Charism on Ice

The Resurrectionist Spirit of Rev. James Donohue, C.R., Ph.D.

By Peter Dorsey, Ph.D.

EACH AUGUST, PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS across the nation perform a late-summer ritual of introducing themselves to each other and sharing some personal information. When the Rev. James Michael Donohue, C.R., Ph.D., affectionately known as Fr. Jim, reviewed the roll in his First-Year Symposium class last fall, few present would have expected Lisa Kreke to proclaim “You baptized me!" More seasoned members of the Mount St. Mary’s community, however, would have grinned in understanding. Lisa’s mother, Patricia Kreke, Ph.D., is a Mount chemistry professor, and Fr. Jim has long played a central role in the spiritual life of the university.

Fr. Jim has shepherded many Mounties in the classroom, on the hockey ice and in their faith journey. He has lifted us up, calmed us down and consoled us in our grief. An extraordinary, compassionate problem-solver, he has made our community more cooperative, peaceful and caring. Having occupied a unique position at our university for 26 years, Fr. Jim recently announced his retirement as a professor in the Department of Theology so that he can support his order’s building up the Church in Tanzania.

Born and raised in the Canadian province of Ontario, Fr. Jim belongs to the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, an international religious community founded in Paris by Polish nationals. The order was formally established in Rome in 1842, when seven founding brothers emerged from the catacombs to the sound of Easter bells, inspired to announce and give witness to the Paschal mystery. Although Emmitsburg has been Fr. Jim’s base of operations since 1996, he is a highly valued member of his order and has travelled the globe in its service. He has been a member of many of its committees, including 20 years on the Provincial Council. He served for six years as Vicar-Provincial and hosted one of its candidates for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. He is his province’s most prolific blogger, and, since 2010, he has published over 200 installments of its “Celebrating the Word" guides and “Sunday Reflections."

The Congregation’s charism is hope and affirms, “in his love the Father calls us . . . to personal resurrection in union with Jesus," a relationship the order joins with a call “to work together for the resurrection of society." Fr. Jim’s long-time friend and Theology Department colleague, William Portier, Ph.D., observes, “He really radiates that spirit of resurrection" and implements it in his pastoral and educational work. Sr. Mary Kate Birge, S.S.J., Ph.D., another friend and colleague, explains that he brings Jesus’ life and love to all he encounters: “He’s hope," she says. “He lives the Ignatian presupposition, interpreting everything in the most favorable sense."

To count the blessings of Fr. Jim’s work is to calculate large sums! He has served on 80 committees and task forces at the Mount, many of them multi-year commitments. His leadership roles include being faculty chair (2006-07), a member of the Tenure, Rank and Awards Committee (2004-10), co-chair of Middle States Accreditation (2012-15), and interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts (2015-16). Even in 2021-22, his final year, he co-chaired the Middle States Committee devoted to student learning. Fr. Jim led three successful study-abroad semesters in Prague, and he also accompanied Diana Rodriguez-Lozano, Ph.D., on two of her service-learning trips to Peru. For an astonishing 15 years, he served as one of the Mount’s most creative and reliable department chairs, applying his generous pastoral and problem-solving skills to the formation of theology faculty members. As chair, he led efforts to revise core and major programs and conducted program review and assessment. He introduced a pastoral ministry education program to the theology major in 2000 and continued to direct it. Contributing to his effective leadership is what Birge calls Fr. Jim’s “wicked sense of humor." Because he maintains “a straight face" while pulling innocent pranks, Birge instructs, “you learn to look for the twinkle in his eyes."

Professor of Biology Dana Pirone Ward, C'97, appreciates that her life has been enriched not only through her companionship with Fr. Jim but also through lessons that Fr. Jim has passed down from his parents and siblings to Mount students and friends. “One of the nice things about Fr. Jim is that if you’ve spent any time around him, you feel like you know not only him, but also his entire family through all the life lessons as told through Fr. Jim’s homilies," Ward shares. She will miss the sound of Fr. Jim's laughter in Patriot Hall. “You always know if Fr. Jim is at a table near you in the cafeteria because you hear his laughter carrying across the room," she says. “He’s joyful, and his joy is contagious."

Given his generous habit of offering more courses than required—including summer courses and courses at the Frederick campus—Fr. Jim has probably taught more Mount students than any current professor, always with compassion for the troubled and those in less fortunate circumstances.

Alumna Elizabeth Origenes, C’15, reflects, “Father Jim transforms classrooms into spaces of reverence for the mystery of God's love. Filled with stories, wit, and the very most care, his classes inspire students to authentically engage in the questions of theology." Friend and colleague William Collinge, Ph.D., admires Fr. Jim’s “rigorous academic standards," but also how he “reaches out to [students] with understanding and consistent good humor." Portier calls him simply “the greatest natural teacher I’ve ever seen." Fr. Jim won the university’s most prestigious teaching prize, the John Richards Award for Teaching Excellence, early in his Mount career and was nominated for the Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year Award in 2005.

