Deacon James Thornton, a veteran of the U.S. Navy whose active ministry in the diaconate spanned more than 20 years in Shakopee, died Feb. 23 at age 95.
A high school teacher in Minneapolis before retiring in 1989, Deacon Thornton and his late wife, Janice, raised five children in their 62 years of marriage. In addition to their children, Deacon Thornton is survived by 14 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Ordained in 1976, Deacon Thornton was a member of the first group of men ordained as permanent deacons for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since that ministry was re-established in the Church in 1967. He retired from active ministry in 2000.
Recalling his role in that first class of deacons, Deacon Thornton told The Catholic Spirit in 2017 that at one point he was a Dominican novice, and the diaconate enabled him to respond to a call to the clergy. Highlights of his ministry as a deacon were serving at the altar, with the homebound and with Loaves and Fishes programs, he said.
Deacon Thornton also helped establish perpetual adoration of the Eucharist at St. Mary in Shakopee in the 1980s. Years later, St. Mary merged with St. Mark in Shakopee and St. Mary of the Purification in the nearby, unincorporated community of Marystown to become Sts. Joachim and Anne.
Funeral arrangements for Deacon Thornton include visitation March 4 from 9:30-11 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. funeral Mass, all at St. Mary in Shakopee.
