The Best of Us: Remembering Fr. Dan Moriarity
“There’s a little bit of the bad in the best of us, and a little bit of good in the worst.”
Just about every sermon I heard from Father Dan Moriarity had that little tidbit in it. That kind of welcoming and forgiving attitude may have been the reason he was so beloved. 28 years at Nativity — so long at one stop likely due to the special bond Fr. Dan had with Nativity (they really were kind of synonymous) as were the little pieces of candy he ALWAYS gave out. In the warm and wonderful funeral sermon delivered by the pastor, Father Fedak, we found out the source of the candy idea. Seems when Dan was about 13 or 14, following a serious talk he had with a priest, he was given a piece of candy. Years later doing the same would become a staple of his ministry.
Father Fedak also spoke of Fr. Dan coming home and matter-of-factly stating he’d just heard another confession in Wawa. Then there was the testimony of Greg Gillespie of Port Richmond Books (at Clearfield and Richmond) that Fr. Dan came into Mick’s Bar to give out ashes on Ash Wednesday… and heard a confession or two while he was at it.
I got my last two pieces of candy from Fr. Dan about a month ago, sitting on the bench in front of the Mary holding the Baby Jesus statue outside Nativity. I told him what high school I went to a couple of times… we talked a bit about the world, about how things have changed. Not the slightest bitterness or rancor in his voice, he did not judge or condemn, he spent his life looking for the good in us all. Likely his major ministry was to get people to come back to church. He’d always ask. One look in at the empty pews in an inner city church some Sunday morn would lead you to feel he was not a success. But that is SO not so. The important thing is he never gave up… I think of Thomas Merton’s notation that if we try to do God’s will, we are doing it.
I remember a few years back going to a service on Martin Luther King Day and how a young rapper related the story of how a pastor protested scheduling a march on Easter as that was a “Church” day. King responded by saying we needed to move our churches Outside. Fr. Dan had that one down pat.
It was on January 20 when he passed on. Ten days after my birthday. From now on when I sit on that bench in front of Mary and the Babe, there will be no hoping Dan will be coming ‘round the corner or out the rectory door. I will not be a couple of pieces of candy heavier when I leave. I will not be left chuckling at something he said. But maybe come some Sunday morn, because of what a warm, kind and gentle man he was more of us will embrace that good in us and honor his request to stop on in.
Jim McGovern is a local writer whose stories and op-eds have been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and other local publications. He can be reached at ‘12stepsforall.com’ or at batesius33@gmail.com. His latest book Inclusion can be purchased through Amazon.com.