Father Griffin plans to help where needed, visit Haiti
Last month, as he was in the midst of moving from St. Paul Parish, Richmond, where he had been pastor for nearly six years, to his house in Norfolk, Father James “Jim” Griffin, was certain of one thing.
“I’m retiring and it’s going to be new for me. Keep me in your prayers because I don’t know what this entails yet except I won’t be pastor,” he said. “I know I’ll still celebrate Mass and be on standby for (helping out in parishes), but I won’t be a pastor anymore and I’m going to have to learn about how to do that.”
Following graduation from Norfolk Catholic in 1969, Father Griffin was a history major at Old Dominion University for a year.
“Summarily, I flunked out. I don’t know what my GPA was. I think I passed wrestling and volleyball. In all the other ones I didn’t do too well,” he said with a laugh.
He spent the next two years in the Navy and then enrolled at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication/ theater.
“There’s a big difference. I went to college the second time and I was on the dean’s list. I was a little bit more mature,” he said, adding that he appeared in four plays during that time.
Following graduation he enrolled in the Theological College at the Catholic University of America from which he earned a Master of Divinity degree.
He and eight other men were ordained by Bishop Walter F. Sullivan on May 8, 1982. Due to the number of ordinands, the Mass was celebrated in the Mosque Theatre instead of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which would not have been able to accommodate the 2,000 people who attended.
“I must admit that one of the things I missed as a priest was not getting ordained either as a deacon or as a priest in the cathedral,” he said. “I sort of missed that, but what the heck? I guess it worked because 39 years later I’m retiring. (Father Griffin was ordained to the diaconate at Immaculate Conception, Hampton, on June 6, 1981).
Following ordination in 1982, he served as associate pastor of the cathedral and as secretary to Bishop Sullivan.
“I drove the car and was the emcee for confirmations,” he recalled. “I loved the man. It was a great two years.”
In 1984-1985, Father Griffin served 17 months as parochial vicar at St. Mary, Richmond.
A pastor or campus minister for more than 35 of the 39 years he’s been a priest, Father Griffin termed all of his assignments “life-giving.”
“I’ve always had good assignments and I’ve loved every one of them,” he said. “They’ve all been totally different — different parts of the state, different ministries, some inner city, some suburbs. Some college campuses. I’ve had a variety of them.”
Father Griffin received his first pastorates in 1985 when he was named to Good Shepherd, South Hill, and St. Catherine of Siena, Clarksville. Two years later he was assigned to St. Vincent de Paul, Newport News, and in 1992, St. Therese, Chesapeake.
His sole campus ministry assignment was from 1998-2002 at VPI and SU, Blacksburg. This was followed by pastorates at St. Mark, Virginia Beach (2002-2015) and then St. Paul, Richmond, starting in 2015.
With all of his assignments, Father Griffin said, being present to people was critical.
“You’ve got to be there,” he said. “It sounds real simple, it sounds like everyone would know that but you have to be able to be there and return calls and have times for people to come see you.”
He also noted the importance of being a good preacher.
“Because that’s what you do. You have the privilege of telling people what you believe in your own terms and with your own words,” the priest said. Father Griffin said that each parish priest “needs to have something on your own.”
For some, he said, it is music or pursuing doctoral studies; for him, it has been Haiti ministry — a country he has visited more than 40 times.
“Ever since 1987, every parish or campus ministry I’ve been in has twinned with someone in Haiti,” he said, noting that in twinning with Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Poulie, over the last three years, parishioners at St. Paul have contributed $20,000 to the support of that parish.
In retirement, he hopes to return to Haiti “a few more times,” visiting Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, as well as Maison Fortuene, an orphanage in Hinche that St. Mark Parish supported during his 13 years there.
Something that goes back to being present to people, Father Griffin said, was his death row ministry.
“I was a minister on death row and witnessed 11 executions. I walked with men from when they were jailed on death row and some of them when they died,” he said. “It sounds counter-intuitive that it’s life giving, because not many people do that. I think they appreciated it. I’m not one of the greatest spiritualists in the world but they knew that I didn’t have to be there and I was there.”
Father Griffin said his death row ministry “cemented” his knowledge of the value of human life.
“It’s hard to uphold human life of people who do things that disgust you. Human life is a lot more than anti-abortion, though it’s that and rightfully so, but it’s also people who are murderers and people who do things that are evil. Their lives are still created in goodness by God.”
Reflecting on his priesthood, Father Griffin expressed gratitude to the priests and lay people who helped him be the priest he was.
“I’m not the most reverent, holy or academic or whatever a priest needs to be, but I’ve been able to be myself and be a priest, and that’s been the joy of priesthood, he said, adding, “It’s been interesting and very life giving. I’d do it again”