Fifty years ago, Father Horace H. “Tuck”
Grinnell, was a seminarian for the only Catholic diocese in the commonwealth of
Virginia — Richmond. It was an altogether different world back then, he said.
The United States was involved heavily
in the Vietnam War. Students protesting in Mexico City were shot down by
government forces. Russia was cracking down on liberalization in
Czechoslovakia. The assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
led to riots in major cities.
Seminary enrollment in the country was
at an all-time high, said Father Grinnell. And the university he attended for a
year before entering seminary was still all-male “in those ancient times.”
Now, after 45 years of ordained ministry
to the people of Virginia, Father Grinnell, pastor of St. Peter Church in Washington,
will move to the St. Rose of Lima Priests’ Retirement Villa in Annandale. But
he doesn’t anticipate getting a lot of rest. “People are already calling me for
weddings and baptisms and to be on this board or that board — I think I’ll be
as busy as a one-armed paper hanger,” he said. “I'm not retiring from being a
priest — I'm simply retiring from running a parish.”
Father Grinnell was born Aug. 12, 1947,
in Charlottesville to Thomas and Ruth Grinnell. He attended Holy Comforter
School in Charlottesville and graduated from Benedictine High School in
Richmond in 1965. He attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for
a year hoping to study chemical engineering before deciding he had a calling to
the priesthood. His father also attended the university and helped found the
Catholic student group there in the 1940s.
Father Grinnell graduated from St.
Mary’s College Seminary near Catonsville, Md., in 1970. He graduated from the
Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1973 and was ordained a deacon
there. Back then, seminarians from Richmond were sent all over the country and
world for their formation, including Rome, Baltimore and Washington, said Father
Grinnell. But he was the only one at that time in Belgium.
He returned from overseas to be a
full-time deacon at St. Mary Church in Alexandria. He spent some time at The
Catholic University of America in Washington working on his doctorate but never
finished. He was ordained to the priesthood May 4, 1974, by Richmond Auxiliary
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan.
That year, the Diocese of Arlington was
created. “It hadn't been announced when I was ordained, but it seemed like (it
was imminent),” Father Grinnell said. “All of my family was in what is now the
Diocese of Richmond, but I made my Cursillo in Northern Virginia and I fell in
love with not just Cursillo but the people I met there. Plus, I had been a
deacon for a year in Northern Virginia.”
Father Grinnell has been involved with
Cursillo, a spiritual group that hosts retreats, ever since. He has served as
spiritual director for more than 50 weekend retreats. “What I found in Cursillo
was a way to grow spiritually,” he said.
Father Grinnell was parochial vicar of
Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Arlington (1974-77); St. Louis Church in
Alexandria (1977-80); St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington (1980-84); and St.
Mark Church in Vienna (1984-86). He served as pastor of St. Charles (1986-94);
St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church (1994-2010); and then returned as
pastor of St. Charles (2010-14).
For the past 28 years, he has helped celebrate
Masses for healing. He loves seeing the peace it brings the participants.
“There's a beautiful presence of the Holy Spirit in the music and in the prayers.
We have confession at the same time,” he said. “I've seen countless healings —
I consider it normal. How good is it to watch God’s work? It's marvelous.”
Father Grinnell has spent the last four
years as pastor of St. Peter, a small church in a rural area of the diocese.
“The good thing about Rappahannock is you get to know everyone in the whole
county, not just Catholics. It’s a most interesting place, besides being a most
beautiful one,” he said.
Working with the county and other
clergy, they’ve made great strides in serving people who are poor or isolated,
he said. “We are reaching out to people — it's the Christian community in
action.”
In his retirement, Father Grinnell hopes
to get involved with prison ministry and to have more time for skiing and other
sports. “I want take up racquetball again. I’ve not been able to play because
there are no racquetball courts in Rappahannock,” he said. “If anyone wants to
play, I would be game.”
The world may be a different place than
it was when Father Grinnell began studying for the priesthood, but his mission
has remained constant. “I’ve loved talking about Christ, living Christ, sharing
Christ with people through the sacraments,” he said. “I’ve loved working with
the least of my sisters and brothers — they’ve transformed my heart.”
Find out more
There will be a retirement picnic for Father Grinnell June
10 from noon to 3 p.m. at St. Peter Church, 12762 Lee Hwy., in Washington, Va.