A sacred job

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Jerry Dolan would never phrase it like this, but in

many ways his job description resembles that of a stage manager.

For the past seven years, the retired salesman for a library furniture

distributor has prepared props and cued people to enter the action at the

appropriate time.

But Dolan’s “command center” isn’t located backstage at a theater. As

the sacristan at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, Dolan lays out the

priest’s robes and stoles, fills glass bowls with wafers for communion,

and sets up the Mass’ sacred objects on the church’s altar.

A congregation member since the church’s beginnings in 1965, Dolan

volunteers his services for the five weekend Masses. And because he and

his wife, Marion, live near the church grounds on Mar Vista Drive, he

said he also helps out during weekday services, adding that he attends

the 5:30 p.m. Mass every day anyway.

“It’s a seven-days-a-week job, 52 weeks a year,” he said. “The church

never stops. In fact, if there is a holiday, it gets busier.”

While he appeared modest about the number of hours he works as a

sacristan -- in addition to regular services, Dolan comes over to set up

Mass for baptisms, weddings and funerals -- both local and regional

church officials expressed high appreciation for his dedication.

“He is just a gentleman,” said Father Sean Condon, who joined the

congregation 3 1/2 years ago.

“I have never had so much professionalism in the sacristy in terms of

getting it right,” Condon said. “He takes on more than he has to take on.

All people know exactly what they are required to do.”

Dolan has left a lasting impression at the diocese of Orange.

“He’s a particularly exemplary individual,” said Msgr. Lawrence J.

Baird, the diocese’s spokesman, adding that most churches recruited

volunteers to function as sacristans. “It’s an important position that

ensures that [the service] really runs smoothly.”

But as an individual sacristan, Dolan seems to be part of a dying

breed. He said himself that he has never met a “colleague.”

Officials for other Catholic churches in the area -- such as Our Lady

of Mt. Carmel on Balboa Peninsula, Costa Mesa’s St. John the Baptist and

St. Joachim churches, Sts. Simon and Jude Church in Huntington Beach, and

St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Irvine -- said they rely on rotating

volunteers to prepare Masses.

Condon, too, said sacristans are still more common in his native

Ireland, where he spent most of his 43 years in the priesthood.

No slow Sundays

On Sundays, when four services follow each other with 30 minutes to

spare in between, things can get a little out of hand, Dolan explained.

“I wouldn’t want to use the term ‘mass confusion,”’ the 77-year-old

said while sitting in the church’s sacristy, where the vestments and

objects used during the service are kept. “It’s not chaos, either. It’s

hectic.”

With the soft splashing of water in a fountain outside the only sound

audible and the sunlight dimmed by brightly colored stained glass

windows, a hectic sacristy seemed difficult to imagine on a weekday

afternoon.

But when the priest, four altar servers, two lectors, the cantor and

other musicians all try to get ready for the service, it’s easy to lose

direction, Dolan said. Coordinating the group is what he’s there for, he

added.

“Mass is a bit like a production,” Dolan said. “It takes a certain

amount of coordination to get [the priest and others] out at the right

time. . . . They all go out the back door for the procession into the

church. They have to be there on time or Mass gets behind schedule.”

By the time congregants rise to begin the service, Dolan’s work is

pretty much over. He remains behind the scenes during Mass or joins

fellow parishioners in the pews.

To Dolan, preparing the service is not a big deal. Opening some of the

brown wooden closets and drawers that line the sacristy’s walls, he

pointed to an ornately decorated tower of bowls.

“This is the ciborium, which is used to distribute the bread,” he

said. Next to it stood the priest’s chalice or communion cup, with glass

goblets for congregants in a separate closet nearby.

“When you’re setting up your Mass, you prepare these things in

advance,” he said. “What I do primarily is get things prepared.”

Dolan pulled out a stack of wafers wrapped in plastic, adding that

over the years, he’s come to know how many are needed for each service.

Any remaining wafers are kept in the church’s tabernacle after the priest

has blessed them. But the wine, which Catholics believe turns into the

blood of Jesus Christ during the blessing, can’t be kept.

“Any of the precious blood is consumed,” Dolan said. At 18 proof,

careful measuring is in order.

“That wine is no joke,” he said, pulling a large jar of the sweet

liquid out of a closet. “We hope [people take] just a sip.”

Dolan also had an explanation for why the church uses white wine

instead of red.

“Red wine stains so badly,” he said, adding that volunteers with the

so-called altar guild laundered the towels, table cloths and napkins used

during the service. Red “might be more appropriate from a color

standpoint, but it’s not practical.”

Long holidays

Dolan is also responsible for bringing out the priest’s robes, which

differ in color according to season.

“We’re down to the Advent season,” he said, pulling out a drawer

filled with purple stoles near the bottom of the closet.

Along with Easter, the Christmas season will keep Dolan in church even

longer than usual.

“My wife often says that she’s a sacristan’s widow,” Dolan said, with

a rare smile appearing on his usually serious face. “But she realizes

that that’s what I enjoy. . . . The church has been real good to me.

[Volunteering] is the least I can do.”

While confirming that she’s gone on trips up the Mississippi, Florida

and the Amish country in Pennsylvania on her own, Marion Dolan said the

couple still had time to celebrate Christmas.

She added that she fully supports her husband’s involvement in the

church.

“It’s good for him,” she said. “It gives him something to do that

keeps him busy.”

But Dolan freely admitted he had difficulties staying away for too

long.

“I take very little time off,” he said. “And when I come back, they

always say, ‘We sure missed you.”’