Speaking of ... College of Charleston

Navigating Faith: Father West's Journey from Maritime to Ministry

• University Communications • Season 3 • Episode 10

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On this episode of Speaking Of...College of Charleston, Father Gregory West, a 1980 College of Charleston graduate and pastor of Saint Clare of Assisi on Daniel Island, shares his journey from a devout Catholic upbringing on Sullivan's Island to a successful career in the maritime industry and eventually to the priesthood. He discusses the challenges and divine interventions in building the church including financial hurdles.

The initial cost estimate for the church was around 14 million, but due to rising construction costs in the Charleston area, the final bill came closer to 25 million. This escalation required West and his team to rethink parts of the project. For example, the church had planned to include several stained glass windows, but it wasn't financially feasible. According to West, either coincidence or divine providence intervened and they were able to secure the exact number of stained glass windows they needed from a church in Pittsburg that was closing that just happened to include a large stained glass window of Saint Clare of Assisi.

"Einstein said there are no such things as coincidences, just God's way of remaining anonymous," says West.

Resources from this episode:

Ron Menchaca:

I'm standing in the narthex of St Clair of Assisi Catholic Church on Daniel Island, South Carolina. The church opened in the spring of 2023 and everything around me is sparkling and new. To my left is a statue of the church's namesake. In her right hand, St Clair holds a golden Ciborium with the Holy Eucharist inside. In her left hand, she clutches a Bible. To my right hangs a huge altarpiece featuring an image of the revered saint. It's a copy of a well known 13th century painting by an unknown Italian master, St Clair, is framed at its center, surrounded by eight panels depicting key scenes from her life, including miracles that led to her canonization. I'm engrossed in the painting. When I hear the echo of footsteps approaching, I turn to face the imposing figure, Father Gregory West, the church's pastor, and a 1980 graduate of the College of Charleston. He stands well over six feet and wears a black cassock that drapes down to his shiny black shoes, he welcomes me in a booming baritone, Hello and Welcome to Speaking of College of Charleston. I'm Ron Menchaca, Vice President of Marketing and Communications. And on today's episode, I'm joined by Father Gregory West, a proud College of Charleston alumnus and pastor of St Clair of Assisi Catholic Church on Daniel Island, South Carolina. Father West story is one of faith, perseverance and purpose, a journey from an idyllic childhood and a tight knit beach community to a successful career in the maritime industry to answering the call to serve the church. Father Gregory West, has deep roots in the South Carolina low country, a fifth generation charlestonian. He grew up on Sullivan's Island, and three generations of his family lived in the same house in downtown Charleston. My

Unknown:

great great grandparents, my great grandparents, and my grandmother and some of her siblings lived on East Bay Street above what is now Magnolia's restaurant, and altered generations moved there together, and so my great, great grandparents would oftentimes spend summers in moultrieville, which is the West most end of Sullivan's Island. Sullivan's

Ron Menchaca:

Island was more than just home to Father west. It was the foundation of a life steeped in family, community and faith. But as we'll hear, his path wasn't always straightforward.

Unknown:

You know, we really knew we had something special, but we didn't appreciate how special it was. In many ways, we were kind of beach bumpkins. I remember when I went to Bishop England High School, when it was then on Calhoun Street, we were teased by some of the other students who lived in places like James Island, West Ashley, because we lived all the way out there, who would possibly live on Sullivan's Island or even the allo palms, but it was also such an enclave of safety and familiarity, I knew that I could never get into trouble, nor would I want to, because there were eyes always on me. And back then, it took only five digits to ring another telephone on Sullivan's Island, and somebody would call my mother. So it was a very safe, beautiful place to live. The beach was our playground, going fishing and grabbing all of the time. Father

Ron Menchaca:

West attended Catholic schools, including Bishop England High School, which at the time was located on Calhoun Street, on the site where the college's Addlestone library stands today. I

Unknown:

had grown up and been educated in a Catholic bubble, Catholic school all my life up to that point. And so exactly encountering kids from other places, even beyond South Carolina, I imagine that and kids who went to other churches and no churches, Jewish kids. It was really kind of eye opening and widened my panorama a great deal, which was a very educational and beautiful thing. At the same time, hearing other people's ideas, their perspectives, and it also helped me to appreciate what I had received from my parents after

Ron Menchaca:

completing high school, West did not travel far to attend college. His older sister Christine West graduated from the College in 1974 and he enrolled there two years later, and

Unknown:

I can remember driving into town, mom, driving us in. To drop my sister off for classes, and all of the walkways that are now bricked over, I remember those as actual streets. And the student body was, I think, 800 students at the time. And of course, things changed rapidly. So by the time I enrolled in 1976 I believe we were up to about three, maybe 4000 students West

Ron Menchaca:

was an active student. He joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and served as one of its officers. Got involved in student government and was president of his senior class. He also indulged in the fun and freedoms of college life and began drifting away from his religious faith, much to the disappointment of his parents.

