First Mass of Fr. David Franco, FSSP
Fr. David Franco, FSSP, was ordained in Denton, Nebraska, on Saturday May 30, 2015, and offered one of his first Masses in his home parish of St. Benedict Parish in Chesapeake Virginia on the External Solemnity of Corpus Christi, images of which follow Father’s biography.
Father was born March 1, 1990, in Mountain View, California. In 1994, his family moved to New England briefly before settling in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he lived until entering the seminary. Fr. Franco is the eldest of six children.
He was home-schooled “all the way;” from day one through high school. During that time he also participated in the Holy Family Academy Home-School Co-Op, played piano, soccer, and air soft with his friends, attended youth group and was an avid member of the Boy Scouts. During his scouting career, he went on numerous camp outs and outings where he learned many useful skills and served various leadership roles in the boy-led organization. He gained many life-lessons from his experience in the Boy-Scouts which he shared with his father and brothers who were also very involved in scouting. Fr. Franco attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 2008, the year he graduated high school.
Father felt a call to the priesthood from an early age. “I remember thinking about it even before I received my First Communion,” he said. He became an Altar Boy at thirteen and spent many Masses in service of the altar where he developed a love for the Holy Sacrifice. He asked his mother to teach him Latin even though the Ordinary Form no longer required it. In his teen years, Father developed a deepening personal prayer life, thanks in no small part to the children’s “Armata Bianca” at the local Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, which strove to live the Fatima message. “These definitely helped me discern my vocation to the priesthood.”
Although he was raised in a traditionally-minded family, like many others, he did not know the Traditional Mass still existed. It was not until he was about 15 when he found it advertized in a tiny bulletin announcement for St. Benedict’s Latin Mass community. At his first Traditional Mass, he immediately fell in love with the Extraordinary Form. As he would afterwards say, “I knew I had found what I was looking for as soon as I walked into that chapel.”
He met Fr. Geddes, FSSP, who taught him how to serve the Traditional Mass and guided him in his discernment. Initially, he was hesitant to apply to the Fraternity. He was not sure he would be ready for seminary studies since he was only graduating high-school that spring. Yet, after talking with the seminary vocations director and Fr. Geddes, he decided to give it a try and entered in the fall of 2008.
How time flies! Seven years seem so short a time. The days in the seminary were some of the best days in his life.
Fr. Franco would like to show heartfelt gratitude to all who have helped him to the altar, especially for all his professors, peers, family, and friends. He humbly asks all of you to keep him in your prayers.
June 8, 2015