By 
Father Travis Moger is a priest in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, who had an unconventional path to the priesthoodJan 17, 2026 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Father Travis Moger has been a Catholic priest for just nine months, and his journey to ordination was a unique one. A former Baptist pastor and Navy chaplain, he was ordained in May 2025 in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, seven years after he, his wife, and his son entered the Catholic Church.
“I didn’t come into the Church in order to be a priest; God used prayer to draw me to the Catholic Church,” Moger told EWTN News reporter Julia Convery.
During a military campaign as a Navy chaplain, Moger; his wife, Amelia; and his son, Mark, all separately began to feel the call toward Catholicism. While Moger was away, his wife had begun attending RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which is now called OCIA — the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults).
Father Thomas Falkenthal, Moger’s former Navy chaplain supervisor, witnessed the seeds being planted in Moger’s heart.
“He was connecting with the liturgy. The Catholic Mass was certainly far from his tradition. I could tell it was touching him,” Falkenthal shared with Convery.
“He didn’t realize it, but all the way back home in the United States his wife, Amelia, was going to RCIA and preparing to join the Catholic Church. So when he came home from that deployment, they both had something to share with each other. Now I think that’s an amazing movement of the Spirit to keep that couple so close,” Falkenthal said.
“It was definitely a God thing definitely to draw her towards the Catholic Church,” Moger added.
After a five-year journey of study and conversion, Moger, his wife, and his son were received into the Catholic Church on Easter Sunday 2018.
“I entered the Church not knowing if there would be a path to the priesthood for me,” Moger shared.
Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston explained that Pope Francis eventually granted Moger a dispensation from the usual requirement of celibacy for the Catholic priesthood, allowing him to be ordained a priest.
The bishop also pointed out that he believes having a desire for a family is a trait that makes a good priest.
“When I was a vocations director, I always looked for would this man make a good husband and father? If he would, then he’d probably make a good priest,” Brennan said.
Moger also highlighted this trait as one that allows him to have a unique perspective into his now-spiritual fatherhood.
“There’s something about being able to bring a child into the world and then nurture them and you’re fully invested in another person. And I think that experience does inform the way you look at spiritual fatherhood and the way you look at God’s fatherhood,” Moger said.
Moger’s son, Mark, told EWTN News that his father’s newfound spiritual fatherhood has brought a “deeper spirituality” into their family.
Maddy Cordle, Moger’s daughter, added: “I’ve had the privilege of watching his conversion from the beginning — same with my mom and my brother —and I just got to watch how it brought them so much closer to each other in their marriage, together as a family, but also really, really strengthened their relationship with God.”
“To him there’s nothing more important than the impoverished and the cast aside. That’s his charism and you’ll see it throughout his ministry,” Mark added.
Despite his unconventional journey to the priesthood, Moger sees it as the result of saying “yes” to God.
“God honors it when we start moving in the direction that he’s leading us, trusting that he’s going to work it out,” he said.
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I fully admit that whether or not the clergy should be celibate is beyond my payscale, but if a married (former) Protestant can become a Catholic priest, why can’t a married Catholic? My best friend is an Orthodox priest. He’s a husband, a father, and a grandfather. He tells me that he understands all the reasons for opposing a married priesthood, but he feels that the benefits far outweigh them. (And believe me: I have no iron in this fire. Though married, I feel not so much as a whisper, let alone a call, to the priesthood.)
Married men can be ordained as deacons in both the Roman and Eastern Rites.
In the Byzantine Catholic Church, as well as the other various Eastern Catholic Churches, it’s not against tradition to admit married men to the priesthood, whereas in the Roman Church, priestly celibacy is viewed as a discipline. Many of the early Church fathers were married.
I’m in full support of a married Roman priesthood as an option.
Two of the best Byzantine priests I know are married, and they are very good in confession, because they have experienced the ups and downs of marriage.
There is no controversy with the prospect of a married priesthood.
Once they become a priest, they have to be celibate, married or not.
They do? Huh. News to me. As a longtime Eastern Catholic, I know quite a few married priests who have children and who are continuing to have children.
I think she means if their wife should die. I think that is the norm but may be dispensed.
Never heard of that rule…
No, we had an Episcopal priest who grew up in our hometown converted and became a Catholic priest. It seemed to work out fine
I agree with your friend that there are real struggles in having a celibate priest stood, but I believe the benefits far outweigh the difficulties. A celibate man better images and conforms too the image of a celibate Christ, who is totally wet to his bride the church and lays down his life for her and not his own will see Ephesians 5 and Matthew 19. Additionally living a life, totally committed to God now without the mediation of a wife is more a kin to, and is a sign of the heavenly reality where everybody will be totally devoted to God without mediation. The celibate is offered graces to do that now. I encourage you to make friends with happy celibate clergymen who can tell you of the grace of the sacraments and the way that prayer and a relationship with Mary has transformed and sustained him.
Since the article by Professor Spinello, The Second Vatican Council: A Guiding Star for the Church? is not available I wish to post a comment here on the Vatican II controversy.
Or a death star? A snare for large contingents of the progressive and traditional Church. Spinello apparently alludes to the multitude of progressive carpetbaggers who misused the Counsel’s documents to promote their new paradigm.
Reaction to the new paradigmers by traditionalists is that they, the radical left, are drawn into the alluring glitter of the death star only to be gripped by the devil. Whereas new paradigmers will contend it is the traditionalists who have closed their ears to the voice of the Spirit of the Council.
Ironically, Vat II has unfairly become a cause for distancing within the Church. Both reject what the Council actually teaches, injuring their faith in obedience to the Magisterium. Taking themselves to extremes that freeze compassion and Christian brotherhood.