Unknown:

It happened in high school. Yeah, like you know, so many teenage kids, the vast majority probably they see churches, boring, irrelevant, something older people do, no value. And my parents, while very disappointed that I was putting up a big fuss like every other kid, probably allowed me to just step aside, and I took a big sidestep for eight years. Had no involvement with the church at all when I was in college for the first couple of years after college, and then gradually made my way back Wes

Ron Menchaca:

started off as a political science major because he was interested in attending law school, but he switched to Urban Studies. It was his family's close ties to Charleston's storied maritime industry that steered him toward his first job out of college. I

Unknown:

come from a maritime family. My father's father was a quarantine officer with the government and was stationed out of Fort Johnson and would board vessels. My father was unable to join the military during World War Two because of a childhood injury, so instead, he was in the US maritime and actually saw quite a bit of military action in the Southern Pacific, probably more than many in the military saw, and we knew as a family that it must have been fairly bad what Dad had experienced, because he wouldn't ever talk about it. But he returned to Charleston, and with his maritime experiences that far, was licensed to become a tugboat Captain here in Charleston, which he did for 35 years.

Ron Menchaca:

Given his upbringing on Sullivan's Island and his family's history, West, seemed destined to continue his family's maritime legacy. I

Unknown:

worked on the Charleston mortar front. I worked for a company that represents corporations that import merchandise into the United States. It's called a custom house broker, and this was a position where we had to file reams and reams of documents, paper documents, back in before the computer age, with the US Customs Service and other federal agencies and the state ports authority and trucking firms, real firms, to move the merchandise from the docks in Charleston to their final destination. It was, for me, fascinating, because I learned about all sorts of commodities. I learned about steel and timber and textiles and machinery and personal household goods and on and on.

Ron Menchaca:

West did well in the maritime trade. His company transferred him to the South Carolina Upstate, and later to Atlanta. Despite the success West was experiencing in his career, something powerful was staring inside him, as we'll hear, a pivotal event led him to re examine his path.

Unknown:

My father was a very devout man and was the Head usher at our parish, and whenever he was home, not working, he would be at church. We lived a block from our church on Sullivan's Island. My father died of cancer, and it was a very difficult cancer, and his transition lasted about 18 months. My father was six foot, five and 260 pounds, kind of a John Wayne. And in 18 months, he lost well over 100 pounds, and had lost three ages in height and became a skeleton of his former self. But all through it, he he suffered with such dignity and faith and hope that anyone who would have known my Father during that period would be inspired by how he had the extraordinary faith to know that there was so much more lying ahead. And it also helped me to reimagine my path forward, that while I was doing all the right things. I was making money. I had the girl, I had the lifestyle in Atlanta. I was having fun, I was traveling. But all that was, in some ways, a mirage. It was fun, it was a good experience, but it wasn't necessarily fulfilling. Something was that. Something was missing. My Christian faith had experienced such a resurgence that I was beginning to see my life, the world in which I lived, in a far more kind of eternal sphere, without becoming too philosophical here or theological. And so I reached that point where I understood, because when I was a small child, when I was a young kid in Catholic school, as the sisters all encouraged us to become priests, for some reason, that idea had resurfaced in my thinking, and, of course, I dismissed it immediately, multiple times. This is crazy. I mean, this is you're, you're, you're not holy enough, you're not smart enough, you're not religious enough, you're, you know you this is not for you. What are you thinking? You know you've got this young lady you're dating. But it just would not go away. And the more I thought about it, the more natural it began to seem and so I informed my bosses that I was leaving the company and I was applying to the seminary for formation to become a Catholic priest. And they were disappointed, but understood, and I began that process of application and getting rid of all my belongings and being going through the process and all the tests and batteries and all that's necessary, and all of a sudden, one morning, I find myself in a Catholic seminary in upstate Maryland, and a month later, asking myself, What have I done

Ron Menchaca:

before entering seminary? West had been dating a woman in Atlanta, and when the time came to tell her his plans, he didn't get the response he expected.