Fr. Jim has also been a productive scholar. He holds master’s degrees in theology and divinity and a doctorate in systematics from the Catholic University of America, with special expertise on the sacrament of Penance and Catholic rites for the seriously ill and dying. He has published 25 scholarly articles and book chapters and numerous book reviews. With fellow theologian and Associate Provost David McCarthy, Ph.D., he is the author of Moral Vision: Seeing the World with Love and Justice (2018). Characteristically, Fr. Jim is even more prolific as a “pastoral" scholar, having given more than 225 presentations and workshops to parishes, high schools, alumni groups, seminaries, dioceses, and Catholic grade schools. He and McCarthy also produced podcast series on the Gospel of Mark and on salvation history.

With so many classes to prepare and teach, grading, office conferences, committee work, research, and responsibilities to his order, those who know Fr. Jim might ask, “Where does the hockey fit in?" For almost 25 years, the answer was in Frederick at 10:30 p.m., the time his teams practiced! Fr. Jim organized the Mount’s club hockey team shortly after he arrived in 1996 and went on to win three coach-of-the-year awards. As the program grew, it became another way he could guide and form students. “I wanted people to love the game," he explains, “just as I wanted people to love theology."

Hockey alumnus Ryan Cleary, M.D., C’06, describes Fr. Jim as having “an exuberance that provides those around him with a glimpse into the heart of Jesus." Finding him “welcoming and warm and jovial," Cleary states, he “truly invites outsiders in—making them feel like insiders." Another hockey alumnus Jonathan Franciose, C’00, says Fr. Jim led with faith, humor, kindness and a remarkable lack of “chirping." “As a coach, he was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and always knew the right thing to say to motivate players," Franciose recalls. He guided his team through moments of joy, grief and “times when you’ve just got to put the puck deep in the other team’s zone and grind." Over the years, Fr. Jim has married many Mount students and baptized their children, but former hockey players loom especially large in that ministry. “His leadership has helped me lead and build my own home teams, whether it be two beautiful daughters and a loving wife or my work as an insurance sales manager," Francoise observes.

David McCarthy often began his core theology classes with the joke, “I guess you couldn’t get into Fr. Jim’s class." Instead of laughing, McCarthy reports, the students glumly replied, “Yeah, I got closed out." Happily, however, even those who didn’t play hockey and never had Fr. Jim as a professor had many opportunities to see him preach because he was a frequent celebrant at daily, Sunday and special-occasion Masses. Grants Manager Kathy Criasia found it “a blessing to have Fr. Jim offer Mass at noon every week. His faith is obvious, his knowledge of scripture is deep, his humility inspires me, and his sense of humor is refreshing." Birge calls him “the best homilist I’ve ever heard" who gleans “incredible insights" from scripture and “always leaves the congregation with things to think about."

In addition to celebrating Masses at the Mount, for almost 30 years Fr. Jim travelled to and generously served two Maryland Catholic parishes, St. John’s in Columbia and St. Bernadette’s in Severn, where he developed many friendships.

Fr. Jim plays many roles, but several observers detect an underlying unity. McCarthy notices an “unrelenting focus to teach us how we can be better disciples and how we can love God and our neighbor more." Birge finds that “his primary goal is to make God come alive for students." Collinge sees a “seamless unity between Jim’s identity as priest and teacher." English Professor Sean Lewis, Ph.D., sees a person who imitates Christ while “radiating God’s love and mercy in his many roles."

Seemingly tireless in his many ministries, Fr. Jim lives the undying spirit of Christ’s resurrection. Many Mounties are struggling to contemplate campus life without his generous, pastoral care, but he will forever remain an astonishing model of what it means to serve under Mary’s guidance.

More information

Pray for Fr. Jim’s work in Tanzania, learn more and give in his honor at msmary.edu/egift (select Academics and then Father Jim Donohue Legacy Fund)

Honoring Fr. Jim’s Service to the Mount

Following discussions with Fr. Jim about his distinguished service to the Mount, the university would like to commemorate his retirement in two ways:

HONORARY CLASSROOM NAMED

A permanent legacy will be established by naming a classroom after him in the addition to the Coad Science Building. Fr. Jim is delighted by the idea because he has enjoyed teaching many science majors over the years and sees the intersection of faith and science as a key component of this theological teaching. “Most people assume that one must either think or believe," he says. “Theology refuses to settle for these preconceived notions. It allows students to see that faith is built upon reasonable assertions, that scientific methods support and assist biblical and theological studies, and that God designs creation to unfold itself as history."

SERVICE-LEARNING OPPORTUNITY IN TANZANIA

The Mount also will honor Fr. Jim by establishing a service-learning opportunity in Tanzania. Fr. Jim experienced the joys and challenges of the Resurrectionists’ 20-year-old mission there during his 2019-20 sabbatical year and rejoins this community this summer. The Polish province of Resurrectionists already sponsors young people from their country to visit the mission, and Fr. Jim’s work there would allow him to continue helping Mount students while also serving the Congregation. As Mount students share their Englishlanguage skills with young Tanzanians, they will better understand inequities in our world, learn about challenges facing countries in East Africa, and unite in solidarity with the poor. Their experiences will inspire them to join Fr. Jim in working for the resurrection of society and altering unjust structures that continue to diminish people today.

Please commemorate Fr. Jim’s service to the Mount and invest in his future service so he is rightly remembered as one of the Mount’s legendary faculty priests. To honor the Rev. James Michael Donohue is to affirm the hope inseparable from the Mount’s rich history. Spes Nostra.