We invite readers to send short stories about the ways in which their lives have been personally blessed by the life and work of priests and religious in our diocese.

By Karina Fabian

Even though he’s a native of Panama and a priest of the Helena Diocese, Father (Major) Juan Diphe wears a U.S. Air Force uniform and ministers to people all over the world, and sometimes from other faiths.

The priests that Father Diphe worked with while a student at Carroll College helped him recognize his calling, and after graduation, he went to the seminary at St. Patrick’s in Menlo Park, Calif., where he could also be near his mother.

He was the first priest ordained by Bishop Elden F. Curtiss. He spent a few years in the diocese – Little Flower Parish in Browning, St. Matthew’s in Kalispell, as pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle in Helmville where he also covered Avon and Lincoln, and then at St. Richard’s in Columbia Falls.

Warm, sunny California, however, continued to call to him, and he said he missed the San Francisco air. “Somehow, I was always asking the bishop to go back to California, so he finally sent me for three years to get it out of my system,” he said.

That didn’t work as expected, however. Many of his friends in California were in the military and when his three years were up, he felt his calling taking him down another path. After convincing Bishop Curtiss that he could serve the diocese as a positive representative abroad, he was allowed to join the military. After a short stint in the Naval Reserves, he went to the Air Force, which gave him a more parish type of setting and allowed his mother to accompany him.

Ironically, his first assignment was to Minot “Freezin’s the reason,” North Dakota. He’s also served in Hahn, Germany; San Antonio, Texas; Shaw, S.C., and even had the opportunity to return to Panama.

“My mother was in the glory!” he said. She died while they were stationed in Nellis, Nev.

He was chaplain at Hurlburt Field, Fla. From there, he went to the United Arab Emirates for 15 months to build a chapel. In July 2005, he returned to the States, and now serves as the Vice Wing chaplain and priest at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Fla.

In addition, he has deployed to “the Desert” in support of the troops. In 2004, he spent four months in Kuwait City, ministering to the troops heading off to war. It was a humbling experience, particularly in hearing confessions.

“One Marine, a young, John Wayne-type, after absolution, kissed my hand, crying. He said, ‘Thank you Father, for being here.’ It’s like the saying, ‘When the bullets start flying, you know who the believers really are,’ ” Father Diphe said.

Father Diphe has also had the unique experience of ministering to those outside the faith. There are times in the military when he is the only chaplain of any faith available. “You have to meet their spiritual needs. Mormons, Buddhists, whatever, if I can help them, I have to try. I wear the cross.” He said that there’s a great deal of respect among chaplains of all faiths in the military. “We are reminded of the holy.”

He is also proud to represent the diocese, both in the military and in the local civilian parishes. He said it’s always a nice feeling when the local bishop tells him he has a place there – the bishop of the Middle East area based in the UAE has asked him to return, and the bishop of the St. Petersburg Diocese has invited him to stay – but through it all, his loyalty remains with Helena.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 23, No. 3, March 23, 2007.