Fr. Patrick J. O'Doherty

10/20/2026

Visitation and Vigil Service
• Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
• Location: Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ocala
• 10:00 AM: Reception of the body at the church
• 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM: Public Viewing (Closed Casket)
• 5:30 PM: Vigil Service for Fr. Patrick J. O’Doherty

Queen Of Peace Catholic ChurchStreamed under ONE LICENSE #741775-A

10/16/2026

https://youtu.be/dylmXenSgzc

In this final installment of “Questions for Fr. Patrick”, recorded ...

10/12/2026

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR FATHER PATRICK J. O'DOHERTY

With deep sorrow and a profound sense of loss, the parish community announces the passing of our beloved pastor, Father Patrick J. O'Doherty. For nearly 40 years, Father O'Doherty faithfully, selflessly, and lovingly shepherded the flock at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ocala, Florida.

Please join his family, the Most Reverend John Noonan, Bishop of Orlando, his brother priests, and the entire parish community in honoring his extraordinary life, his devoted ministry, and his enduring legacy.

Visitation and Vigil Service

• Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
• Location: Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ocala
• 10:00 AM: Reception of the body at the church
• 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM: Public Viewing (Closed Casket)
• 5:30 PM: Vigil Service for Fr. Patrick J. O’Doherty

Funeral Mass & Christian Burial

• Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
• 11:00 AM: Funeral Mass at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ocala, presided by the Most Reverend John Noonan, Bishop of Orlando.
• 1:30 PM: Funeral Procession to the Cemetery

Cemetery Location:

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Cemetery
5010 Holy Rosary Loop, Oxford, FL 34484

In lieu of flowers, donations are accepted for Fr. O’Doherty’s Homes for Haiti Project and the Catholic Appeal 2026. (cash or checks payable to “Queen of Peace Church.”)

+++Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

10/09/2026

May 26, 1946 – October 9, 2026
Ordained to the Priesthood for the Diocese of Orlando on June 13, 1970

Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you (Luke 6:38).

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Father Patrick (PJ) O’Doherty. Father O’Doherty was born in Tipperary Town County Tipperary, Ireland to parents Catherine (Carberry) and John. He was the middle child of 9 children; 7 boys and 2 girls. His parents were faith-filled, and faith was a part of his daily living. He knew he wanted to be a priest when he was six years old.

He was known for his wry sense of humor, one that grew from his earliest years. He once quipped that he was “the best looking and most charming” of the O’Doherty clan. He was “thrown out of the altar boys” after being reprimanded for joking with his fellow altar servers. Still, his call to a vocation to the priesthood was not deterred. In an interview in 2024, Father O’Doherty chuckled that he carried H.H.H. behind his name for “holy, handsome and humble.”

Young Patrick O’Doherty was 18 when he entered St. Patrick’s College in Tipperary, Ireland. “There were 32 of us in seminary. Father O’Doherty was 24 when ordained June 13, 1970, for the Diocese of Orlando, at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, County Tipperary. He celebrated his first Mass in his hometown, Cahir, County Tipperary. His late mother, Catherine, a widow, and his siblings sat in the front pews. Father O’Doherty also received an M.A. degree from Stetson University in DeLand.

While some of his brothers considered a vocation to the priesthood through religious life, Father O’Doherty chose to be a diocesan priest and became the only O’Doherty to be ordained. He knew little about the Diocese of Orlando or the state of Florida, other than it was part of the United States and known for sunshine.

Arriving in the Diocese of Orlando, the young priest received his first assignment to serve the community of St. Charles Borromeo (then Cathedral) Catholic Church, Orlando from †Bishop William Borders. His Irish spirit, humor and charm went with him as he served the communities of Divine Mercy Catholic Church, Merritt Island; Central Catholic High School, Melbourne; Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Melbourne; Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, Orlando; St. Joseph Catholic Church, Lakeland; and St. Mary Catholic Church, Rockledge. He also served as a member of the Diocesan Presbyteral Council.

Father O’Doherty was appointed pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ocala in 1987 when it had just been elevated from a mission church of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, Ocala, to a parish. With his community, Father O’Doherty replaced the mission’s 1986 multi-purpose building with a new church dedicated in October 1993. The $2.4 million church featured a gold cross atop a gold dome. An 80-foot-high stained-glass image of the crucified Christ over the altar and statues, art and stained glass were featured throughout. He had served this community of faith ever since.

Father O’Doherty continued to build up the Church in Ocala, with the people bearing God’s fruit. He began a radio ministry in 2003, reaching Catholics and non-Catholics. He produced multi-media broadcasts three or four times a week reaching viewers.

Father O’Doherty ministered to the people he so lovingly served with God’s gracious mercy when Queen of Peace Catholic Church was devastated by an arsonist, who started a fire in the church in 2020. The man was arrested, and the church had to undergo restorations. He said, “Evil never attacks evil. The church is something very good. I take the attack on the church as a sign that we’re doing the right thing here.”

