Joyce Coronel/CATHOLIC SUN

Fr. Daniel McBride, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Chandler, said once he entered the seminary he never looked back.

FR. DANIEL MCBRIDE, VF

Chandler pastor has love for evangelization, hands-on work

Fr. Daniel McBride, VF, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Chandler, came to the Valley when he was just 2 years old. The eighth of 10 children, he grew up near Metro Center in Phoenix and attended St. Jerome Parish with his family.

“When I was a kid we had virtually nothing. We were fairly poor growing up,” Fr. McBride said. “We went to church every Sunday — that was a non-negotiable. Church was a huge priority for my parents.”

His parents were very involved at St. Jerome’s.

“Mom went to daily Mass for a good part of her life and Dad was head usher for many years,” Fr. McBride said.

As a teenager, he was active in the parish’s youth ministry and by age 18 knew God was calling him to the priesthood. He took a year off after graduating from Moon Valley High School and later entered Mount Angel Seminary at 20, where he earned a degree in philosophy. Fr. McBride earned a Master’s of Divinity from St. Meinrad Seminary and was ordained a priest in 1995.

Today he is not only pastor of one of the fastest growing parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix, he is also dean of the South Deanery, encompassing 10 other parishes.

He said he loves being Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s representative to the parishes, especially when it comes to confirmation.

“It is so gratifying to see all those curious little faces that are just so excited about God. I love to be there with them in that,” Fr. McBride said.

In addition to his responsibilities as pastor and dean, he’s also canonical pastor of St. Edward the Confessor and Holy Family parishes, so he has a very full plate.

Finding enough hours in the day to see to all those duties can be challenging, but he’s learned to accept the fact that no matter how much he’s accomplished ­during the day, much remains to be done. That includes getting involved in the nitty-gritty of a recent building project at the parish.

Students who attend St. Mary-Basha School are used to seeing their pastor celebrate Mass, but were amazed to see Fr. McBride attaching shingles to the new roof.

“I like to build things, do construction projects,” he said. “I began doing that when I was at other parishes. You’ll often see me with a screwdriver or a hammer.”

Sitting back in his brand-new office at the parish surrounded by various computer monitors, he beamed. The 6,000-square-foot facility was recently completed and added much-needed office space for parish ministries, including the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

“Sitting in this building is a true marvel to me,” he said. His handyman skills paid off big time, allowing him to do the electrical wiring and set up the computer networks.

What are you passionate about as a priest?

Evangelization of people who are coming back or people who don’t quite know how to come back. I spend a lot of time working with evangelization and how people find their way back to church.

I have a great love for the Hispanic culture and the Hispanic people. The way I grew up — we had a very simple life. We had a huge family and family was very important to us.

That’s one of the things I see in the Hispanic culture. There’s no stigma to having a large family, they are not afraid to have a large family and they have great love for family.

Did someone invite you to consider the priesthood?

I think when it first came to mind I was 18 and I was very involved in the youth ministry program at St. Jerome’s. No one ever directly asked me, but obviously I heard it more in the bigger context. Msgr. Richard Moyer would come up on youth ministry retreats and he would always make that invitation when he was doing the retreats. We did many retreats together so I heard him say many times, “All you young men should think about priesthood.” It was a general invitation.

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

Just being open to the conversation that says, “What would it be like to be a priest?” Because I’ve known so many seminarians where their parents weren’t supportive of them even thinking about a vocation. I found that very disappointing. I think just being open to having that conversation.

I think sometimes teenagers have a difficult time asking those ultimate questions — Where am I going in my life? What does my life mean? What am I giving back to the world around me? My parents were very happy for me when I started thinking about entering the seminary. They encouraged me. They never said one bad word about it or that they wanted more grandkids or that they wanted me to be married.