It somehow seems fitting that the Rev. James W. Dolan left the Earth to gain his heavenly reward on a Sunday morning, but that will not diminish the loss felt by those who knew and loved him.

“He loved his parish and loved saying Mass for the people and he was a good shepherd of souls,” said Sister Nancy Schnur, who was assigned to St. Michael Parish when Dolan served as pastor there.

“I worked with him for 12 years there,” Schnur said. “I learned a lot from Father Dolan. I must say, his life itself was an example.”

Dolan died at his home May 5 at age 73. He was a Butler High School and Duquesne University graduate, and served at St. Michael and St. Peter parishes in the years five local Catholic churches merged into All Saints Parish.

Schnur recalled that computers were just landing in offices everywhere during her time working with Dolan.

“I didn’t know anything about computers. I didn’t even know how to turn it on,” she said. “Father Dolan helped me and while I don’t know a lot about them today, I can get by.”

She recalled Dolan attending the sports games of Butler Catholic School students who attended St. Michael parish.

“He took an interest in their lives besides church,” Schnur said. “He tried to participate in their sporting events.”

Dolan was thrilled to serve at parishes in his hometown as well, Schnur said.

“Butler was his home,” she said. “He was so happy to come to Butler and serve his people. Butler was in his blood.”

After retiring from his final assignment at St. Sebastian parish in Pittsburgh, Dolan returned to Butler to live in his parents’ home, and came to parish breakfasts and other events.

“He was always a part of our life here in Butler,” Schnur said.

She will not forget her time working with Dolan or the lessons she learned from his life and service to the church and his flock.

“He was a good priest because he cared about people,” Schnur said.

Sister John Ann, principal at Butler Catholic School, said Dolan was one of the priests who hired her in 2003.

“He was very supportive of the school,” she said. “In fact, he taught Latin to our seventh and eighth graders for about six years.”

She said he enjoyed leading Mass at the school each week and supported Butler Catholic students and their activities.

“He came to sporting events and he was always at the school play,” Sister John Ann said.

The principal will miss her friend, but knows he has gained the heavenly reward he deserves.

“I’ll miss his encouragement and his singing voice,” Sister John Ann said. “He had a beautiful voice.”

The Rev. Dan Waruszewski, parochial vicar at St. Aidan Parish in Wexford, called Dolan a mentor who supported him while he was deciding to become a priest.

Waruszewski was a junior in high school when he began attending a Mass led by Dolan in Latin at St. Barnabas Church in Pittsburgh.

“He put his heart and soul into it. He really made it come alive,” Waruszewski said, recalling the priest's booming voice echoing through the church.

Later, when Waruszewski entered the seminary, Dolan was there to help him along the way.

“He walked with me on the journey,” Waruszewski said. “He welcomed me in like a true father.”

Waruszewski recalled that Dolan had given him his first chalice, which was needed to be ordained.

On Tuesday, Waruszewski celebrated Mass using that chalice.

“He had a way of seeing the good in everyone. He saw the good, the positive. He saw God at work,” Waruszewski said. “I like to remember him with his hope for the future, especially for the future of the church.

“He was a true priest, a good example and a good man.”

The Rev. Philip N. Farrell, a regional vicar who oversees the northern part of the Pittsburgh diocese, remembers Dolan from a period of time when he was overseeing St. Michael the Archangel Parish and St. Peter Parish in Butler, where Dolan was pastor.

“The good thing about him was he was a man of the church,” Farrell said. “He was dedicated to the faith and leading other people to the faith.”

He said the diocesan office moved to St. Peter in 2010. That's when he met Dolan.

Farrell recalled how Dolan taught Latin at Butler Catholic School.

“He was a good-hearted man, a good leader and pastor,” Farrell said.

The Rev. Charles W. Speicher, who is retired from Our Lady of Hope Parish in Whitehall, Lehigh County, was a seminary classmate of Dolan’s.

“Jim had a great smile and studied hard,” Speicher said. “We were ordained together on May 3, 1975.”

Like Sister John Ann, Speicher recalled Dolan’s singing voice and mastery of Latin.

“He was a great Irish tenor and that served him well in all his pastoral work,” Speicher said. “Jim had the unique assignment of serving the Latin Mass community of the diocese, a ministry that served people from all of Southwestern Pennsylvania.”

Speicher will miss his friend and former seminary mate.

“He gave heart and soul to his congregations (and had) a joyous spirit, a winning smile, a hearty laugh, and he was a loving minister of the Church,” he said. “I will miss his friendship and his smile.”

The Rev. David Jastrab, senior parochial vicar at Divine Redeemer Parish in Sewickley, Allegheny County, said while most of his friends from Butler went to Catholic high school, Dolan was proud to have graduated from Butler High School.

“I will miss him terribly. He was a great friend and always had care and concern for me,” Jastrab said. “His death is a great loss to our diocese.”

Lauren Peratt, of Butler Township, met Dolan almost 20 years ago when he became pastor at St. Michael Parish.

“He was very boisterous,” Peratt recalled. “We enjoyed his homilies at Mass. We felt he connected the readings to the Catholic faith and gave us a lot of ways to apply it to our everyday lives.”

When she lost her dad and sister within a year in 2002 and 2003, Dolan was indispensable to her family.

“He was very kind and wonderful, especially to my mom,” Peratt said. “He was very much a spiritual adviser.”

She recalled her daughter, Emily, being a student in Dolan’s Latin class at Butler Catholic.

“She really enjoyed his class,” Peratt said. “She would have more stories than I can remember.”

She said the extroverted Dolan was always friendly and approachable when her family saw him at church festivals.

“You could always go over to him and talk,” Peratt said.

She will never forget Dolan’s care and special attention when her sister, who had special needs, died in 2003 at age 37.

“He gave the most moving homily during Linda’s funeral,” Peratt recalled. “He really interlaced the faith with her special needs, comparing it to Christ curing the blind man.

“That was a way for the works of God to be shown through this man with a disability.”

Peratt said even though Dolan had an outgoing, gregarious personality, she was aware of a lot of work he did with humility.

“He loved the Catholic faith and being a Christian,” she said.