A s the cover of The Observer this week solemnly proclaims, Bishop Thomas Doran, the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, passed away on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 1.  He was 80 years of age and had for some time been in declining health.

In a press interview following the announcement of his passing, I was asked, “What is the legacy of Bishop Doran?”  Because he was such an important part of the history of the Diocese of Rockford, that question is a good one.

Bishop Doran was characterized by three great influences: his love for his Catholic faith, his love for the priesthood, and his love for his native soil in the city and the Diocese of Rockford.

Bishop Doran was brought up in and embraced the Catholic faith from his childhood.  He was a product of the excellent Catholic education tradition that continues today.  He attended St. James Pro-Cathedral Grade School in Rockford, Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wis. and St. Pius X Seminary in Dubuque.  His Catholic formation then moved to his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome prior to ordination as a priest.

These studies and the practice of the faith, especially the reception of the sacraments, formed in Bishop Doran an unshakeable love for Jesus Christ and for the Church He established.  They also rooted in Bishop Doran a great desire that other young people should have the same blessing of Catholic education.  He taught religion at St. Edward Central Catholic High School, was assistant principal at Boylan Central Catholic High School, and he served for a time as Diocesan Director of Education.

As Bishop, he was a great supporter of our Catholic schools.  And he was particularly concerned that they should be tools of formation in the Catholic identity of the next generation.  His own intellectual giftedness led him to a vision of Catholic schools that demonstrated academic excellence second to none, but all in the service of the one thing that matters: eternal life with Christ in heaven.

Bishop Doran served as a priest for nearly 55 years.  Ordained in 1961, he lived his priesthood during the Second Vatican Council and through the aftermath that is such a touchstone for our faith in the 21st century.

The lifetime of Bishop Doran has seen many changes in the lives of priests.  Many of his contemporaries were shaken by these challenges and left their ministry.  Thomas Doran never doubted.  To know Bishop Doran was to sense the intensity of the love for the gift of the priestly calling that he had received.  He loved celebrating Mass and doing so reverently and precisely.  Before his final decline in health, he treasured the opportunity to celebrate morning Mass and hear confessions at nearby Holy Family Parish in Rockford.

Bishop Doran viewed his priesthood as a modern extension of the calling in the Gospels that Jesus made to the Apostles.  That understanding was strengthened by his calling to serve as a bishop.  For that reason, Bishop Doran demonstrated a great love for the universal Church.  He loved the Church in its history.  He loved the universal nature of the Church, especially as he worked at the Vatican for years. 

And because of that, he loved the office of the Successor of St. Peter, the Pope.

Bishop Doran was always deeply proud to have been from the Diocese of Rockford.  Born and raised in the city itself, his life, faith and vision were impacted by the history, the people and the upper-Midwestern culture that we all know so well.  He knew the burden, often the lonely burden, of serving as Bishop.  But there is no place he would have more wished to offer his sacrifice than the Diocese of Rockford.

One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy entrusted to us in this life is to pray for the dead.  We ask God for the final purification and full union with Christ in joy of those who have gone from us.  For all that he has done for the Church, for the diocese, the faithful and the clergy of Rockford, please pray for Bishop Thomas Doran.  He has given much and now merits our grateful intercession.

We pray that, having laid down the cross given to him, he is hearing the words that Jesus foretold for the faithful, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. … Come, share your master’s joy”  (Mt. 25: 21).