September 4, 2024 at 9:30 a.m.
VOCATION VOICES
Father Daniel Quinn, like most priests in the Diocese of Albany, wears many hats. Father Quinn is pastor at All Saints Church, All Saints Academy, Blessed Sacrament Church, Blessed Sacrament School, The Shrine Church Nuestra Señora de las Americas, Mater Christi Parish, Mater Christi School, as well as assistant director of vocations — along with Father Stephen Yusko and Deacon Paul LeBlanc — in the newly revamped diocesan department that is run by Father Brian Kelly. Father Quinn talked with Mike Matvey, editor of The Evangelist, about his upbringing, what led him to the priesthood and what he will bring to his new vocations role.
TE: Were you raised in a Catholic family?
FQ: My mom’s family and my dad’s family, everyone was Catholic. At least in Johnstown in the ’80s and ’90s, everyone belonged to one of the churches in town, it was just part of the culture. Dad worked the night shift as a police officer and he would even come to Mass in his uniform as he got off his shift, met us, had breakfast and went to bed. Attending Mass as a family was important enough that we arranged for it. My mom sang in the choir, my brothers and I became altar servers. I joined the choir when I was in sixth grade. We didn’t have any Catholic schools out there, so all of our catechesis was in the home and at the parish’s faith formation program. When my dad retired from the police department, he became the groundskeeper at the parishes, and when I was old enough he took the opportunity and would say to me, “Oh good, when you are done with school you are coming to help me clean the gym or vacuum the church.”
Father Daniel Quinn is shown blessing newly baptized children with chrism oil last year at Blessed Sacrament in Albany. (Cindy Schultz photo)
TE: When did you first have an inkling of the priesthood as a vocation?
FQ: I suppose when I was really little (and I see this right now in one of my kids at one of my parishes who just wants to do my job), I thought about doing what a priest does, specifically what I saw him doing on Sunday. Not that I ever said that to Father (Joseph) Barker, who recently died, but I do remember saying to myself — just like one day you want to be an astronaut and the next day you want to be a cowboy — “I can do that, I can be a priest!” But that was like first, second or third grade, little-kid stuff. I did consider it seriously, certainly into high school, and I got a letter from Father (Jim) Walsh, the vocations director, because somebody at the parish had given him my name, so then I really started seriously considering it.
TE: Was there anyone else who encouraged that vocation in you?
FQ: Father Barker was the pastor when I was a kid (at St. Patrick’s Church in Johnstown) and had a great influence on me, and then Father Jim Fitzmaurice became the pastor when Father Barker retired. There was also something about being part of the choir; a bunch of adults in the church choir who enjoyed making good music not for any sort of concert performance, but for God. Being at choir practice with them all, enjoying each other’s company and singing really good religious music, that was influential because the words start to sink in, the beauty of it starts to sink in, even if it is just at practice once a week and Sunday Mass. I joined as a sixth grader and that was a very formational time. It was also reinforced at school because our choir director always included sacred music in our programming, because it’s just good music.
I continued with the thoughts (of priesthood) into college (at SUNY Fredonia). When I went to college, I started going to weekday Mass, maybe once a week or twice a month. The Newman Center was very helpful because I met people there and the Newman Center would do things like a little Bible study or have a speaker and you start to think about the things that the Church thinks about, in a deeper, more intellectual way. That was helpful, because I hadn’t done the intellectual stuff then. I had done liturgy, just as a kid and a choir member, and I had prayed, like as kids we always said night prayers together before we went to bed, mom and dad and my brothers all together. But then when you are in college, studying all sorts of other subjects like philosophy and religion, you have the opportunity to think more deeply. I took philosophy because Father Fitzmaurice encouraged me to. He said, “Take some philosophy classes, because you are going to need it if you are going to go to seminary.” I was a theater major and had philosophy as my double major.
Father Daniel Quinn is shown during Mass at Blessed Sacrament in Albany last year. (Cindy Schultz photo)
TE: How was your experience with your formation?
FQ: When I applied I said to myself, “If I am not supposed to be here, I will either want to leave or they will kick me out.” I figured it was too important for God to let somebody through who wasn’t supposed to be there. I learned now that that happens anyway but at the time, maybe in my naiveté as a college student, I finished my degree and applied to the Diocese and the Bishop accepted me. I spent two years at the Isaac Jogues House of Discernment. I took it a year at a time. But once I was in my first year at the major seminary, about halfway through my third year of formation, it was no longer a year at a time. I committed to it, and said to myself, “I’m in this, I’m going all the way.”
