An Interview With Fr. Timothy Danaher

On April 24, 2023, Contributor to The Dartmouth Review Jhozef Sheldia (TDR) interviewed Father Timothy Danaher (TD) of AQ. Father Danaher discussed his life and work at Dartmouth.

TDR: Let’s start from the beginning. Tell us about where you are from and how your upbringing affected you.

TD: I’m from Steubenville, Ohio—that’s my hometown. Neither of my parents is from there, though. My mom is from Long Island, and my dad is from west of Chicago, a place called Rockford, Illinois. They went to Franciscan University in Steubenville for college in 1977 because of something called the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. My Catholic background is unique because of that. The Charismatic movement started at the University of Pittsburgh, and it the way in which the Pentecostal movement—healings, speaking in tongues, laying of hands, all that wild spirituality—reached into the Catholic Church again. And it was at this tiny little university in Steubenville, the Franciscan University, that it really started to catch fire. So, I was born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio because of that movement. I exist in that context. 

TDR: When did you start feeling the call to priesthood? Does your family history mean that this is something you considered since a young age?

TD: Yes and no. Yes, in the simple sense that I had a good deal of exposure to the Charismatic movement. Long story short, I did go to my church retreats, weekends, et cetera. But no, my thoughts of the priesthood were very much in the abstract. I did not get called to the priesthood until November 1, 2008, which was during the fall break of my senior year in college. Before, I had faith that Christ died and rose from the dead and was still interacting with us. I think my initial faith in high school was rooted in my experience seeing Christian people in my class treating each other with more respect, and, overall, they were the crowd that didn’t go absolutely crazy. I was shy as a highschooler, so I hung out with these people. 

In college, I started taking classes about Bible history and theology. But I never actually considered the priesthood until it came upon me. I don’t think of it as a career; it’s the parallel of marriage for Roman Catholics. It’s the equivalent of falling in love, except not with a human person. It is to want Christ as one’s day-to-day companion. Strangely and suddenly, that was satisfying, as with the Latin verb satura, which means to make complete, to make full. It feels enough. 

TDR: Where did life take you after college? What was your path before coming here? 

TD: I think of my path as within the Catholic Church, but that includes an incredible diversity. I went through seven years of graduate school, primarily in Washington, D.C., but also Bogotá, Colombia. My education consisted of history and languages, ancient and modern. It included the practical skills needed by a priest and for a church. It included many unpaid internships, like working with Mother Teresa’s sisters in the poor neighborhoods of New York City, guiding tours of cathedrals in D.C., working at summer camps for kids, and completing three full years of hospital internships. 

My path was part monastic, part ministerial. My homelife included structured prayer with chants in English and Latin. I was also serving in this wild garden variety of ministries, with all kinds of personalities. I would literally work with a kindergarten classroom in Spanish all day and then go to various hospital settings overnight. Ultimately, I went to Philadelphia and was at Center City Parish for three years. Then, I was sent up here to Dartmouth. 

I have been a Dominican for 12 years, and every year it has been a strange combination of a deep quiet and being face-to-face with the human race. It has been radically different from what I expected. I thought it would be like grad school; instead, it’s been a front row seat to the human race. 

TDR: Can you discuss your ministry with Latino communities?

TD: My introduction to the Latino world began with a rumor that I knew Spanish. It wasn’t until I had a moment of inspiration while working at a Harlem soup kitchen run by the Missionaries of Charity that I became interested in learning it. One day, I witnessed a conversation between a Kenyan sister and a man who had come to the soup kitchen. I lacked the confidence to participate. That gave me the motivation to learn Spanish.

Several years later, I was recruited to work in Latin America. What began as a summer placement turned into five years of work in Hispanic communities. Among Latinos, church is a family. This familial bond is deeply ingrained in certain cultures, whereas others, such as that of the United States, tend to be more institutionally oriented.

TDR: We’ll now focus on Dartmouth. What have been your impressions of Dartmouth so far? How have they developed?

TD: My impressions of a place change and develop with time, but they never change entirely. When I arrived in Philadelphia, I thought it was like a punch in the face. It was rude, dirty, and chaotic. It took me about two years to be comfortable in Philadelphia. I love the city now and embrace it fully, but I haven’t lost my first impression. It’s as insane as I first thought. 

