Retiree ‘faithful to God, Church, people in the pews’
At a priest convocation held in Williamsburg one year, Father Frank L. Wiggins was struck by a phrase he heard from a keynote speaker: “We are not called to be successful; we are called to be faithful.”
“That always has stuck with me – being faithful not only to God and to the Church, but being faithful to the people in the pews,” the priest said. “Success is not the issue; it’s being faithful as Jesus called his disciples to be faithful.”
Father Wiggins has dedicated himself to being a faithful priest to the people of God, serving as pastor and parochial vicar in each of the Diocese of Richmond’s vicariates over the course of his 36 years of active ministry. He retired on July 1, 2022.
“It just seems like in one way, it’s been a long journey, but in another way, it seems like I can’t believe it’s been 36 years. It’s been a good haul. I’ve enjoyed the ministry,” Father Wiggins said. “I just wanted to do the best I could do, and I think I succeeded with that.”
A native of Roanoke, Father Wiggins was first raised in a Maronite church, where he was an altar server.
His parents attended Latin rite and Maronite services for a time. When they decided to attend the Maronite church full time, Father Wiggins stayed at the Latin rite church.
The Latin rite appealed to him “because it was younger kids and younger people, and I was more influenced by them,” Father Wiggins said. In the Maronite church, he said, were “older people” who spoke languages with which he was not familiar, “so I gravitated to Our Lady of Nazareth.”
Vocational influences
The time he spent at that parish led to Father Wiggins’ ultimate decision to become a priest, although it took him a while to get there. When he was “somewhere between 15 and 20” years old, “there started to be new priests there, a young priest, young deacons” who “kind of influenced” Father Wiggins to think about priesthood.
“The community was involved, too. They would say, ‘You need to go to seminary’ and ‘You would be a good priest.’ And of course, I was shy as could be. I looked around and thought, ‘Who are they talking about?’ Because I had no idea I wanted to do that,” he said.
Over the next decade, Father Wiggins completed a two-year forestry degree and held multiple jobs in the secular world, mostly focused on the outdoors.
“It always came back to ‘This job doesn’t satisfy me, this job doesn’t satisfy me, what will satisfy me?’ Even though I was working and did a good job, I went to work every day and collected money, but there was something missing,” he said.
He finally acknowledged he was missing out on “trying (priesthood) out.” He returned to Roanoke College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy in 1971.
The chaplain at the college, who was Lutheran, told Father Wiggins that he should go to the seminary because he would make an excellent priest.
“So they knew something that I didn’t know, and I didn’t accept it,” he said. “I was trying to fight it, and I fought it for 10 years. And I thought, ‘Woah, I need to wake up and see what they see.’”
So he enrolled at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana.
The priest said, however, that even when he entered formation, he “struggled” with thoughts about how he would handle the lifestyle. “I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, whether this life was for me or not,” he said. “I really wanted a family and kids, just like a normal person would want. Anybody would want that.”
For three years at St. Meinrad, Father Wiggins remained undecided about priesthood, but eventually, “everything fell into place.” The pastoral year he completed at Holy Family, Virginia Beach, with Father Jim Dorson was a “pivotal point” that helped him realize that priesthood was where he was called to serve.
“When I went back, I saw the seminary through different eyes, and I made better grades, and I saw it for what it was,” he recalled. “I was much more happy when I made that decision to carry on, and one thing led to another, and I’m here.”
He was ordained by Bishop Walter F. Sullivan on May 17, 1986.
Starting a parish
After ministering for several years and while serving as pastor of St. Richard, Emporia, Father Wiggins decided to pursue his Master of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University, which he obtained in 1997.
“I had this on my mind because I really didn’t understand how to counsel people, especially married couples or single people. And so I felt like I was inadequate for that because I only had like 18 hours of basic psychology,” he said. “I needed to be specialized in it so at least I’d know what to do, and if I didn’t have an answer, I could refer them to whatever (they needed).”
A great accomplishment of his priesthood, according to Father Wiggins, was his role in establishing St. Peter the Apostle in Lake Gaston when he “had the opportunity to start a church from zero.”
The priest was serving at St. Richard, Emporia, when he was approached by a few laypeople who were interested in starting a church in that area. A plan was presented to Bishop Sullivan, and a location for the church was secured – an abandoned bait and tackle shop that was used for several years before the current church was built in Ebony.
“We did a lot of sweat equity and brought people together to paint and reorganize to build the church up,” Father Wiggins recalled. “I didn’t have to pay anybody anything; everything was donated. So that began St. Peter the Apostle in Lake Gaston. Everyone pitched in, and that’s a success story. I will never forget that.”
Scripture followed nature
As retired priests are not assigned to a parish, Father Wiggins said he will miss “the community and building up relationships,” which was an integral part of his ministry.
“I’ve always been an advocate, you know. I may be preaching my work once a week, but it’s a one-to-one conversation that you have with parishioners that really makes a difference,” he said. “That’s not easy to do… (but) that’s where it starts.”
Father Wiggins celebrated his retirement at St. John, Highland Springs, with more than 150 people who he has encountered over the course of his priesthood.
He said he will continue to serve people after he adjusts to the “major transition” of retirement and settles into his home on the Eastern Shore. There, he plans to become involved in the community of St. Charles, Cape Charles.
“I know the people there… it’s still going to be a community where I can meet the people of God and serve them and go visit them, but that’s going to take some time to do,” Father Wiggins said.
During that time, the priest anticipates getting back into nature and returning to the outdoors. An avid gardener, he intends to work toward fulfilling his longtime desire of becoming a master gardener.
“I think it all makes sense to me now. Richard Moore said that the first Gospel was the creation, was nature, and that was interesting when I read that. I was in nature before I was following the Scripture,” Father Wiggins said of the years he spent as a forester. “Nature was my first introduction to who God is. I always loved nature.”