TE: Was there anything difficult to accept in the life of a priest, such as do you find it a solitary life?
FQ: I don’t find it a solitary life at all. I have a large family because I have a bunch of cousins on both sides and my brothers and sister-in-law and my aunts and uncles. I have good friends. I don’t find it solitary, even in seminary I wasn’t worried about that. Celibacy can be difficult, we talked a lot about that in seminary, but honestly the more difficult promise is obedience, because I didn’t always understand the decisions of the seminary, the vocations director, or the Bishop. I don’t get to understand all of it but I am asked to be obedient. I find that much harder than celibacy.
TE: Why do you think you were brought on to be part of the new vocations team?
FQ: I don’t know why the Bishop asked me in particular, but I think I work well with students. I am not an educator, but I have a couple of schools now and I think whether it is an elementary school student or a college student, I could relate well to them. I think that Brian and Stephen and I will make a good team.
TE: What has the vocations team been working on?
FQ: We have plans for an ongoing promotion of vocations, specifically priestly vocations, throughout September, leading up to an event on Oct. 7 beginning at 5 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church in Latham. We’re planning that all of the clergy of the Diocese are going to come with those who may have a vocation from within their parishes. Each name presented by the communities are ones who they think may be called or have been considering it for a while without acting on it. The night will focus on the “first step” in discernment, which is simply showing up to begin to learn more. Discernment begins in community, so that each person needs to know they are not alone in their discernment and the entire Vocations Team is here to help guide them.
Through our social interaction it will become quite clear that our Diocese is filled with very different priests involved in various ministries but who all share a common mission of salvation of souls. Whether that be working in parishes, hospital or prison chaplaincy, youth ministry or campus ministry. Some work directly with religious communities of sisters, care for elementary schools or in the tribunal office helping people with marriages and annulments. To be able to see the endless ways God can use ones gifts, education and talent within His church is most helpful for clarifying what service in ordained ministry can not only look like, but where true happiness can be found. Where is God calling that particular person to serve His people as best they can.
The Vocations Team will be present the whole evening, lending an opportunity to talk with or ask questions of any of us in a relaxed setting. It is sure to be an evening of prayer, good food and conversation open to any young adult, college student or middle-aged person looking to begin with a “leap of faith” in asking “where is God calling me to serve?”
TE: How important is it for the laity to be active in growing vocations?
FQ: The role of the laity is extremely important. All those called to holy orders, or indeed to religious life, first grow in the vocation common to all, the lay vocation, the universal call to holiness. Any of us may be called to something further, in the married state or not, while that is still lay, or also to the life of a consecrated or ordained person. It is particularly important that parishioners in parishes watch over the children of the parish to recognize, and call out, and encourage the potential vocations they see among the young people, oftentimes through their parents. It was a woman in the parish not related to me who gave my name to the vocations director. We all must recognize the potential in the people sitting next to us at Mass (as well as ourselves) and call them out and encourage them to consider it. Catholics should feel comfortable saying, “I see in you all the gifts and talents that priests need to have, and I could see you doing that one day.” It’s not the same as recruiting — “We need you for the Air Force and we will hire you and train you and we will pay you.” It is really recognizing the gifts that people have and encouraging their growth and discernment. Really, that gives that person something to talk with God about in prayer. To talk with the Lord about (and say): “I had somebody mention to me this morning that I might make a good priest … is that something you would like me to consider?”
I had a parishioner last year who wanted to talk about the things he was going through, and I thought to myself, “Boy, this guy could be a monk.” After two years, he went off and joined a monastery! I wasn’t the only one to mention it to him. But I got an update from the monk who is the vocations director; I had said “How’s Brother Luke doing? Is he OK?” And he said, “Oh, he’s a natural!” He found his people, he found where he was supposed to be. God called him out of the world to a monastery. But just because I had to encourage it, I couldn’t push it in him. The call comes from God. So I did tell him there are places around if you want to go and visit a monastery. You don’t have to stay forever. He visited a couple of places and then he made a decision and he is staying and I think he’s found where God wants him to be.
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