Unknown:

So I was dating this young lady in Atlanta, and she would come to church with me from time to time. She was not Catholic, but she would come from time to time. And I got to the point where I knew that I was going to be applying to the seminary, and I had to let her know. So it was Easter Sunday that year, and she came to church with me, and I was going to tell her that afternoon. So I'd made reservations at a restaurant in Bucha in Atlanta, and was sitting there, and the waiter said, Would you like some champagne being Easter Sunday? Yes, that would be a good idea. Thank you. And I said to her, there's something I have to tell you. And she said to me, stop, let me tell you what you're going to say to me. You're going to say to me that you're going to become a priest, at which point I nearly fell off my chair because only two people in the world knew, two close friends in whom I confided, and they did not know one another.

Ron Menchaca:

After five years at Mount St Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in church history, West was ordained in Charleston to serve as a priest at the Cathedral of St John, the Baptist on Broad Street. One day, the bishop called west into his office and told him to pack his bags for Rome, where he would study law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The curriculum was taught in Italian, and he was given just two months to learn the language before beginning classes. He graduated from the intense two year program with honors, and today still serves as a Canon lawyer and judge in church court. The next dozen years passed in a blur of prayer, service and sermons as he criss crossed the state, starting and growing parishes before returning to Charleston in 2014 the bishop wanted him to start a new parish on Daniel Island, where his old high school Bishop England had relocated to in the late 1990s he had no office, not even a phone, but he had years of experience in the church, business acumen and a tireless work ethic passed down from his father. So

Unknown:

naturally, we need a name. So the bishop at the time asked us to propose names. We had a big meeting of anybody and everybody who wanted to come. And so we came up with those, about 35 names that was sent to our bishop. He whittled it down job about 21 we then ran it past the parish again. We came up with our top three. And of the top three, St Clair of Assisi won the contest.

Ron Menchaca:

St Clair of Assisi was born Chiara ofreduccio In 1194 the daughter of a wealthy family in Assisi, Italy. Even though she was raised in nobility, Clare felt drawn to a life of devotion and poverty after hearing the sermons of St Francis of Assisi defying her family's wishes for her to marry. Claire escaped her home and took refuge with St Francis, who cut off her hair as a symbol of her renunciation of the secular world. She went on to establish her own Franciscan order, the order of poor ladies, later known as the Poor Clares in. Claire lived the rest of her life in a convent, embracing a strict lifestyle of prayer, fasting and austerity. She became a powerful spiritual leader, counseling popes and bishops despite her enclosed existence, one of the most famous stories from her life is when she defended her convent from invaders by holding up the Eucharist, causing the attackers to flee. Claire's deep faith and commitment to poverty inspired generations of nuns to follow her example.

Unknown:

We had done our homework so we thought we planned for a much, much bigger church than what we wound up with, just knowing that the growth of the area, as we have since seen, is going to be exponential. So we planned for 1200 seats. We wound up with 850 seats. The initial design the budget was 14 million. The cost of this 850 seat church wound up being 25 million, because of the escalation of prices in a very short period of time due to construction, the demands, everything happening here in the Charleston area, I

Ron Menchaca:

imagine that your education at the college and as well as your business experience in as a customs broker in the maritime industry, all of that had to have come in handy. I mean, I think there's a misunderstanding that that pastors, you know, write their sermons and deliver on say there's a whole business to it day to day that you're involved in. So did some of that come to bear in helping plan, begin the planning for the church?

Unknown:

It did, you know, again, looking back at my college education, some of the art appreciation and some of the history of architecture. Classes I took all lent themselves toward the planning of this project, and then the skills I picked up in the workforce having to be highly organized, systems, management, deadlines, accuracy, all those sorts of things kicked in into overdrive, as they had in previous positions, but particularly here as well, because this was going to be a large scale project that was going to be intricate and involved and expensive, the

Ron Menchaca:

process of building St Clair of Assisi church was far from smooth. Like any large project, it came with its share of hurdles. For starters, there were financial challenges. The initial cost estimate for the church was around 14 million, but due to rising construction costs in the Charleston area, the final bill came closer to 25 million. This escalation required West and his team to rethink parts of the project. For example, the church had planned to include several stained glass windows, but it wasn't financially feasible,

