The importance of a priest being present to his people and being available to bring them the sacraments was brought home to Father John Dillon just before his ordination to the priesthood in 1998, when his mother told him how, when his grandmother was dying and the family sought a priest to anoint her, a priest never came, and sadness over the priest not administering the Anointing of the Sick to his grandmother before her death lingered in their family over the years.
“I’ve always tried to be sensitive to sick calls since then,” Father Dillon said in a recent interview.
As the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Derwood, Maryland, he anoints people being cared for at Casey House, a hospice for Montgomery County located nearby in Rockville.
“It’s a wonderful experience. You know you are where you’re supposed to be, taking care of people,” he said.
Father Dillon shared memories of some of his experiences, anointing the dying at hospitals and being there for their families at his parish assignments over the years. “You know you’re there because God wanted you to be there for them. That’s happened any number of times in my 25 years as a priest. I’m His instrument, it’s not about me,” he said.
The veteran priest shared that story about his family when he gave the homily at the Jubilee Mass for Priests celebrated by Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine on May 23, 2023 – the exact date of the 25th anniversary of when Father Dillon was ordained as a priest of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
Instead of preaching to a congregation of laypeople as he does at his parish, Father Dillon’s homily on that day was directed to other priests marking milestone anniversaries that year, and to fellow archdiocesan priests also concelebrating the Mass.
Two other priests of the archdiocese’s priesthood ordination class of 1998 were among the concelebrants at that anniversary Mass – Msgr. K. Bartholomew Smith, the longtime pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Silver Spring, and Father Mark Knestout, the former pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish in Bethesda and a former director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship who now serves as attaché and priest collaborator with the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York City.
In his homily at the anniversary Mass, Father Dillon also noted how around the time of their ordination, Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, stressed the importance of his new priests being men of prayer and having a deep love for the Eucharist, and following Christ’s example in being good and loving shepherds to their people.
In a Catholic Standard interview before his 1998 ordination, the future priest said he appreciated that cardinal’s advice about being a spiritual father to his people. “I’m there for them, the people of the parish, and I’ll be ready to go and be of service wherever I’m needed,” he said then.
After the anniversary Mass, Father Dillon got to live out the message of his homily about being available to bring the sacraments to his people. He wasn’t able to join his fellow priests at the anniversary dinner that followed, because that evening, he went home to St. Francis of Assisi Church and assisted Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. as the bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to youth at the parish.
This past year marked dual milestones for Father Dillon. In addition to his 25th anniversary as a priest, he marked his 10th year as the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi. Two days before the Jubilee Mass for Priests, he celebrated his 25th anniversary as a priest with a Mass and reception at the Derwood parish.
Now 74, Father Dillon was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in nearby Butler, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children of John and Catherine Dillon. His first cousin, Thomas Stehle, serves as the pastoral associate for liturgy and director of music ministries at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.
Noting the devout faith of his parents, Father Dillon said, “They passed it on.”
“My mother would always check the calendar for First Fridays and Confession,” he said, adding how his father, a common pleas court judge, joined fellow members of the Knights of Columbus in participating in Eucharistic Adoration and was a lector at their church. “Quiet service to the Lord and the Church was something he taught by example,” Father Dillon said.
Reflecting on his vocation, the priest said, “I think I caught it from the example of my mother and father.”
As a sixth grader at his Catholic school, he raised his hand when the teacher asked if anyone was interested in the priesthood. Later as an eighth grader, he wrote an essay on vocations for a contest sponsored by the Serra Club. “Sister picked five of us for the next level. Four of them got prizes from the Serra Club. I got the ultimate prize, priesthood,” Father Dillon said, smiling.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in classical languages in 1971 at Villanova University in the Philadelphia area, John Dillon did graduate work in classics at the University of Missouri. Later, he was a novice with the Capuchin Franciscans before leaving that religious order in 1975. He also studied at the Washington Theological Union, and in 1982, he earned a doctorate in Greek and Latin from The Catholic University of America.
Before entering the priesthood, John Dillon served as an editor for the “Fathers of the Church” series from the Catholic University Press and the “Ancient Christian Writers” series that is now published by Paulist Press. He also worked as a writer and editor for “The Word Among Us” magazine.
As a lay person attending St. John Neumann Parish, he served as a lector and Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, and he said one day while he was bringing Communion to a shut-in, he thought to himself that maybe he should be doing that kind of service all the time, as a priest.
Later, fellow parishioners recommended him as a candidate for the priesthood in the Called By Name program, and after a period of discernment, he became a seminarian for the archdiocese, studying at Theological College before his ordination in 1998.
His background in Greek and Latin provided him with “great preparation” for his theology studies, he said, noting that he can go back and read early Church writings in those languages. One of the early Church fathers whom he admires is St. Irenaeus, a second century bishop who emphasized apostolic tradition and Scripture as pillars of the Catholic Church and was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2022.
After his ordination to the priesthood, Father Dillon served as a parochial vicar at St. John Francis Regis Parish in Hollywood, Maryland, and at the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda. He became the parochial administrator at St. Joseph Parish in Pomfret in 2004 and was named as the pastor there the next year, serving in that role until 2008, when he became pastor at St. Mark the Evangelist in Hyattsville.
“I really loved the people” there, he said of St. Joseph, his first pastorate, and while in that role, he enjoyed helping out at Archbishop Neale School in La Plata and serving the Discalced Carmelite nuns at the Carmel of Port Tobacco in La Plata, which in 1790 was the site of the first Carmelite monastery in the United States.
One highlight of his five years as pastor of St. Mark the Evangelist Parish was working with nearby St. Camillus Parish to establish St. Francis International School in Silver Spring, a Catholic elementary school that offers a global learning curriculum and serves many students from immigrant families.
During his years as a priest, he also served on the archdiocese’s Presbyteral Council and as chaplain of the Serra Club of Southern Maryland.
For the past five years, Father Dillon has served as a chaplain for Courage, a Catholic ministry for men and women with same-sex attractions who are encouraged to live lives of chastity and follow the Church’s teachings on human sexuality. Participants in the Courage ministry receive pastoral support, spiritual guidance and take part in community prayer and fellowship.
Praising the people he’s encountered through the Courage outreach, the priest said they include some “of the holiest people I’ve met.” Seeing their struggles, and seeing how they are “faithful to the Lord is a great encouragement to me,” he said.
Having led St. Francis of Assisi Parish for the past decade, Father Dillon praised parishioners there for their faith and generosity. The Maryland parish is known for its longstanding work in providing medical and educational outreach to its sister parish in Haiti, and for its active St. Vincent de Paul Society, which the priest noted serves “our friends who are poor.”
During a 50th anniversary Mass for St. Francis of Assisi Parish celebrated by Cardinal Gregory in May 2022, Father Dillon said that parish community is known for its “loving, warm and faith-filled people who want to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and live their faith in service to Him.”
In his recent interview, the priest noted that St. Francis of Assisi Parish participates with other local churches in the New Neighbors Interfaith Alliance, providing help and support to immigrants in the community. He also highlighted the parish’s annual Gifts of All God’s Children Mass on Epiphany Sunday for adults and children with developmental differences.
“It’s my job as pastor to encourage good initiatives and empower people to do those works,” he said.
Since being ordained to the priesthood, Father Dillon has taken his mother’s words to heart, and he has brought Christ and the sacraments to people of different backgrounds and circumstances at all stages of their lives.
As he sat in the St. Francis of Assisi rectory, his home for the past decade, Father Dillon reflected on his 25 years as a priest, saying, “My heart is full of gratitude and joy. Would I do it again? Absolutely yes.”
