Fr. Dale Jamison, OFM
Native American Ministry director knows how to run things — literally
By Joyce Coronel | Sept. 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun
Looking back over his 35 years of priesthood, Fr. Dale Jamison, OFM, recalls how a life of service to God and the Native American people all began with a simple invitation.
He grew up in a suburb of Detroit, just a half-mile from the Franciscan seminary, one of fours sons born to devout Catholic parents. As a boy, he often watched the friars mowing the grass and trimming the trees on the seminary grounds.
But it was the retreats with his Catholic school classmates that invited him to consider life as a priest. At the tender age of 14, he entered what was known in those days as a “minor seminary,” a high school for boys who planned on becoming priests.
Fr. Jamison’s first assignment after being ordained in 1974 was as associate pastor of St. Teresa of Ávila Parish in Grants, NM. He served at a number of parishes throughout the pueblos of New Mexico, picking up a little of the Native languages.
“There’s much sentiment that ‘It’s OK if you learn some things, but we don’t want you to learn everything.’ I learned to say to hello, goodbye, let’s eat and thank you,” Fr. Jamison said with a grin.
The biggest challenge was keeping the schools and parishes going in the face of daunting financial difficulties. “It’s not pretty,” he said of trying to pay the bills with Sunday collections that might bring in $70. “You could charge tuition for the school, but nobody could pay it.”
He recalled a time when, after paying the bills at one parish, there was only $3.14 left in the checking account.
The resourceful priest turned to mail appeals, which helped raise much-needed funds to operate the schools and parishes in which he worked.
He was deeply touched that, after losing both his parents in the early 1980s, a Native American family in New Mexico asked to adopt him as their son. In doing so, they bestowed on him a traditional Indian name. Though it can’t be spelled per se, the name sounds like “Ooo-moo-shash-ka,” which means “Fr. Roadrunner,” since he traveled about so much. Little did they realize how prophetic a name it was.
By the mid-1980s, Fr. Jamison had come up with a rather unlikely method of raising money: running marathons. He’s run 31 marathons in all — that’s 26.2 miles each — including two Boston Marathons. Friends, family and supporters sponsored him mile for mile. He raised as much as $80,000 in one marathon.
Fr. Jamison came to the Diocese of Phoenix in 2006 and is the director of the Office of Native American Ministry, overseeing 11 missions scattered throughout the state. It’s not without its challenges; the communities suffer from widespread diabetes as well as high rates of suicide, substance abuse, poverty and crime.
Humble mission churches have no air conditioning, so a Sunday Mass in summertime — he celebrates two or three most weeks — can be quite warm for the priest and congregation alike. In spite of the challenges, Fr. Jamison has his priorities in order.
“What I enjoy about being a priest is being able to celebrate the Eucharist,” he said.
What are you passionate about as a priest?
It’s cross-cultural ministry. One of the things I was forced into, and it sort of became the focus, was keeping these Indian schools and missions going financially. So that became a passion, to keep Indian education going for the children… these people have a right to a church and school and liturgy and everything else, the same way a rich, city parish does. The Indians don’t deserve junk, second-hand stuff, hand-me-down vestments, hand-me-down junk. I just said, “I’ve had it. I’m going to find the money and they’re going to have what they deserve.”
Did someone invite you to consider the priesthood?
Fr. Basil Westendick, OFM. He was a newly ordained priest and was sent to my parish. He was a young priest, and he’s the one that said, “Why don’t you consider going on one of these retreats?” There was a whole group of us that went down to Cincinnati. I still remember the retreat; I was 14.
What can families do to encourage more vocations to the priesthood?
You’re going to think I’m strange, but what families can do is pray for and work for an end to abortion. Everybody talks about Social Security going bankrupt. Had we not aborted millions over the last 30 or 40 years, they would’ve kept Social Security viable. How does this affect vocations? How many of those aborted souls might have been vocations to the priesthood or religious life? Certainly any number of them would have been called. Without a doubt, we would have had hundreds, thousands perhaps. Also, [parents need to] be role models, making sure kids get the best Catholic education or catechetical program and receive the sacraments.
