Father Joe Dean, ordained over 50 years, knew what it meant to be a missioner.
by Father Neil Pezzulo

PASTOR TO ALL: Father Joe’s mission assignments included pastoring 10 missions, four of which he founded, including Murphy, N.C., above.

Perhaps 20 years ago, I picked up the book All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, a book of short essays by Robert Fulghum. What impressed me about this book was that its basic premise could be stated in these words: decency, goodwill, kind words and hopeful expectations.

Much of what I learned about being a missionary priest I learned from Father Joe Dean, who embodied these words. He lived his life with hopeful expectation.

Father Joe, 86, died of an apparent heart attack on Feb. 14 at his residence in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, a former Glenmary mission.

I first experienced his hopeful expectation soon after my ordination in 1999. After spending two months in Mexico learning Spanish I returned to the missions to prepare for my first assignment. And, although I worked very hard in Mexico to learn Spanish, I knew that I wasn’t close to being fluent. But I had time to practice—or so I thought. Father Joe had other plans!

My first public action as a priest in the United States was to celebrate the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass in Hermitage, Ark., one of the many places Father Joe filled in after becoming a senior member.

The fact that I did not speak Spanish or even know how to get to Hermitage, Ark., did not enter into Father Joe Dean’s planning for the day. After all, Father Joe learned Spanish when he was in his 70s. Being a Glenmarian meant to Father Joe that we rise to the occasion at hand. And now I was a Glenmarian!

Through some miracle I found the community center in Hermitage and arrived, alb in hand, nervous, sweaty palmed and outright scared. My only comforting thought was that I expected my contribution to the Mass to both begin and end with the distribution of Communion. Father Joe had a different plan.

Father Joe greeted me with a smile, a kind word and a warm embrace. He gave me a chasuble and vested me while proudly and confidently announcing that I was to be the principal celebrant because I was the youngest priest there. My repeated and forceful objections to this liturgical nightmare did not register with him. So, I found myself celebrating—in Spanish!—the Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe thanks to Father Joe Dean.

I have no remembrance of Father Joe during the Mass although I’m sure he was there. For all I know, he may have been standing next to me the entire time!

Two hours and lots of mispronunciations later Father Joe re-appeared. After I announced that the Mass had ended, I stood there—drained, tired, and completely embarrassed by my Spanish. But Father Joe hugged me and proudly, confidently and graciously said: “Muy Bien.”

I knew it was a lie. He knew it was a lie. But somehow he also knew that “very good” was what I needed to hear. And he said those words with a heart filled with goodwill and the hopeful expectation that this would be the first of many wonderful learning experiences I would have as a Glenmary missionary priest.

Through his work and his lived example as a home missioner for over 50 years he taught missioners like myself what it means to be a missionary priest and how to meet the needs we find in the missions. He taught us we must be people of decency, goodwill, kind words and hopeful expectation.