Unknown:

and because we were faced with extraordinary cost escalations, there were things we had hoped we could have that it was going to prove to be impossible because of costs. And so the architects designed the windows. We were going to fill them with plain glass along in time. We believe somebody could possibly replace those with stained glass. We had a number of other design and liturgical needs, but again, they would have to be deferred until some point in the future, by either coincidence or providence. We learned of the closing of a mother house just outside of Pittsburgh. This was a an enormous facility that had been opened about 120 years ago for religious order of nuns who had come to Pittsburgh in 1865 just three in the beginning, to minister to the German speaking immigrants of the area. They ended up founding the first, first Catholic hospital in Pittsburgh, which grew up eventually grew to be the largest hospital in Pittsburgh. And they went from three sisters in 1865 to well over 100 within just 40 years time. So they had built this beautiful, large facility to house everyone. And these were the sisters, by the way, who were the doctors and the nurses and the CPAs and dressed in their full religious habits, they were quite a powerful force and did extraordinary work in western Pennsylvania. They had to close the property because their numbers had dwindled and they could no longer afford to maintain this extraordinary and large property. So the terms of sale were that all the liturgical finishings, all the sacred objects, had to be removed from the building because it would become a secular senior living facility. We happened to learn about that through somebody who's a member here and a family contact in Pittsburgh. So two of us flew up to Pittsburgh to meet with the sisters to talk about the possibility of transferring those items from their chapel to our church project. So we walk into the northex of the chapel that northex being kind of the lobby area, and their standing guard over that space is a large devotional statue of St Clair Assisi. Now I thought that was very clever of the sisters having brought it out from storage. So I thought to kind of make us feel welcome. But the superior of the convent told me very clearly, no that it had been there for many, many years. But

Ron Menchaca:

there were more surprises in store. As West entered the chapel, we walked

Unknown:

into the chapel proper, extraordinary space, most beautiful stained glass windows, statuary, paintings, all the rest, just a sacred, beautiful place. And I look up and there is a large stained glass window of St Clair Assisi. So I thought, Okay, Lord, this is pretty obvious how this is supposed to go. To make a long story short, we were able to acquire most everything from the chapel from the sisters at maybe 10% of their actual value, because the sisters were so excited to know that all of these furnishings would be going into a brand new church. They did. They knew that they wouldn't be sitting in a warehouse somewhere, hoping that someday they might find a home. And the really curious more, the really interesting phenomenon coincidence, is that we needed 12 windows, and the sisters had 12 windows, and obviously one of them was St Clair Assisi, and the windows fit our architects design that were going to house plain glass by just inches, so the architects had to slightly tweak the design to accommodate these more than 100 year old windows meant to be some would say,

Ron Menchaca:

Yeah, I've heard you say divine intervention, potentially, possibly, yeah, I just, I mean it just, you can't. It's almost

Unknown:

unbelievable. Einstein said there are no such things as coincidences, just God's way of remaining anonymous.

Ron Menchaca:

As Father West stood in the convent, it became clear that these treasures from the past were destined to be part of the new St Clair of Assisi Catholic Church in Charleston. Everything was falling into place, but there was still one thing that, at least on the surface, didn't seem to match up. St Clair practiced extreme poverty, yet Daniel Island is a very affluent community. I asked Father West how he reconciles this stark contrast. Well,

Unknown:

it's interesting, because she was a woman of great simplicity and austerity, and she walked away from her wealth and the Daniel Island and neighboring demographic is not exactly that, and so it seemed kind of contrary. But the reality is, she was so immersed in her understanding of beauty, beauty in nature, beauty and prayer, beauty in all things that she understood and received in her prayer life, that we knew that we had to really emphasize beauty in all things. And while this is a community that you know has done well, this is also a community that is extraordinarily generous in our work in cane Hoy and ug and Wando with with the lease of our brothers and sisters, the people in this parish have been extraordinarily generous, nearing the $1 million mark in terms of donations and paying power bills and fixing up roofs and, you know, providing food and all the rest. So we're living in the Spirit of St Clair Assisi, and we really do focus in the simplicity of life with God.

Ron Menchaca:

From his time at the College of Charleston to his leadership at St Clair Assisi, Father Gregory West, journey is a powerful example of faith, service and dedication to community, and as we've seen, sometimes, life has a way of offering divine help when you need it most. Our thanks to Father West for joining us on speaking of College of Charleston, thank you for listening to this episode of speaking of College of Charleston with today's guest and College of Charleston alumnus father Gregory West, for more episodes and read stories about our guests, visit the College of Charleston's official news site the college today@today.charleston.edu You can also find this and past episodes on all major podcast platforms, including Apple podcasts and Spotify. If you like what you hear. Please subscribe and leave us a review. This episode was produced by Amy Stockwell and ramanchaka from the Office of marketing and communications with recording and sound engineering by Jesse comes from the Division of Information Technology. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time you