Msgr. Michael Doyle arrived in Camden, on the Delaware River, 41 years ago, but he couldn't find the river.

"I made my way through abandoned factories and sumac trees by myself to get to the water, and the stones were black from pollution," he recalled yesterday.

Committed to the belief that citizens should have access to their waterways, Doyle made reclaiming the industrialized river part of his decades-long mission to bring civil and environmental justice to the city.

"The only thing I could do was dream about it and talk about it," the Roman Catholic priest said.

His efforts were honored yesterday in a ceremony to christen Michael J. Doyle Park and Fishing Pier, the recreational area formerly known as Millennium Park that the cleric helped establish on the Camden waterfront seven years ago.

Doyle "could look past abandoned buildings and smokestacks and see the river, the one asset that could never be taken away," said Andrew Kricun, deputy executive director of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, which donated the property.

"That's why it's so fitting and so right that we're naming this park after him," Kricun said.

The slice of land between the authority's sewage treatment plant and the Delaware River was turned into a fishing pier and red-brick walkway with $3 million from the Delaware River Port Authority. The location offers sweeping views of Center City.

Doyle made it happen through decades of lobbying and cajoling and praying, officials said yesterday. The fishing pier now is active all day, all year long.

"You come back there and relax and enjoy yourself, you don't even know you're in Camden," said fisherman Richard "Friday" Grayson, 67. "How good is that?"

Grayson showed up to fish yesterday morning, only to find dozens of people gathered in the chilly rain to mark the park's name change.

Doyle, 75, has a following that goes beyond his Sacred Heart Church in the nearby Waterfront South neighborhood. The Irish native is known for his role, later documented in a film, with the so-called Camden 28 - a group arrested for destroying Vietnam War draft records in a federal building in Camden in 1971.

All admitted their guilt, but in what was considered a turning point for the antiwar movement, they were acquitted.

Doyle also is a published poet whose writings about Camden were read by Martin Sheen in the 2008 documentary Poet of Poverty.

"You think of Camden without Michael Doyle and you think, where the hell would we be?" Camden County Freeholder Ian Leonard asked the assembled crowd.

"I hate to say it like that, but it's true."

Contact staff writer Matt Katz at 856-779-3919 or mkatz@phillynews.com.