Posted on 05/06/2007 12:51:53 AM PDT by csvset
| The Rev. David McGuire, priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Oceanview, presides over a May Day ceremony near the church's Grotto before one of his last Mass services Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot
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NORFOLK - The Rev. David V. McGuire smiled fondly on a recent morning as Catholic schoolchildren lay flowers before a churchyard Virgin Mary. Standing closest were 7-year-olds in suits and white frocks who'd take their first Holy Communion from him on the coming Saturday.
"The Air Force wanted me earlier," McGuire recalled, "but I said no - I've got to be here for that weekend."
After four years as Holy Trinity's parish priest and Ocean View's walk about Catholic clergyman, McGuire is leaving Thursday to become an Air Force chaplain at age 47.
For McGuire, it's a chance to blend military ambitions he shelved 27 years ago with the priesthood he took up instead.
His joining couldn't come at a better time for the Air Force. Like all the armed services, it's suffering a shortage of Catholic chaplains. Hoping to bolster its numbers, the Air Force this spring raised the maximum age for clergy recruits from 42 to 48.
For the tall, lean McGuire, that became his opportunity to join the military, a dream of his since high school days in Georgia. Many of Holy Family's 840 families and others in Ocean View are sorry to see him go.
"Everybody loved him up here," said Hubert Davenport, an Ocean View barber since 1965 who regularly clipped McGuire's gray hair. "Everybody around here pretty well knows him."
Local librarian Christine Howe said she'd never seen a Holy Trinity priest at Ocean View's community beachfront parties until the Friday night she spied him as she enjoyed a brew with other parishioners.
"Actually, because we were all drinking beer, we were a little reluctant to go up and say anything," Howe said. "We finally did, and he stood and chatted. Yeah, we're going to miss him."
Walking and talking himself into Ocean View's collective consciousness, McGuire said he strove to provide what he called a "ministry of presence."
"You need to be out," he said. "You need to be carrying your groceries back from the store so people can see you, dressed up, and they'll know you."
He found that people came up to him, seeing his black clergyman's suit. Some just said hello. Some asked for prayer.
He invited them to church. Regardless of whether they came, McGuire was still there, striding about in his clerical collar and size 14 shoes, around when they needed him.
By last fall, McGuire reckoned himself comfortably established in Ocean View as he headed off for the annual spiritual retreat required of Roman Catholic priests.
It was just him, the Bible and God, in the quiet of a Trappist monastery in Berryville in Northern Virginia. He was striving to be honest with God about what he was called to do. He came away not sure what lay ahead but knowing he had yet something else to offer.
"We grow by getting out of our comfort zones," McGuire said.
Rev. McGuire makes a list of his valuables as a moving crew packs up the rest of his belongings on Wednesday.
Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot
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When he got home, his back mail included recruiting circulars for Army and Air Force chaplaincies. He called both, but the Air Force responded more quickly.
McGuire had been in the Air Force ROTC years earlier at the University of Georgia. He thought the military was where he could serve others.
After he became a priest in 1988, he still wanted to be a military chaplain, but parish assignments in Richmond, Danville and Highland Springs pushed that ambition aside.
Eventually, McGuire thought he'd grown too old.
But wartime changed things.
The Catholic Church's military archdiocese for the United States now has 308 priest chaplains in active duty. "We could use about 800," vice chancellor Tom Connelly said.
Connelly said about 25 percent of the nation's military is Catholic, but only 7 percent of military chaplains are. In war zones, that shortfall can feel acute.
"If a soldier or Marine starts thinking about his or her mortality, the first thing they want to do is go to confession if they're Catholic," Connelly said.
Richmond Diocese Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo gave McGuire permission to join. He was commissioned as a captain this spring.
After officer's school in Alabama, McGuire will report to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. He already plans to get out and "be a presence" to airmen and women and their families.
McGuire won't speculate about the personal risk if he's deployed to a war zone. A chaplain's ministry is needed "in quite a special and profound way" in combat areas, he said.
In Ocean View, some parishioners and non-members worried openly about his safety if he is deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"Chaplains are sent where they're needed, and they may be needed in the front lines," said parish business administrator Joe Reagan, a retired Navy captain.
But there was also wide acceptance that McGuire is following an important calling.
"Somebody else needs to be touched by him," said parishioner Amanda Fahrenbach, a Navy wife. "They need somebody who's approachable, not somebody who's locked up in an office. "
McGuire was thoroughly accessible at Mass after the morning churchyard ceremony. Like seedlings straining toward the light, parish children reached to him from the pews to pass the sign of peace. He shook their hands and spoke their names.
Later, he jackknifed his body to trade hugs with tykes half his height at Holy Trinity school's goodbye party. Some cried.
"Will you come back?" asked Emily Gajdek, 8.
"One of these days," McGuire assured her. "When you start a new job, you have zero vacation days."
Teachers cut two sheet cakes decorated in icing with a cross and a fighter plane. McGuire was chipper. "Let's eat cake!" he told the children. He opened handmade farewell cards, "We'll Miss You," in crayon.
Back at the rectory later, he wiped away tears. He was looking forward to his new role, but it was hard to say goodbye.
"I will trust," he said later, "that everything I've done the Lord is using to prepare me for the next stage of ministry."
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