Fr. Dorner reflects on how travels and explorations strengthen his faith
By Jamie Sheridan | For On Mission
APPLETON — When you listen to a homily by Fr. Joe Dorner, pastor at St. Bernadette Parish, you not only gain a deeper grasp of sacred Scripture and history, but oftentimes want to hit the country roads of Wisconsin in search of hidden treasures.
Fr. Dorner only skims the surface describing the road trips he has taken throughout his life — be it in Italy as a seminarian or during his explorations in the United States. He said that he likes to spend his free time on God’s paths less traveled, claiming there are breathtaking pearls right in our backyard.
When studying in Rome at Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Dorner and his seminarian colleagues were encouraged to take the opportunity to travel. As a young man from Wisconsin, he never gave much thought to traveling Europe. Yet, he almost immediately embraced the opportunities, appreciating the hidden gems of Italy.
Fr. Dorner, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1995, shared a story about a medieval town, Curon Venosta, that had been submerged because of a dam. On a wintry day, he traveled to see the location and walked out onto the frozen lake where he put his hand on the remaining church steeple protruding through the ice as his friend snapped a photo.
After four years in Europe, he returned home and began noticing the treasures and history of Wisconsin, drawing insights from his travels.
Fr. Dorner said that the beautiful waterfalls of Marinette increased his curiosity about Wisconsin’s topography. He discovered that Wausau’s Rib Mountain is not only the second-highest point in Wisconsin, it’s also one of Earth’s oldest geological features. From the iconic lookout tower, he enjoyed the panoramic views, he said.
“I came to appreciate mountains during my time in Italy and coming back I realized, hey, we’ve got some right here!” said Fr. Dorner. “It’s something magnificent — our little mountain of 1,942 feet — especially when you realize it’s one of the oldest formations on the face of the earth.”
During that trip to central Wisconsin, he said that he also discovered the nearby quaint, old logging town of Merrill, with its beautiful boardwalk along the Wisconsin River and well-planned parks. On his way back to Wausau, instead of taking the main highway, he took a meandering county road, south through the farmland, and found what he called a breathtaking view of Rib Mountain.
Fr. Dorner also got back into the woods of the Marinette County Forest and Nicolet National Forest with his Jeep Wrangler on the old logging trails. He said that he was looking for something to discover that he might have missed during his deer hunts back in his teens.
One of those Jeep trips was with the late Fr. Dave Zimmerman. They drove, after sunset, north into Marinette County Forest from Dunbar and climbed a high hill. From the top, they saw mysterious lights in the distance. He recalled saying to Fr. Dave, “You know what that is? It’s got to be 12 or more miles away, but we’re looking at Iron Mountain!”
“You never know what you’re going to discover,” said Fr. Dorner. “You have an idea of what you want to go look for and you encounter something beautiful you never expected . . . if you’re paying attention!”
Driving hasn’t been his only means of discovering adventure and inspiration. As a pastor in Marinette, Fr. Dorner often told his priest friend from Menominee, Mich., that they needed to canoe the Menominee River, which separated their two cities.
When he found out he was being reassigned to Green Bay, he told his friend that it was “now or never.” They left one vehicle in Marinette and drove another car up to Wallace, Mich., and canoed from there. It took five to six hours, but they made it back to Marinette. “It was beautiful!” he said.
Fr. Dorner also discovered the Rails to Trails of Wisconsin — former railroad tracks converted to biking, walking and sometimes snowmobiling trails. One of his favorites is the Mountain Bay Trail, he said. The longest section is 18 miles from Eland to Weston, just outside of Wausau. As he neared the end of the trail, he and his biking partner enjoyed a stunning view of Rib Mountain for a mile or two.
“I’m on those trails and I think of all the hard work that was done to create them, cutting through hills or filling in valleys,” said Fr. Dorner. “There’s something about being out there, enjoying that beauty and riding side-by-side just talking and reflecting.”
Fr. Dorner said he encourages parishioners to make connections to nature.
“The Lord gave us this big playground to give us some sense of his almighty power, beauty and creativity,” he said.
In a homily, Fr. Dorner mentioned a connection he had made during the recent Clergy Congress near Egg Harbor in Door County. Sitting on a bluff, contemplating the beauty of the distant views, he spotted Chambers Island. He remembered all the retreats he had attended there when he was a seminarian. Looking to the southwest he then saw Marinette and Menominee, where he was a pastor for 11 years.
Then, it occurred to him it had been 11 years since he left Marinette, serving five years in Green Bay and six years in Appleton.
“At a glance, I saw and remembered so much and it was all there because I was on this high bluff — part of the Niagara Escarpment in Egg Harbor,” he said. “It was very peaceful. In some sense, I was viewing a big part of my life and feeling a deep sense of gratitude.”
On a recent drive to Four Foot Falls near Dunbar, Wis., he said he also got to see what he describes as some of the most beautiful fall colors when he decided to slowly drive home on Old County A.
“It’s magnificent to see the things you discover when you start exploring and get caught up in the beauty of nature,” said Fr. Dorner. “I find it prayerful. I get a sense of awe and wonder. It makes all the things you worry about seem pretty small and allows the anxiety to fade away. You lose yourself in the majesty and the beauty of our great state. It’s a glimpse of the face of God — all this beauty — and we’re only scratching the surface.”
When asked how these adventures strengthen his faith, Fr. Dorner said, “Little vacations are times to go up the mountain with the Lord — little foreshadowings of Heaven.”
As a testament to the power of embracing the outdoors, Fr. Dorner advised, “If we would just take the time to explore, we quickly see much more than nature. History comes alive and you start connecting the dots, seeing just how providentially our Lord put together this beautiful state we live in as an expression of his love for us.”
