There is a religious object in Father Joel D. Jaffe’s
Chancery office that you don’t usually see in a priest’s
workplace. On the top shelf of a bookcase stacked with
Catholic and Christian texts and pushed against a wall dotted
with photographs of basilicas in Rome is a leather pouch with
the Star of David on the front that contains his father’s
yarmulke and prayer shawl from his bar mitzvah. It’s a family
heirloom that he keeps in his office as a sign of respect and
appreciation for his father’s Jewish tradition.
Father Jaffe, 37, the new director of the diocesan Office of
Vocations, was born to a Catholic mother, Missy, and a Jewish
father, Sidney, in Washington. He and his sister, Jennifer,
were raised Catholic but showed respect and appreciation for
their father’s faith.
“We would celebrate the similarities and differences,” he
said of the two faiths.
The family moved to Annandale when he was young and became
parishioners of St. Michael Church. Mother, son and daughter
would go to Mass, with the father joining them occasionally
but keeping his own religious traditions.
Since he was a boy, Father Jaffe liked to get to Mass early.
He enjoyed the quiet of the sanctuary before others arrived.
The solitude of St. Michael’s perpetual adoration chapel was
a similar draw and his time spent in adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament was a major influence on his path to the
priesthood.
“Vocations are grown in silence,” he said.
The visits evolved into a devotion that the young man carried
through St. Michael School and then to Annandale High School.
As a high school student, he even visited the St. Michael
perpetual adoration chapel after evenings out with friends.
He also was active in sports, throwing shot put on the track
and field team. He had many friends and was active in the
Catholic Youth Organization.
His love of sports continues to this day, with the evidence
of that love visible in his office, where baseball and
football mementos share space with objects of faith.
It was during his junior year in high school when the
possibility of a vocation surfaced.
After graduating from Annandale High School in 1994, he went
on to study biology and religion at the College of William
and Mary in Williamsburg. He began attending daily Mass and
started to discern a vocation, but it didn’t reach a zenith
until his junior year. He went to Father James R. Gould, then
diocesan director of vocations, and his decision was
cemented.
Telling his family about his desire to become a priest
brought some apprehension. His father was concerned about the
name continuing.
“What do they call you?” his father asked when told of his
son’s decision to become a priest.
“Father,” he answered.
His father thought for a few seconds then said, “Instead of
four, five or six grandchildren, I’ll have thousands.”
He attended the Pontifical North American College in Rome and
was ordained June 7, 2003, by Arlington Bishop Paul S.
Loverde at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington.
After serving as a parochial vicar for five years at Blessed
Sacrament Church in Alexandria, he was appointed chaplain of
Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax where he worked for
four years before being assigned parochial vicar of St. Luke
Church in McLean and as promoter of vocations for the
Arlington Diocese. In June he was called upon by Bishop
Loverde to become the new vocations director, replacing
Father Brian G. Bashista.
Father Jaffe said that it’s the responsibility of every
priest to promote vocations. He said that the bishop is the
vocation director, but “I’m running the office.”
Father Jaffe plans to continue the work of his predecessor,
Father Bashista, “especially in the promotion of vocations to
our youth.”
Fluent in Spanish, he wants to foster vocations in the
Hispanic community.
Additionally, he wants to raise awareness among young adult
women and high school girls about vocations to religious
orders.
When asked what the essential elements of a vocation are, he
answered by recalling his own experience: “Perpetual
adoration, Scripture and family and friends.”
The importance of family in discernment is central to Father
Jaffe’s approach to vocations.
“Vocations to the priesthood and religious life begin at home
and are fostered by parents who encourage their child to be
open to anything and everything God might be calling them to
do,” he said.
