Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently spoke with Lauren Warner, wife of Register blogger Matthew Warner, at SippingLemonade.com.
“What is something that makes you giddy like a kid?” she asked. The archbishop of New York replied, “For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a priest. My family still talks about how, when I was just a young boy, I went with my grandmother to Church, and I pointed to the priest on the altar and said, ‘I want to be like him when I grow up.’ I never lost that spark, and, deep down, it’s all I ever wanted to do with my life. So, just being a priest, and doing the things that a priest does — saying Mass, hearing confessions, celebrating weddings, being with the ill, consoling the mourning — brings me great joy! I hope some of that joy comes through in everything I do. I’m still a big kid who just wants to be a good priest.”
She also asked, “What is something that makes you passionate like a grown-up?” “I was tempted, at first, to name one of the many projects that the archdiocese has under way that I feel very passionate about — like the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral or the strategic plan for our excellent Catholic schools,” he said. “But, really, I am most passionate about my love for Jesus Christ. He’s not only my Lord and Savior, but he’s also my best friend, and he makes everything I do possible. It’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘doing’ of things that we forget the real reason why we’re here. To quote the old Baltimore Catechism, we’re here to know God, to love him, and to serve him in this life so that we can be happy with him forever in heaven. If that’s not something to feel passionate about, I don’t know what is!”