Ex-missionary returns to priesthood 35 years after leaving to marry

Published: 2005-05-23

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) -- Father David Gaffny recently concelebrated Mass for the first time in more than 35 years. He did so again a few days later, this time with his daughter, Maria, sitting in one of the pews at St. Joseph Church in Madison, where he currently serves as associate pastor. When Father Gaffny, a father of three, grandfather of six and former Maryknoll priest, lost his wife of 31 years in July 2001, he began to discern what to do with the rest of his life. It was natural for him to return to the full exercise of priestly ministry. After returning to seminary studies for a brief period, he was accepted as a priest for the Nashville Diocese. While he always retained the "indelible mark" of holy orders, Father Gaffny had not acted as a priest since 1969, the year he sought laicization to marry a single mother from Chile. Father Gaffny met his late wife, Leonor, after first meeting her two children while he was a missionary with the Maryknoll order in Temuco, Chile, in the late 1960s.

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