Father McDermott finds missionary work fulfilling
Globe staff report
Posted April 4, 2002

Working in developing countries often allows a priest to experience more the fullness of the priesthood, says a Dominican priest with strong ties to the Sioux City area.

Father Thomas McDermott, whose late father is from Holstein, and was raised in Wayne, Neb., was based in African country of Nigeria. The priest is currently in Rome completing three years of continuing studies.

"In Nigeria the church is not marginal to the lives of people but very much at the center," McDermott said. "One of the usual complaints we priests get here at St. Dominic's is that our sermons are not long enough."

By comparison, in the U.S., he was actually warned by the laity not to preach longer than five minutes.

Father McDermott, who graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. didn't become a Catholic until two years after graduating, while teaching in a Catholic secondary school in Minneapolis.

Within a matter of weeks, he entered the Dominican novitiate in Denver with hopes of doing missionary work.

His uncle, Harold McDermott, lives in Sioux City and is a parishioner at St. Michael Church. He pointed out that Father McDermott's mother was not Catholic and his father was a non-practicing Catholic.

Harold was extremely pleased when his nephew decided to join the Catholic Church. The priest once told his uncle that it was his family's example of faith and regular church attendance that inspired him.

"I can't describe the feeling to know that our nephew thought so much of the Catholic faith that he became a priest," said Harold. "We wonder what's in store for him now that he's in Rome."

For years, Father McDermott thought that he was baptized while in the eighth grade. It was only recently that Harold informed him that he had personally baptized him as a baby, upon the wishes of the priests grandparents, the late Harold and Rega McDermott of Holstein.

The priest served in Nigeria for 19 years and after leading the construction of a church as its pastor, he was made the provincial of the Dominican Order for both Nigeria and Ghana.

Father McDermott said that in a country such as Ghana the church helps people in many tangible ways - from offering advice, prayers and the sacraments, to simply showing concern when problems arise.

While he sometimes missed the creature comforts of the U.S. Midwest, the priest says the Gospel was "often met with yawning indifference."

"Not so many people go to church, and usually they are older ones and not the youth," he explained. "The priest feels as if he must compete with the TV and the entertainment industry."

Sometimes, Father McDermott said he thinks of American society as being more of a mission field than Nigeria.

"But getting through the indifference of the 'natives' - what a job that is," Father McDermott. "It might even be easier to go and preach in Mecca."

In Nigeria, McDermott was thought of as a workaholic, which an idea he thinks his relatives at home must snicker over. When he makes his annual visit to the area, he confessed, sitting around and watching the television ranks high on his list of things to do.

He was in Sioux City in August to marry his cousin, Harold and Joan McDermott's son.

As for current discussions about the priesthood and celibacy, McDermott said that's simple: "Catholic priests are celibate because Jesus Christ was celibate, and the priests represent him.

"Once you believe in a God who loves us and cares for us personally, then it shouldn't be hard to believe that God himself would deserve to have some people devote their entire lives to him."

The one-time Lutheran said he would not be able to devote as much time to God's work if he had a family to worry about.

"I thank God for celibacy and I know that it will never change as the norm for Catholic priests," McDermott said.

(Some parts excerpted from the Dominican Magazine.)