Monsignor Donald M. Dwyer, who retired recently after 15 years at the Church of Resurrection in Rye, recalled how he first entered the priesthood.
“I was raised in the Parkchester section of the Bronx,” he said in a recent phone call from the condominium in Tampa, Fla., that he bought many years ago. “And the director of vocations from the local Archbishop’s office came to talk to the eighth graders about a life in service.”
He laughs, recalling that he was not interested. But three years later, as a junior at a Catholic high school, he “began to consider it.”
“It was my friends, particularly my basketball friends, who supported me and encouraged my decision,” Dwyer said. His parents supported the idea as well. After he finished what was then called Cathedral College in Douglaston, Queens, he attended St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers and received a master’s degree from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
Now, after 47 years as a priest – serving in only four parishes – it was the same basketball friends who encouraged him to retire.
“I was the only one of the friends not yet retired, and they said it was time,” he recalled.
That was in May.
Now Dwyer recalls a moment in May 2011, when he received an important phone call.
“Cardinal Dolan, who in 2011 was still archbishop of New York, called me,” he said. “I remember exactly where I was, walking late at night on Middletown Road in the Bronx. ‘Congratulations you are the new pastor of Resurrection of Rye.’”
It was a position Dwyer was drawn to because of the young people, and he was selected from six or seven applicants, he recalled.
They have been happy years. “We have a lot going for us, so many young people in excellent Catholic schools,” he said. “Rye is a unique community.”
The other draw was to be able to remain close to the Bronx, where his family and previous parishes were. When he announced his retirement, he was “bombarded” with texts from the wonderful Rye students he has kept in touch with.
As he walks the beach near his Florida home – something he finds to be spiritual – Dwyer reflects on some major recent historical events. Just past the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Dwyer remembers where he was on that dark day – at his parish in the Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in the Pelham Bay neighborhood of the Bronx.
“On 9/11, by the noon Mass, the church was packed,” he recalled. Later that afternoon, he was invited by a parishioner to his apartment on the 24th floor of a Co-op City building. “From there,” said Dwyer, “we looked down to the fires of 9/11.”
In Rye, in 2012, he witnessed the flooding from Hurricane Sandy coming up the steps of the church. He remembers the repairs that had to be made, and 11 days without heat.
During the COVID years, Dwyer recalled, people moved to Rye “sight unseen” from Manhattan, because of Rye’s reputation as a special community so close to the city.
In the last months before his “smooth transition” to Florida, Dwyer enjoyed generous and kind invitations to celebrate with him. He had lunches and dinners at Rye Brill & Bar, Frankie & Johnnie’s Steakhouse, and his favorites in nearby Port Chester, Marianacci’s. He has fond memories of “the clubs on Milton Point,” particularly American Yacht Club and Coveleigh Club.
In Florida, Dwyer continues working in local parishes on the weekends, offering Mass and hearing confessions. He has family nearby, including his brother and niece.
He is enjoying being able to relax, and takes pride in his years of service, including in the “unique community of Rye,” he said. “We have a lot going for us.”