My first impression of Dartmouth was that it is a beautiful place. Come summertime, there is that pine scent in the air. I live next to a river in which I can swim. Nature is right outside my doorstep. But when the gas stations and grocery stores close at 8pm, that is a challenge! Maybe the campus stays up late, but for the adults there is nothing to do. 

But I have observed that student life is very interesting. Go to class, paddle a canoe. I love the daily dip that seniors do. I love the polar plunge. I think the DOC is really impressive. However, Dartmouth is going through a dual process that a lot of the country is going through. The first is the Starbucks process, which is wearing athletic clothing and drinking sugared coffee while working on the computer. And that is how one spends the majority of his or her life. Then there is the Vegas process, which is the frat nightlife of campus. 

My main thoughts on these processes come from a place of caution. I have worked at a lot of AA meetings to provide support, and, contrary to popular opinion, there are many people in their 20s who just cannot shake it off after college. However, I am not apocalyptic about drinking coffee by day and beer by night. I just think students should learn better things, like having an hour-long conversation and connecting with people. Not just small talk and texting. 

There is also something unique to Dartmouth. I have done ministry and been involved in seven or eight other schools, and I was very impressed from the time of my arrival here. People study harder here than at many other schools. However, people also often compare themselves to others, seeking to maintain their importance. As humans, we struggle with equality despite our desire to talk about it. Our approach to equality is based on status, while God views us as infinitely valuable. We often feel frustrated that we can’t seem to act equally, despite our societal expectations. Christianity acknowledges the presence of inequality in human nature. We tend to make things unequal for each other, competing and striving to outdo one another. This is where God’s intervention comes in to show us what true equality is. While we should work towards equality, we cannot achieve it without God’s help.

TDR: How would you describe your relationship with the administration?

TD: My relationship with the administration is minimally fine. I know Dean Scott Brown, who has visited us, and we visited him at his home. He is a very good and fair man. We are tied financially to Dartmouth, so we are always transparent with them. Then there is our main tie, the Tucker Center, with which we have an ongoing relationship. 

Many Dartmouth professors and employees attend mass alongside students on Sundays and daily mass too. So, our relationship is one of friendliness, but I think we are largely ignored by the administration, even though we have been here 100 years. Of course, this all aligns with the Catholic principle of subsidiarity: things operate best when at the most local level. 

TDR: What are your thoughts on the Christian community at Dartmouth and the inter-denominational make-up of Aquinas House, even as it is a Catholic student center?

TD: I think Dartmouth has a rare kind of healthy humanism which allows all Christian groups to interact and get on the same page. Normally, Christian denominations don’t interact often, except in maybe a public debate. But here, through the Tucker Center, fellow ministers can become friends on an individual basis. 

Aquinas House is a space in which Catholics and a variety of Christians study, have meals, and worship together. If there was ever a time for Christians to come together it is now, in a period of secularism when fewer people consistently come to Church.

I think at Dartmouth it was during COVID that upperclassmen formed a miniature group of Catholics and Protestants who would socialize together off campus. They did not fully understand what they were doing, but they were ending a history of Christian segregation. That group has grown since then. Each side has invited friends to join, and I think the Church should really do more of this.

All people are called to not just believe with their minds but also love with their hearts and show respect. I think this is one of the healthiest Catholic settings I’ve been in. It’s not about teams or winning converts. It’s about just simply living as Christians. I am very conscious of wanting to live that way. Aquinas House is one of the most ideologically free places I have ever been. 

Among congregants nationwide, there is usually a strong momentum to the radical left or the radical right. I’m very surprised that most students who come here to Aquinas House were spiritually committed to their local parishes. They now want to become well read in a little more Christian history, theology, and scripture. 

Many students in college take the cheap route towards the internet. So, they’re basically full of YouTube videos which are politicized and aggressive and full of ideology. This is an unhealthy internet version of Christianity. I see none of that here because students come to Dartmouth religiously committed or at least part of the way there. 

I consider myself very fortunate to be at Dartmouth because the kind of Christian students who come here are pretty open and reasonable compared to other Christian students nationwide.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.