Patrick O'Doherty

Fr. Patrick O'Doherty is the kind of priest who can make you laugh and cry in the same homily. Parishioners talk about a man who is warm, personable, and naturally funny, the kind of priest who inserts humor while inspiring and explains scripture in ways that are simple enough to carry with you all week. One parishioner said that Fr. O'Doherty brought back the strength in her faith and that she can see God preaching through him. Another said his chemistry lesson of a homily put a smile on her face for the rest of the day. He jokingly carries the letters H.H.H. behind his name, which he says stand for "holy, handsome and humble," and calls himself "the best looking and most charming" of the O'Doherty clan. The middle child of nine, raised in Cahir, County Tipperary, Ireland, he grew up in a strong Catholic household and knew he wanted to be a priest when he was six years old. "I just knew it," he has said. As a boy he was a bit mischievous and once got thrown out of the altar boys for cutting up with his friends, a story he still tells with a chuckle. But the call never left him. He entered the seminary at eighteen and was ordained on June 13, 1970 at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, County Tipperary, celebrating his first Mass in his hometown with his late mother Katherine and his siblings in the front pews. Fr. O'Doherty came to Florida knowing little more about the state than what he learned in geography class, that it was part of the United States and known for sunshine. His Irish charm followed him through every assignment, from teaching at Bishop Moore High School in Orlando to serving parishes across Central Florida before arriving at Queen of Peace in 1987, where he has been ever since. He is one of the only priests his parishioners know who makes time every single day to hear confessions, and he began preaching on the radio in 2003, now producing broadcasts several times a week. But beyond the pulpit, Fr. O'Doherty is a man of quiet routine. He wakes at 4:30 every morning for prayer and adoration, takes a mile-long walk before the sun is fully up, celebrates Mass, and spends his afternoons visiting the sick and the dying. On his day off, you will find him outside feeding his twenty-three carrier pigeons or working in his garden. When asked about retirement, he borrows an old saying: "I will die in harness." He has no intention of slowing down. "Being a priest is not a job," he says. "The priesthood is a gift."