Fr. Greg Paffel: A Catholic Who Returned from the Assemblies of God

Father Greg was raised in a Catholic family but, though he believed in God, he only remembers praying with his heart twice when he was young. Sadly, he had next to no catechesis. Even though he attended Mass he did not know the faith. When he was a junior in high school, a friend asked him if he knew Jesus and invited him to his Assembly of God youth group. His faith grew through the witness of his new friends. In college, he continued his personal prayer time and visited several denominations. He was frustrated because he wanted to experience a fervent faith in God in the Catholic Church like he did when he visited Protestant congregations. An advisor at the college talked to him about the Franciscan University of Steubenville. It was there that he found the answers to his search and also discovered his vocation to the priesthood. Father Greg was ordained a Catholic priest, in 2001, for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota.