A self-described “normal kid who just wanted to help out in the Church” has seen his desire fulfilled for 21,915 days of ordained life — and counting. This month Fr. Pierre Hissey, a retired priest in the Diocese of Phoenix, celebrates his diamond jubilee honoring 60 years of priesthood.
While no priestly journey is exactly alike, Fr. Hissey’s pathway has a litany of notable moments, dichotomies and ministries since 1966. The people of St. Steven’s Catholic Church in Sun Lakes, Ariz., honored them all during a special 60th anniversary Mass, celebrated by Bishop John Dolan, and reception in the spring.
“It was more than I expected and nicer than I ever dreamed,” Fr. Hissey said.
He recalled the thoughtful liturgy, the homily given by one of his parish youths-turned priest, Fr. Dan McBride, framed photos of notable ministry moments across six decades at each reception table and the constant motion of people at the celebration. Fr. Hissey also noted the 38 tables of guests. Numerically, each table represented every priestly assignment he has had — plus one.
“It was nice to even have a chasuble made,” Fr. Hissey said. The special white vestment had a photo of the Massachusetts native on it, gently jogging to his mind to part of the ordination Mass that proclaims, “You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.”
A missionary heart
Fr. Hissey was St. Steven’s second pastor, a role he held for 12 years until his retirement in 2017.
Still, St. Steven parishioners paid homage to the priest’s many other hats over the years: spiritual director, youth leader, short-time chaplain in a highly Baptist area, rural parish pastor and at one time a Trinitarian religious priest with the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity. The Maryland-based community is dedicated to preserving the faith “among those who are spiritually neglected and abandoned.”
Fr. Hissey was ordained June 2, 1966, and spent about 25 years as a Trinitarian priest before he was incardinated as a diocesan priest in the Diocese of Phoenix in 1991.
Most of his pre-Arizona ministry was in Mississippi. Additionally, he served as a priest in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. It was in the northwest D.C. area that Fr. Hissey helped run what was affectionately called the Fides House. “It was like a social club with sports” to keep teens out of trouble, the priest explained. He also took the inner-city teens to key U.S. sites. Despite the proximity to their homes, most of the youth had never been. Would-be-trouble makers in the community stopped him once, but when the rough young men saw his Fides name tag, they posed no further threat.
Some of Fr. Hissey’s missionary assignments were so rural that upon his arrival in the late 60s, the laity did not yet know about the changes implemented through Vatican II. “We worked where they couldn’t afford a pastor. That was our contribution,” said Fr. Hissey, who also remembers when Tennessee was just 0.5-percent Catholic with only nine parishes.
“The missions were just at the beginning of lector trainings, altar servers and Eucharistic ministers and such.” His communities were rural enough to average 15-20 Catholics each.
Planting diocesan roots
By the early 90s, Trinitarian leaders thought Fr. Hissey would be a good fit for diocesan life. It would be a better chance to see the fruit of his labor compared to missionary life, he said.
Fr. Hissey now has deep roots in the Diocese of Phoenix, one of the fastest-growing dioceses in the nation. He has served in four parish assignments locally, spending the most time at St. Jerome Parish in Phoenix and St. Steven’s. He led the Sun Lakes parish as the southeast valley grew exponentially, establishing a training program for marriages, forming a marriage ministry and launching a parish religious education program. He also trained volunteers in Vincentian spirituality when a St. Vincent de Paul council formed at the parish.
Fr. Hissey not only established programs but he invited active participation in the community’s growth, letting parishioners share their expertise. “God always seems to send the people that you need,” he said, describing how parish life organically grew and flourished as positions, both paid and voluntary, filled easily.
Divine intervention, or orchestration, was also key earlier in Fr. Hissey’s life. He credits his devout parents — even thought not materially rich — two older brothers who briefly discerned priesthood and the Trinitarian priests for his religious vocation. He told God as a youngster, “If You want me to be a priest, help me to find out more about being a priest.” Soon after, a visiting Trinitarian priest showed a vocation film at his grade school.
“They wrote me every month [with letters previewing priestly life] from fifth grade to eighth grade,” Fr. Hissey recalled. He entered the minor seminary in eighth grade and stayed close to parish life at home each summer where he attended daily Mass, mowed the parish lawn and picked up a single or double shift at a nearby bakery. Cake decorations and bagels were his specialty.
Seminary life took him to Columbus, Ga. — in a cattle truck washed clean of cow manure — Pennsylvania, Virginia and the nation’s capital. Fr. Hissey was one of three men on ordination day but remained in touch with dozens of old classmates who ultimately discerned other vocations.
An instrument of God’s grace
There are a lot of ways to describe Fr. Hissey’s 60 years of priesthood. A former parish teen called him “an instrument of evangelization, salvation and God’s grace.”
That teen is now Fr. McBride, pastor of St. Mary’s and St. Juan Diego, two churches that form one parish in Chandler, Ariz., where Fr. Hissey serves in retirement — alongside his continued support at St. Steven’s. The pair’s first real encounter was in the confessional 40 years ago during a parish youth retreat with St. Jerome.
Fr. Hissey was the newly arrived pastor who took 20-40 teens on a discipleship retreat seemingly every weekend in the fall for years. The record was 27 retreats in one year.
The formation on retreats and in parish life led to a flourishing of small faith communities, many marriages and the re-engagement of teen’s parents in parish life. It also inspired teens to learn guitar and foster music ministry. At least two serve professionally in diocesan parishes today.
“The Catholic Charismatic Community in the Diocese of Phoenix owes him a great debt as well for all the good work and all the talks and all of the Masses he has celebrated over the years,” Fr. McBride said during Fr. Hissey’s diamond jubilee Mass.
Sacramental life keeps the retired priest busy these days, filling in at Masses and steadily absolving sins in the confessional every Saturday. Other parts of ordained life remain equally dear to Fr. Hissey’s heart. Namely, spiritual direction and ongoing faith education. He praised the state of adult evangelization in the diocese. “The Church is really alive in that area,” he said, noting initiatives like parish-level classes, retreats and diocesan education efforts such as the Kino Catechetical Institute.
He loves seeing Catholics in their 20s and 30s asking deep questions. “They’re looking for authenticity and structure and absolutes,” said Fr. Hissey, who is comfortable with the difficult questions and the discovery process they uncover.
He offered his own biggest insight in the last year, one that speaks to the consistent mission of his heart over the past 60 years of priesthood: “Let our words and our deeds match. If we’re going to be authentic and believable, we have to be authentic in that sense.”
