University, he was assigned to write an essay on why he wanted to be a doctor. Instead, his paper explored whether he might be called to the priesthood. The professor, a Jesuit priest, “simply wrote in the margins: Come and see me.”
A Franciscan seminary in Loretto, Pennsylvania, offered him a “no obligation, just come see what we’re about” year. His spiritual director was Father Warren Murphy, a former pastor of St. Andrew Parish.
ORDAINED: May 30, 1987
FROM CLASS TO CLASSROOM: After his ordination, Fr. Pattee taught at a Catholic boys boarding school; earned his licentiate in sacred theology from the John Paul II Institute for the Study of Marriage and Family in Rome; completed a doctorate at Duquesne University; and taught theology and Catholic social thought at Franciscan University.
FIRST PARISH ASSIGNMENT: St. Andrew Parish is his first and only parish assignment in his 38 years as a priest. “I’m having a great time.”
University life was structured, but the parish is “so much more about availability. I can come in with an open schedule, and by 10 o’clock it’s full. It’s much more pastoral than formal.”
TIME MANAGEMENT: “The Church in the parish is unfolding in real time, whereas in a university setting, it’s postponed until after graduation. What that practically has meant, if something’s going on in the church that upsets people, our phones are ringing off the hook. The vibrancy of that is fascinating and engaging. I like that.”
TEXAS TRANSPLANT: “The Church here is so vibrant, that they’re actually having to build churches, whereas there are places throughout the country that are closing them.”
MAN OF LETTERS: Fr. Pattee writes occasionally for a handful of Catholic publications. “I like to write when I get time or I get an idea that I want to develop. I find it helpful because it clarifies my vision on the truths of the faith — trying to work out some teaching, how it applies to today’s Church.”
TIMELESS TRUTH: “Scripture doesn’t argue. Jesus didn’t spend a whole lot of time arguing truths with people, but communicating truth with incredible patience.”
NO MORE SCREENS: After 44 years as a Franciscan, he’s learned “in a digital age, love for the humanity of Christ. St. Francis really grounds that by his spirituality.”
Fr. Pattee warns, “They don’t have Wi-Fi in heaven, so our relationships in heaven are going to be direct communion.”
AT REST: “I go out on the Trinity Trails, and I’ll sit on a bench and just take in the scenery and maybe pray the Rosary. I’ll do that frequently.”
SOURCE AND SUMMIT: “From the time I left Creighton and came into the seminary, members of my community taught me prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
“The Eucharist really is front and center. Everything else is preparation for reception of that. The standard for being ready for life is how well am I able to say in good conscience that I can receive Christ in the Eucharist.”
LAST WORD: “The love of Christ is the biggest thing I try to put across. But that’s not available to us without faith. I’m trying to revive faith in the hearts of the faithful,” especially in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.