A Mass of Christian Burial for Father James M. Dunne, former pastor of St. Camillus parish, Rockaway Park, was celebrated Dec. 22 at the church. He died Dec. 18.
Born in Brooklyn, he attended Cathedral College; Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington; and Catholic University, Washington, D.C. He was ordained June 3, 1961 by Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart at St. James Pro-Cathedral, Downtown Brooklyn.
He served as an assistant at St. Catherine of Genoa, East Flatbush, 1961; Ascension, Elmhurst, 1961-68; St. Robert Bellarmine, Bayside, 1968- 80; St. Francis de Sales, Belle Harbor, 1980-88 and was administrator there from 1988 to 1990.
He was named pastor of St. Camillus, Rockaway Park, in 1990 and served there until his retirement in 2007.
Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. Special concele- brants included Msgrs. Martin Geraghty and Vincent A. Keane, who preached the homily, and Father Richard J. Ahlemeyer.
Parishioners appreciated his homilies and wit.
He travelled to the Holy Land and Rome; he went with Msgr. Keane to Central America to visit the shrines of the Martyrs, including Sister Maura Clarke, M.M., whom he knew from Rockaway.
Father Dunne is remembered well by the people in the parishes where he served, as evidenced by the many families with whom he kept contact.
He loved to walk the Rockaway boardwalk. Before Superstorm Sandy, he could be seen several times during the day talking with others who were out for their daily walk. He missed those encounters after the storm.
Burial was in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside.
Once again another cliche, “Words cannot express what Farther Dunne had meant to me.” He was an approachable priest. I would read on the altar and I was in awe of being scheduled on the same Sundays with him. I would come into mass with the Good Morning greeting and he would remind me it was afternoon. I just wanted to engage him in some dialog because I thought him a powerfully humble leader of our parish. Everyone probably had their favorite story to tell and so I must present mine.
My daughter Amanda went away to college at Howard and she told me that everyone was receiving packages from their pastors from different denominations. I shared that with Father Dunne and he in turn sent a box of candy to Amanda. Amanda informed that the package contained ants in it. I reminded her that only a caring pastor would extend himself to a young person he hardly knew in hopes of making her feel that parish love can be sent in a gesture of a box of candy. Fr. Dunne thank you for that!
Another time I don’t know what I was thinking, I ask Father if Latin was a real language? He replied, “that’s what they spoke in Rome. Now I knew that, what made me pose such a foolish question is beyond me.
His ways were kind. He helped us understand in his homily it’s not the super human things we do, or the star qualities we aspire but the ordinary christian offerings we show one another that counts. He reminded us that we may not remember the gold medal winner of 1950 Olympics but we will remember when we needed a kind word who gave it to us. His humor was subtle. I remember standing up for birthday Sunday and he said, “Gloria you stood up last month.” I smile now teary recalling how much that meant to me to be recognized by the giant priest. Fr. Dunne. I know he looking out for all his congregation people of Rockaway Park.
As Fr. Dunne often told the story-.when he was teenager he attended Cathedral Prep in Brooklyn and when the young men went to Reconciliation they would have to identify themselves as seminarians. One summer there was a visiting priest at his parish of Good Shepherd; going in to confession the teenage Fr. Dunne identified himself as a seminarian and the priest told him of being a priest …”it’s the greatest job in the world!”.
Shortly after Fr.Dunne’s 50th anniversary he was in Maryland walking accross the campus of St. Mary’s Seminary he ran into some young seminarians also walking across campus and after he stopped to talk to them he finished by telling him after his own experience of 50 years of the priesthood “it’s the greatest job in
the world!” Fr. James Dunne loved being a priest and he was a great priest…may he continue to enjoy his place in the Heavenly Liturgy.