Joyful bishop

By Mark Zimmermann
Catholic Standard

When I arrived in Bishop Mario Dorsonville’s office at the Archdiocese of Washington’s Pastoral Center for an interview a few days after Pope Francis had appointed him to become the new bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, he already had displayed a “Beware of Alligators” sign and a small toy alligator that one of his D.C. colleagues had jokingly given him.

At his introductory press conference at his Louisiana diocese on Feb. 1, Bishop Dorsonville – an auxiliary bishop in Washington since 2015 – smiled and noted that he had been alerted about a few alligators living near the diocesan headquarters there. Bishop Dorsonville, who with his sense of humor embodies what Pope Francis calls the “joy of the Gospel,” laughed as he told me, “The alligators once in a while, they come from the swamp, and they go to the parking lot, and they like to take the sun. And there are several of them, just in front of my office.”

Washington, where he has served as a priest and later a bishop since 1999, is known as a swamp, but he never had to dodge sun-bathing alligators before. I recommended that he have his new priest secretary check that the coast is clear whenever he arrives at or leaves the Pastoral Center in Houma-Thibodaux.

But on a serious note, the bishop spoke about getting the phone call about his new appointment, and he said there was no question about his response to the papal nuncio, which he said reflected his priestly call to be open to wherever God might send him.

“You learn from Mary to be open and to say ‘yes’ all the time, even though it might be hard to leave the people you love, you know the Lord wants you to go to the place where they need you,” he said.

At a farewell Mass of Thanksgiving on March 3 that Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory celebrated for Bishop Dorsonville, Houma-Thibodaux’s new bishop spoke about the importance of closing chapters in one’s life and moving on to the next chapter. “The book gets better, and that’s extremely important to realize that,” he said.

Bishop Dorsonville said that when he was first appointed, he was concerned that it might take him some months to get used to his new diocese, but he said that after arriving there and meeting the people in Houma-Thibodaux, he felt at home right away in his new family of faith. He had called the cardinal after his first day there and told him, “Your Eminence, I am already here, (and) I love it.”

Thanking the people of the Archdiocese of Washington, the bishop noted that when you love someone, no matter the distance you are apart, even at different coasts, you will always be together.

As a writer and editor for the Catholic Standard newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, I’ve had the chance to chronicle different chapters of Father and then Bishop Dorsonville’s life.

For a 2001 vocations article when he was serving as a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bethesda, Father Dorsonville told a story about when he was a high school minor seminary student in his native Colombia, and he rode on horseback for five hours to take Communion to a sick woman living on a mountain. When he arrived at her home, her eyes shone with a love he would never forget. “She was full of joy, not just because of me, but what I brought to her life, Jesus Christ.”

That, said Father Dorsonville, is the essence of every vocation in the Catholic Church, bringing Christ to others. 
After being ordained as a priest in Colombia in 1985, he served as a parish priest and high school and college chaplain there before becoming a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington in 1999 after he had come to the nation’s capital to earn a doctorate degree in ministry at The Catholic University of America.

Father Dorsonville, whose father was a civil engineer, said as a priest he saw himself as a bridge builder, helping to unite his parish’s English and Spanish-speaking communities.

A vocation, he said, “is a gift you receive,” a gift that he said he was happy to share.

Then in 2010, I interviewed Father Dorsonville when he was serving as the vice president of mission and director of immigrant and refugee services for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. He said he regarded the Spanish Catholic Center, with its chapel, as holy ground offering Christ’s love and hope to the people who came there for medical or dental care or for employment or immigration services. The priest said he witnessed God’s grace every day as the staff and volunteers there helped those in need.

Speaking at his 2015 ordination as an auxiliary bishop of Washington, Bishop Dorsonville noted “a continual invitation is coming from Pope Francis to all of us; let’s move from a culture of indifference to a culture of acceptance. By serving the poor, the voiceless and the invisible, we will always be enriched by God’s love.”

The new bishop said that when he himself came to the United States as an immigrant studying at Catholic University and at first not knowing the English language, “I was scared … However, I understood God had a plan for me.”
Later when Bishop Dorsonville served as the chairman of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he emphasized the importance of people opening their hearts to the world’s migrants and refugees, and to follow Pope Francis’ call to accompany those in need. The bishop shared that message at Masses and when testifying for immigration reform before congressional committees.

The bishop also lived that message, going on one Sunday a month with a group of Catholic young adults to bring supplies like food and sleeping bags to the homeless in Washington, D.C., and more importantly, treating them as friends, learning their names and praying with them.

And as a new chapter in his life began on Feb. 1 when he was named as the new bishop of Houma-Thibodaux where he was installed on March 29 at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop Dorsonville spoke about continuing his priestly ministry of bringing Christ to others.

“I am one with you. I am one for you,” he said at his introductory press conference. “I pledge my time, my care, my devotion and my love as a shepherd to be the instrument to bring Jesus Christ in your life.”

And at the end he joked, “Please pray for me, and if anyone knows how to avoid alligators, please let me know!”

(Mark Zimmermann is the editor of the Catholic Standard newspaper and website of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)