Fr. Greg Menegay

Faith recaptured leads to life in the priesthood

By Joyce Coronel | Nov. 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Parents of adult children who have wandered away from the practice of the faith, take heart. Fr. Greg Menegay is a shining example of Catholic faith reigniting in adulthood.

The spark that grew into a flame yielded a priest on fire with love for the Church and passionate about bringing Catholics home.

Fr. Menegay, pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Gilbert, grew up on Long Island, attending public schools and R.E. classes. After a semester of college, he entered the U.S. Army and served for two years. He said the experience helped him gain a sense of discipline and direction in his life.

During his junior year at Adelphi College, he began to ask the larger questions in life. Though he never stopped believing in God, he had fallen away from the practice of the faith.

“I began to think what life was really all about, to look for a deeper meaning and purpose to life. Because of being raised Catholic, I had a good foundation in faith,” Fr. Menegay said. “I began to do a lot of reading and thinking. One thing led to another, and I was back in the Church.”

After earning a degree in management and finance, he moved to Tempe and began working for an educational software company, where from time to time, employees would turn to discussing religion.

“I happened to mention to somebody one day I was going back to church,” Fr. Menegay said. A co-worker later approached him, inviting him to come to a young adult Bible study.

“That was the big spark that kind of got me back to the Church and more involved than just going to Mass — that’s how I ended up at Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” he said.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s youth leader at that time attended the same Bible study and after a few months, he asked the future priest to get involved with youth ministry.

Fr. Menegay found that he enjoyed working with high school students, helping them learn about their faith.

After six months of youth ministry, he began to think of the priesthood. “I had thought about it once very briefly when I was growing up, though not seriously. At first it was kind of like, wow — me a priest?”

Fr. Menegay said he had more or less mapped out a life of marriage and kids, but the call to the priesthood was strong enough that he began to mention it to priests, especially Fr. Tim Davern, then the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Fr. Davern was “extremely supportive,” and after two years of discernment, Fr. Menegay entered St. John Seminary in Camarillo, Calif., in 1993.

Ordained in 1998, he served his first assignment at St. Jerome Parish, where the experience of a middle-of-the-night anointing of a critically injured young man has stayed with him.

A few weeks later, the same young man approached Fr. Menegay after Mass one Sunday.

“He goes, ‘I know, I’m supposed to be dead.’ I guess that was the moment when I realized it wasn’t me, it was Christ… sometimes you can fall into the trap of, is it really doing anything? It can become routine. So I think from time to time, God steps in and reminds you that there’s a lot more to this than just you,” he said.

What are you passionate about as a priest?

I really like preaching about respect life issues and the Eucharist. I have a passion for trying to help Catholics grow in their understanding of the Eucharist. I like preaching about many things, but those are things I like to focus on more. [Those] have been a big focus of mine since I was ordained… I guess through my experience of being away from the Church and coming back — I was never wholeheartedly in support of abortion, but like many people, was uninformed. When I came back to the Church, I came back to the logic of respecting life all life, and that life is a gift from God.

Did someone invite you to consider the priesthood?

No, not specifically, to my knowledge I am the only religious vocation in my family. [I had] no specific encouragement from anyone. But as soon as I told Fr. Tim Davern, he was very supportive. I was never an altar boy and I wasn’t in a parish youth program. Aside from going to R.E. and Mass, I had no involvement.

What can families do to encourage more vocations to the priesthood?

One of the things I encourage my parishioners to do as families is to pray together. If they’ve never done that, just start with prayer before meals. I also encourage them to consider praying the rosary together as a family. As far as parents encouraging the priesthood or religious life, I think it’s important for parents to present that as an option to consider. I think that too often priesthood and religious life get left out of the mix for kids to consider.