Waking at 4:30 a.m., Father O’Doherty started God’s day with Liturgy of the Hours and Adoration, a mile-long walk and morning Mass. Then, he tended to administration duties and met with people for one-on-one sessions. He visited the sick and the dying and celebrated Funeral Masses. The Sacraments of Initiation, Reconciliation and Marriage offered a time of rejoicing.

Father O’Doherty said, “Being a priest is not a job. As instruments of Christ, the priesthood is a gift.”

Funeral Arrangements are unknown at this time.

10/08/2026

https://youtu.be/7ULlcSCKKEM

In this segment of “Questions for Fr. Patrick” Father was asked to ...

10/07/2026

CUT IN HALF

Before the dawn wind rises, before the shadows flee, return, be my beloved, like a gazelle, a young stag, on the mountains of the covenant.

A literal translation of, ‘on the mountains of the covenant’ is: On the mountains of the victims cut in half. Where can one go with this “victims cut in half’, what does that mean”? In the most ancient rituals of covenant the contracting parties, let’s say a man and a woman about to contract a marriage, would pass between the parts of a slain animal, half on one side, half on the other. As they passed through, they would call down on themselves what happened to the animal, its being cut in two, if either of them broke their marriage vows to each other.

You know already that God has a marriage covenant with His chosen people. You know too that like us they very often violated the covenant with the Lord, the whole ‘golden calf’ thing over and over again. So for instance, we hear the prophet Jeremiah saying: Therefore, the Lord says this: You have disobeyed me by not each granting freedom to his brother and his neighbor. Very well, I in my turn, it is the Lord who speaks, leave sword, famine, and plague free to deal with you. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, and these men who have infringed my covenant, who have not observed the terms of the covenant made in My presence; I will treat these men like the calf they cut in two, to pass between the parts of it. As for the nobles of Juda and Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the country who have passed between the parts of the calf, I will put them into the power of their enemies and of the power of men determined to kill them. Their corpses will feed the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. (Jeremiah 34:17-20)

10/06/2026

SIN EATER

I had a crucifix on my desk. By most people’s standards, I imagine it would have been considered a crude piece of work. The body of Jesus on the cross was painted all black, the eyes all red, the hair all a dirty white. I think of it as my untouchable cross. Let me explain. Hinduism, one of the religions of India, has a caste system. To the best of my knowledge, the lowest rung of this caste system is the untouchable. Untouchables do latrine duty, cesspool cleaning up, radiation clean up, I think of them as absorbing the pollution of India. Please bear in mind that I have never been to India, never have I experienced its caste system either so my notion of the untouchable may be all wrong. Back to my untouchable cross with its all black, red yes, white haired image of Jesus. I think of Our Lord as absorbing the ‘sin pollution’ of all the people of the world.

Jesus began to be exceedingly troubled, His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood: “Father if it be possible let this chalice pass from me, but not my will but Thine be done,” Jesus Our Lord, sin eater, sin drinker. Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Remember that image from Old Testament times on the feast of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement when the priest laying his hands on the head of a goat said the sins of the people onto the goat. The goat, now a scapegoat, is led out of the city or camp weighed down with the sins of God’s people. The scapegoat is to be given over to the demon of the desert (shades here of Jesus being led by the Holy spirit into the desert). Now as they say in Tipperary: The goat don’t know nothin’ and no goat ever took anything away. The real scapegoat, Jesus the Lamb of God, was lead out of the city to be crucified truly taking on Himself the sins of the world. God made Him who did not know sin, to be sin so that you and I might become the very holiness of God.

Bear in mind that leprosy is not a sin, but is a reminder of sin in that sin is leprosy of the soul. Bear in mind too that Lepers were ostracized or excommunicated from the community, and deadly sin cuts one off from Holy Communion, and bear in mind that we are talking about sin eating as in Our Lord absorbing our sins. A l***r came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees, “If you want to” he said, “You can cure me.” Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him. “Of course I want to,” He said, “Be cured”, and the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him: Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.

The man went away but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in place where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him. He would again on the cross change places with leprous us, sinful mankind. He will die outside the place where the people lived, Jerusalem, yet down through the centuries people of every nation and tongue still come to him.

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. In my own private prayer as I am lifting up the chalice and the Sacred Host at Holy Mass I say, “and if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all mankind to myself, draw All mankind to yourself Lord Jesus.”

10/04/2026

WIND, BREATH, SPIRIT (PART II)

In the marriage of Abraham’s son Isaac to Rebecca, the Holy Spirit is symbolized by Abraham’s servant who goes searching for a wife for Isaac. The servant takes 10 of Abraham’s camels, laden down with some of the best that Abraham had as gifts for the future bride. The Holy Spirit with His manifold gifts has been poured out on all mankind in the hopes that all mankind would say yes to Christ the Bridegroom.

