Most Rev Martin de Porres Griffin
Bishop Griffin’s faith and service to God and God’s people are very important to him. His journey has taken him from his initial church of baptism, the Episcopal Church, to reception into the Roman Catholic Church. From the first Mass he attended as a teen, he fell in love with the Church, its sacraments, and its ministries.
Bishop Griffin’s journey has included a call to service as a minister in the Catholic Church as a Conventual Franciscan Friar. Franciscanism became his spiritual charism and will always be the heart of his spirituality. During his ten years of ministry as a friar he mostly worked in the education apostolate. Bishop Griffin taught in schools in three cities: Athol Springs, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; and Los Angeles, California. He also served as pastoral associate for the mission parish in Bessemer, Alabama.
Bishop Griffin reflected on and discerned his calling and eventually realized he needed to leave his religious community and look for the place and lifestyle that would truly support and fulfill him.
After leaving the Franciscans, Bishop Griffin has served in various education capacities: as an assistant principal, a principal, a Director of a Charter School, and is currently an administrator. Bishop Griffin was accepted as a candidate for Holy Orders into the American Catholic Church Diocese of California in 2006, ordained as Deacon in March of 2006, and ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 2006.
Bishop Griffin was elected as Presiding Bishop of the Church at the General Synod of the Church held in San Diego on July 22, 2012. Bishop Griffin was consecrated as Bishop and installed as fourth Presiding Bishop of the Church on September 22, 2012 in San Diego.
Bishop Griffin stated, “I have felt called to priestly ministry since adolescence. I feel the call to witness to Christ’s love and to share in the faith journey of others towards Christ. As a priest, I have the opportunity to grow with others and be ministered to by others. I have been provided the opportunity to share the joy of a family at the birth and the baptism of a newborn child, the joy of a teen saying yes to Christ in confirmation, the faith of a Christian as they strongly believe in and receive the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. I am also able to share in the reconciliation of God’s holy people in the sacrament of penance, the joy shared when a couple commits to one another in marriage or holy union service, and I learn many lessons from the dying and those who fall asleep in faith. This is my call and with the help of God and our Church, this call will be brought to fulfillment for the greater glory of God!”