Clergy & Staff
Rev. Franklyn M. McAfee, Pastor Emeritus
Father McAfee was born December 13, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan. He attended St. David Elementary School and Sacred Heart High School, both in Detroit. He graduated from Catholic University in Washington in 1966. He attended the Gregorian Institute of America in the summer of 1962 and Catholic University's graduate school from 1966-67. He earned a master's degree in Religious Studies from St. Thomas Aquinas University in Rome. He went on to attend the Theological College at Catholic University for graduate studies in Philosophy and Theology from 1967-71.
He spent his diaconate assignment at St. Luke Parish in McLean. Fr. McAfee was ordained to the priesthood in Richmond on May 15, 1971, by Bishop John J. Russell. He served for four years at St. Thomas More Parish, Arlington, which later became the cathedral when the Diocese of Arlington was established in 1974. He was the spiritual director at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington from 1975-78, with residence at St. Philip Parish, Falls Church.
Fr. McAfee was the founder of the Diocesan Office for Family Life and served as its director until 1988. He served as secretary for two terms for the Diocesan Priests' Association and was a member of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission. He also served two terms as executive team priest for Marriage Encounter. From 1985-92, he served as president of the Notre Dame Catechetical Institute in Arlington (now the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria). He also was a regular columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald for a number of years.
Fr. McAfee currently serves as confessor to two convents of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He is spiritual director for the Lay Missionaries of Charity in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Fr. McAfee is a member of the Corpus Christi movement founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Father served as an elected member of the Priests' Personnel Board for six years, the last four of which he served as chairman.
He was in residence at St. Rita Parish, Alexandria, 1978-83; St. Agnes Parish, Arlington, 1983-85; and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Arlington, 1985-88. He was pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Alexandria, 1988-97 and was the Pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Great Falls, VA from 1997 to 2005. He served as Pastor of St. John the Beloved from July 2005 to July 2009 until he became Pastor Emeritus.