Ezekiel’s extraordinary vision of the valley of dry bones highlights the working of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. “The hand of the Lord was laid upon me and He carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among the bones. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Lord, you know, you know.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones, preach to them and say, dry bones hear the word of the Lord.’ The Lord God says this to these bones, ‘I am now going to make breath enter you and you will live, I will put sinews on you, I shall put flesh on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath and you will live and you will learn that I am the Lord.’ I prophesied as I had been ordered and while I was prophesying there was a noise, a sound of clattering and the bones joined together. I looked and saw that they were covered with sinews, flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy Son of Man.’ Say to the breath, ‘The Lord God says this, come from the four winds breath, breathe on these dead and let them live.’ I prophesied as He had ordered me and the breath entered them, they came to life again, and stood up on their feet, a great and immense army.” (Ezekiel 37:1-10) Perhaps this vision of Ezekiel’s dry bones is a preview of the return of Jesus, the Word of God, in glory when the sea and the earth and everything will give up its dead.

Remember Mary asking how it is possible for her to be the mother of God: The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of The Most High will cover you with its shadow hence the Holy offspring to be born of you will be called Holy, the Son of God.” You might say, “How is it possible for the bread to become the body of Christ?” The angel again says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon it and the power of the Most High will cover it with its shadow and what appears to be bread will be Christ.” How is it possible for you and I to become great saints? What the angel said to Mary he now says to you and I, “The Holy Spirit of God will come upon us as it did over the waters of creation, as it did over Mary, as it did over the bread and w**e, and we will no longer live but Christ will live in us.”

The spirit and the bride say, “Come Lord Jesus.” Amen.

10/03/2026

GENEALOGY

I know that you didn’t ask me what I think, but if you keep reading this you will find out some of my thoughts. Don’t say you weren’t warned! I think that the anti-Word, the Devil, shows up sometimes to discourage people from reading the Word of God. He has a very easy time of it, especially if a person begins reading page one, chapter one, verse one of the New Testament.

It reads: A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, Tamar being their mother. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, Nahshon was the father of Salmon, Salmon was the father of Boaz, Rahab being his mother. Boaz was the father of Obed, Ruth being his mother. Obed was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of King David.

Those are the first six verses of Matthew’s genealogy and it goes on like this for another 11 verses. I think it’s here that the anti-Word, Satan, suggests to people, “This book is all about begetting, this one begat that one, and that one begat this one, and there’s an awful lot of begetting going on, and then they close the book. Yet, there is something extraordinary in this genealogy, there are five women mentioned, all of them unusual. Two of them are foreigners, one a pr******te, one an adulteress, one who has an incestuous relationship and all of them highlighting that most glorious of all women, Mary. She it was, who was betrothed to a man name Joseph of the House of David, and of her was born Jesus who was called Christ. The women’s names were Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.

10/02/2026

WIND, BREATH, SPIRIT (PART 1)

These words, wind, breath, spirit, are interchangeable in the Holy Bible. Thus you have some translations of Genesis 1:1 saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and a mighty wind from God swept over the face of the deep.” In the Jerusalem Bible it says ‘twas God’s “spirit” that hovered over the waters, and one is reminded of an eagle hovering over its young in the nest exciting its nestlings forth, coaxing them to attempt their first flight. When Jesus appeared to ten of His apostles after He rose from the dead He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, for those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” Notice, He breathed and they received the Holy Spirit, breath, spirit.

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them, He said to them, “Peace be with you”, and showed them His hands and His side, wounded. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the risen Lord and He said to them again, “Peace be with you, as the Father sent Me so am I sending you.” After saying this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, for those whose sins you forgive they are forgiven, for those whose sins you retain, they are retained. “Here the breath of Jesus is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. See what I mean about “breath” and “spirit” being interchangeable.

Back to Genesis…. “The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil then He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. I don’t know if here that the “breath of life” stands for receiving the Holy Spirit, but we can see some association with the Holy Spirit like when He breathed upon the Apostles so that men who were dead in sin could be forgiven and live.

At the time of the flood and Noah’s great rainbow there seems to be some more associations with the spirit, the breath of God, who moved over the waters at the beginning; now moving over the waters of the great flood as a dove. Because of man’s sins the waters have brought back chaos. We hear of Noah sending out a dove over the receding waters. In the evening, the dove came back to him and there was a new olive branch in its beak. At the time of the tower of Babel a different spirit besets mankind, a spirit of overweening pride, like that introduced by the serpent to our first parents. Come said the men of Babel, let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching to Heaven (nothing particularly wrong with the whole tower business, ‘twas the spirit in which it was built). “Let us”, they said, “Make a name for ourselves,” not, “hallowed be the holy name of God.” The Lord confused their speech, they stopped building the tower, and the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

Now later when Christ risen and ascended to where He was before, sent out the Holy Spirit on the early Church, men and women of every language and nation were gathered into the Church in a union of tongues and still are today. Lord, defeat our Babel with your Pentecost.

The Book of Revelation talks about the gathering of all nations in Heaven.