When Pope St. John Paul II was elected to his pontificate, my Catholic aunt, Louise said that he was a “very holy man.” Though I was not at that time Catholic myself, her statement intrigued and inspired me. I became a Roman Catholic in 1982 at Ft. Jackson in South Carolina while serving in the United States Army and Pope St. John Paul II has not ceased inspiring me, especially with the exhortation to “be not afraid.”
After military service, I studied voice and piano performance and received a Bachelor of Music from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. I went abroad as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar to Germany, where I received a diploma in the German Language Program from Sprachinstitut in Tübingen, going on to further studies of German at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität and musicology at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, both in Freiburg im Breisgau. After my time in Germany, I returned to the USA and had the great pleasure of being Director of Music and Music Educator at Prince of Peace Catholic Community before discerning that God had something else in mind for me.
I answered the call to the priesthood and entered seminary studies at the Theological College of the National Seminary of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. I was ordained to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ on June 3, 2006. My first assignment was Parochial Vicar at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Richardson, Texas followed by the position of Chaplain and Director of the Catholic Campus Ministry at SMU (and Priest in Residence here at Christ the King Catholic Church) and concurrently functioning in the role of Associate Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Dallas.
After completing Executive Education at the Cox School of Business at SMU, receiving certificates in both Management and Leadership, in July of 2013, I was assigned as Pastor to the All Saints Catholic Community in Dallas. There I continued my pursuit of leadership formation, receiving a diploma from Stagen Leadership Academy in Dallas, taking part in an intensive 52-Week Integral Leadership Program. In July of 2017, I accepted an assignment to Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas, taking on the role of Vice-Rector and Director of Student Life.
In 2020, I was named Pastor of Christ the King, which has been a kind of coming home. It is a vibrant community with deep faith and a National Blue Ribbon School as well. I am so excited to be here. Words cannot express it. I also feel a deep responsibility to foster the community life of our parish, to see us serving with even greater fervor, deepening our spirituality, and calling on our wider community to join us in the worship of the true God, Christ, our King. Let us approach him boldly as we walk the road of faith together. I make the words of Pope St. John Paul II my own: “be not afraid.”