Rev. Greg Walgenbach

Supply Priest

Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ! My name is Fr. Gregory Walgenbach and I am grateful for the opportunity to assist at St. Bonaventure beginning in July 2025. For my full-time assignment, I serve as Director of both the Office of Life, Justice, and Peace and the Mission Office (serving The Pontifical Mission Societies) for the Diocese of Orange.

I was ordained in June of 2024 through what is known as the Pastoral Provision, having formerly been an Anglican priest, and I am married with four children (my family remain parishioners at St. Philip Benizi in Fullerton; we live in West Anaheim). I have a Ph.D. in theology and this past year was assisting priest at St. Anne Parish in Santa Ana. Beginning in July, I will be assisting here at St. Bonaventure, Huntington Beach, and at St. Joachim, Costa Mesa, while my full-time assignment remains my diocesan work.

My diocesan assignments fit my passion for evangelization and mission through the proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed and living out a consistent ethic of life. As Pope Francis asked early in his papacy in an homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, “How do I live the Eucharist?” I am inspired by our new Pope Leo XIV’s words: “Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.”

Please introduce yourself to me when you see me. I look forward to meeting you! I understand there will be questions about the Pastoral Provision, as a married, diocesan priest is a rare exception. I am the first one for the Diocese of Orange, although Bishop Vann has been the Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision nationally for many years. Several rites in communion with the Catholic Church (Byzantine, Maronite, etc.) permit married men to become priests, whereas the Latin Rite (the most widely practiced) follows the discipline of celibacy. Pope St. John Paul II began the Pastoral Provision and you can learn more about it at rcbo.org/priesthood. I look forward to serving the community of St. Bonaventure.