“Stick with the Church.”
You could say those four words are Father John Cregan’s motto
– ones he’s remembered ever since first hearing them from the
Sisters of Charity at his New York grade school in the 1940s.
He remembered them during his 22 years with the U.S. Marine
Corps; he remembered them in the foxholes in Vietnam; he
remembered them when, at nearly 50 years of age, he was
ordained a priest; and, as pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish
in Alexandria and the bishop’s delegate for clergy at the
Chancery, he remembers them still.
Nothing but the Bronx
Born Nov. 13, 1939, son of the late Christopher and Mary
Cregan, Father Cregan attended St. Margaret of Cortona
School, Fordham Preparatory School and Fordham University,
all in the Bronx. Though he’s 40-plus years removed from his
time in the borough, he seems to remember every name, every
detail.
Father Cregan grew up walking the few blocks from his home to
his Catholic school, where the Sisters of Charity became a
“big part of my formation.” Because those sisters centered
everything on the Faith, “you knew early on that was the main
thing in your life,” he said.
He became an altar boy in the third grade, serving at Mass
regularly – sometimes more regularly than a 9-year-old boy
would like.
“After sometimes two Masses I would hide because the
sacristan would always come looking for me,” Father Cregan
said, sitting in his ninth floor office of the Chancery
building in Arlington. “I’d be shootin’ hoops out in the
schoolyard and they’d come get me to serve Mass.”
But though his devotion to the Faith grew stronger with time,
and though the priesthood was suggested to him in eighth
grade, Father Cregan’s mind was on serving his country.
A military career
While at Fordham University, Father Cregan enrolled in the
U.S. Marine Corps Platoon Leader Class (PLC) program. Knowing
he had to fill the then-mandatory obligation of three years
military service, Father Cregan followed the example of older
kids from his neighborhood and joined the Marines. Three
years morphed into more than 20 – a path to which Father
Cregan is sure God called him. He spent tours in North
Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Cuba, Japan and Vietnam, all the
while maintaining his faith.
“There was never a part of my life where I didn’t practice
the Faith and live the sacramental life,” he said. “The Faith
was always important to me. Somehow it just seemed very true,
real to me, very important. I look at it as a grace.”
The transition from military service to Church service
officially began in Vietnam in 1968. Working as a rifle
company commander, Father Cregan lost half of his company in
battle.
“It’s tough to see these young guys getting killed and hurt,”
he said. “When one of the guys got hurt, everybody felt it. I
looked at it as a time with death.”
Lying in his foxhole late at night, looking at the stars and
fingering pieces of a broken rosary, Father Cregan began to
realize his next calling: the priesthood.
The phone call that changed his life
Thirteen months later, back on American soil, Father Cregan
began making “notification calls” – sometimes as many as
three a week – to inform families that their loved ones had
been killed in combat.
“It helped me – all of that – to see how fragile life was,”
he said. You’ve got a limited amount of time, he began
telling himself. What are you going to do with it?
While serving in Norfolk, on what would be his second-to-last
tour, Father Cregan attended two retreats. By the end of
them, his call to the priesthood was as clear as “a blinking
neon light,” he said. “It finally got to the point that I
knew I just wouldn’t be at peace for the rest of my life” if
he didn’t at least make a phone call.
So, while sitting at his desk at Marine headquarters, Father
Cregan opened the Yellow Pages, flipped to the Diocese of
Arlington entry and picked up the phone.
A few months later, while on a week’s leave from the Marine
Corps, Father Cregan began taking classes at Mount St. Mary’s
Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. He returned to Arlington the next
week to officially retire at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Discernment
At Mount St. Mary’s, Father Cregan said he continually felt
more certain and at peace with his new path in life. He felt
none of the struggles that at times he witnessed in others,
and couldn’t help but wonder why.
“Maybe you had all your struggles before you got here,” a
friend said.
Father Cregan was ordained by the late Arlington Bishop John
R. Keating on May 9, 1987.
He served at St. Patrick Parish in Chancellorsville, 1987-91;
Nativity Parish in Burke, 1991-93; St. Elizabeth Parish in
Colonial Beach, 1993-96. In 1996, he was named pastor of
Blessed Sacrament, where he remains today.
After 13 years shepherding the church that he says is “alive
with faith,” Father Cregan said he has most enjoyed watching
the parish and school’s children grow up – some even into
Marines who served in Iraq.
Father Cregan recently completed his third year as bishop’s
delegate for clergy, and has become a living example of the
words of his former teachers: “stick with the Church.”
“That’s a simple way to live your life,” Father Cregan said.
“That’s where you find God’s will. God doesn’t want good for
you; He wants the very best.”
Retired Marine Lt. Col. Father John Cregan should know.
