WTC photo by Joe Garcia

In awe and wonder of that treasure and glow inside the Church,
Fr. Daniel Dreher sought to serve from his earliest days

By Rita Diller
WTC Editor-in-Chief

AMARILLO -- At the age of 26, Daniel Dreher is the youngest man in the recent history of the Diocese of Amarillo to be ordained a priest.  I spoke with Fr. Daniel who was in Guymon, OK, spending time with his family on June 17, ten days after his ordination to the priesthood. He granted the following interview to the West Texas Catholic.

WTC:  Where are you from, Fr. Daniel?

Fr. Daniel: I grew up in Pampa, but when I was a Junior in high school, my parents were transferred to Guymon.

WTC:  I see Extension Magazine has been following your story for some time now.

Fr. Daniel:  Extension has been following me since my internship, over 3 years ago, but at the same time got involved with my family back a year earlier than that when the new church in Booker was built. 

My parents made and donated the altar furnishings for the new church, and Catholic Extension connected that – the many gifts given to the church in gratitude of the support I was getting – with Catholic Extenion’s help with my education. My parents were building the furnishings and returning the gifts given to help with my education in a way that other people may not naturally be able to do.

WTC:  So your dad actually built the altar furnishings for the church and donated them?  Does he build furniture for a living?

Fr. Daniel:  No, Dad works for an oil company, but it’s an interesting connection, because following the genealogy of our last name, it means “a turner,” one that works with a lathe, like a wood or metal tradesman. My grandfather makes clocks and Dad has built furniture. Everything in our house made of wood, Dad has always made.  I’m the only one in the family that does not work with wood.  And in the history of our family, there was only one other time when someone did not work with wood and that person was a priest.  I’m the only one in the family that doesn’t do woodworking, and now I’m a priest.

It unique and ironic; my birthday is the feast day of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of the priesthood.  It took many years in the seminary to realize that he was the patron of my birthday, but I always had wondered if there was something greater than me keeping me in the seminary for eight years; that is a long time. I wondered what was holding me in there.  Seems the stars were all aligned.

I would say the biggest attributing of my vocation came from a couple of priests when I was child, and the faith of my grandmother and mother and their dedication to the church. The big article that Catholic Extension did mentioned my red Radio Flyer wagon and how, when I was a small child, I would go with my mother to the church and gather the candles and bring them home in my wagon, so my mother could clean the candles and trim the wicks, and then I would return them to the Church.  “The candles will burn brighter now,” I thought.

Going to the church with my wagon and helping with the candles is one of the biggest things I remember.  This past weekend I went back to that same little church in Kansas and celebrated Mass there, and it was a great gift for my family and me. I wasn’t pulling a wagon but saying Mass.  It was a beautiful gift for me in return.

I was always in wonder and awe of going into the church with my mom. 

My dad and brothers would do the outside work, exterior work on the Church, but the work inside Church attracted me the most: cleaning the church, taking care of the candles; my eye was always struck with awe and wonder with the glow inside the church and thinking that was something of great importance.  There is a great treasure inside the church and a lot of people don’t realize that.  I always thought that little glow was what was attractive.

WTC: Are there other individuals who have been instrumental in your journey toward the priesthood? 

Fr. Daniel: Many priests throughout my childhood from where I was born, and when my family came to the Diocese of Amarillo.  From the time I was a child, the priests that made the most difference were the ones that said hello or remembered my name; not the ones that just passed me by.  For some reason that clicked for me, that I had a purpose and there was something of value there. I watched and remembered everything they did because they remembered my name.  Everything I do as a priest will match something I have been taught by watching all these priests for all these years.

WTC: What was the most poignant moment of the ordination Mass, for you?  

Fr. Daniel: The first part was more than likely the litany of the saints; that one defining moment when you lay it all before God, this is it; you are at the lowest point you can possibly be, laying down on your face; there’s not a lower gesture we can do.  You are expressing your belief in who these great people are that you are invoking.  I was so moved by it all.  Bishop Zurek called Nick up in front of me for laying of hands when I was supposed to go first, but I wasn’t totally pulled together yet.

The next most touching moment after laying on of hands was when all the priests came up to welcome me into the presbyterate.   As much as some joke about me still calling them “Father,” it will continue, because I’m so young and I’ve held them on a pedestal, but at that moment I suddenly became one of them.

A couple of the priests called me on Father’s Day, to make jokes and laugh about Father’s Day. It was great to be embraced by all those men I have looked up to so many years and for them to call me by name and say welcome to the brotherhood of priests, to the presbyterate. 

When someone takes a look at our presbyterate, they will see we have priests from many countries, priests assisted to the altar, priests with canes, priests that barely understand our language. 

In the end, Fr. Nicholas and I have helped substantially lower the average age of priests in our diocese by being there.  Most are old enough to be my father, some are old enough to be my grandpa.  It’s a very humbling thing, too. 

It is overwhelming to see and to hear many of the priests tell me how excited they are that I’m here, because I now bring a different picture to things that would have been there before, or just because of my young age – Fr. Scott is excited that I’m going to be chaplain at the Catholic Student Center. He remarked that the fact that I am15 years younger than him really is a lot of difference, as far as being able to communicate with the college students on their level.

WTC:  Where are you assigned now?

Fr. Daniel:  My primary assignment is parochial vicar at St. Anthony’s in Hereford.  I’m also chaplain of the Catholic Student Center and emcee for all the large liturgical functions of the diocese. 

WTC:  I’m curious, is the emcee assignment because you are the youngest priest in the diocese, or is it because of some special training that you have?

Fr. Daniel:  I was told that there has been a tradition that the newest ordained priest is emcee, but I was also an emcee in Chicago for the four years I was in seminary there. And still I am the youngest.  Many other people will be ordained in our diocese, and I will still be youngest.

WTC:  What would you like to say to the people of the diocese? 

Fr. Daniel:  One thing I picked up from Cardinal George, who always said,  “The greatest day of my life was the day when my parents baptized me, but the second greatest was when I knew enough about my faith and I was ordained a priest.” 

The other thing is what I had put on my holy cards, and that is keep the faith of a child. For me, that’s always been what it is that put that calling or yearning in my heart as a small child. 

Kids dream and dream big. There is something true to the dreams that can be something much greater.  It began as a dream but was really a calling from God, and he knew he had to get me as a young child to stay committed for my whole life.