For a test of manifest devotion to Christ present in the Holy Eucharist turn around at the consecration and note how very few are looking directly at the Eucharist, and are rather looking down piously or at a missalette. This is a hangover from the TLM. So the NO was intended to engage the parishioner in what is actually occurring before their eyes. To engage and participate, to learn what is being taught through the liturgy.
Professor Spinello analyzes all the pertinent Council documents to clearly demonstrate, one would wish once and for all, that both are out in Left Field. That if read properly sans a preconceived agenda will find the Council is indeed a Guiding Star.
If you are going to accuse people of rejecting what the Council teaches, perhaps you should include a quote of what that teaching is, and some evidence of rejection besides behavior. Sin is not generally evidence of heresy, and the direction of one’s gaze does not even amount to sin. Nor does it necessarily indicate what a person’s mind is on.
His argument subverts itself. He says the NO was intended to engage the parishioner in what is actually occurring before their [sic] eyes. And he now, as a practitionre of the NO, observes that few look.
Yesterday, a Dominican priest homilied on what “active participation” per Aquinas intends. One’s senses are not necessarily engaged. One’s spirit IS participating in sanctifying grace. One gains grace is through reconciliation and receipt. Reconciliation and receipt of Holy Eucharist are spiritually mindful, not sense-based acts.
One would have hoped that a doctorpriest would, late in life, have come across such notions.
“This is a hangover from the TLM.”
The stunningly arrogant bias and assumption by one human-mind led me to gasp. Have you been ill, Fr. Dr.? One who cares nothing for Who He Is will level such thoughtless uncharity to another of His Own.
Other persons adore the Eucharist at His Elevation within UA rubrics since that is the first time during the Mass the parishioner may view The Presence of the King. He is elevated. Not manhandled.
The premise underlying the changes to the Mass was to present the liturgy as a means to engage and instruct the faith. Few persons understood was was occurring at the altar, except for a few like yourselves who made the effort.
I don’t accuse you, although I accept your insults as a blessing.
Few persons understood [what] was occurring at the altar. A miracle of love to be adored. If laity continue to disregard the immense beauty of Christ’s real presence it’s in part due to those who condemn Vatican II and attempts to promote the Novus Ordo as a means of fulfilling the ancient dictum, ut legem credendi lex statuat. To allow what Benedict XVI envisioned as a parallel embellishment of the two liturgical forms.
If there’s sin, is may be in vilification. Examine your consciences before the Blessed Sacrament.
Seems odd that a married non Catholic can become a priest while denied to a life time Catholic. All the while we have a shortage of priests. Does not make any sense when you consider that we have always recognized the non celibate priesthood of the many Eastern Rite Churches. Since we now have severe financial problems in the Church and many congregations are struggling to afford a priest, it seems to me that new ways need to be found to solve these problems. A married priest with a family does not necessarily put a greater financial burden on a church. I have known many Protestant ministers who were self supporting by working at secular jobs. Another possibility would to look at the “worker priest model “ movement experimented with in post Vatican II France. The idea was that priests would take secular jobs in order to evangelize in the secular work place. This would also allow them to say masses on Sunday. Lay people could easily be employed to run the every day nut and bolt operations of the church- maintenance, business management etc. married deacons could also handle many of the sacraments as allowed. What I am trying to say is that we must be creative in trying new ways of meeting needs as they present themselves. Some of our traditions can be broken without damaging our faith. The life of the diocesan priest is becoming harder and harder as more and more have to live alone in their parsonages. Many also have to do their own cooking and housekeeping. This causes loneliness extra burdens and opens them to many needless temptations. Perhaps religious order priests living together and serving several nearby parishes would be another consideration. I think that it is becoming increasingly apparent that the old ways of doing things are no longer working and we must change.
Brilliant reply. You are so right. It makes no sense at all. Unfortunately, what you say here just continues to fall on deaf ears. Things will just have to get worse before they begin to consider more prudent alternatives.
I concur.
What bothers me MUCH MORE is that singular “right” of a priest to withhold the confession of a crime–no matter how heinous–from the authorities. How CONVENIENT: and no wonder so many boys were violated again and again! No womN of any faith would allow this outrage to continue, year after year after year. Seems God cannot protect the violated as long as the RC protects the violators!
Would you apply the same standard to a doctor/patient relationship or a lawyer/client relationship. If I was accused of sexually abusing a minor and retained legal council, should my attorney report my guilt to authorities?
A good chunk of the reason for repeat offenders was that a bunch of bishops decided to ignore their obligations under canon law and instead follow the advice of psychologists (who claimed they had cured the priests). It’s not like the only evidence they had was obtained in Confession.
Our legislators seem to also want to believe it can be easily solved in a few years too, judging by the typical penalties for child molesting.
The Catholic views on marriage for priests is incredibly short cited! Also denial of communion to CHRISTIANS of other faiths is DENIED!!! Now this former Baptist pastor can receive and GICE COMMUNION TO OTHERS BECAUSE WHY????
What’s changed?? Some Man priest said it’s okay now???? Surely God is amused by the teachings of the CATHOLIC RELIGION….
Ms Brechtel:
God is not amused by the teachings of the Catholic religion. God IS the founder of the Catholic religion.
Catholic priests are not allowed to marry after ordination, no matter whether they are Roman or Eastern.
Married men are admitted to the priesthood, even those who were formerly Roman, but underwent a formal change of rites, which transfers their canonical status from Roman (or Latin) to Eastern (Byzantine, Alexandrian, Maronite, etc) but again, most married men who are admitted to the priesthood are in the Byzantine Churches, or other Eastern-Rite branches of the Catholic Church.
Denial of Holy Communion to non-catholic Christians is a long standing law that will not change. Communion is for those who are in good standing with the Catholic Church, and who truly believe and profess that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. How can someone who rejects the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist receive Him in Holy Communion? They can’t, and you know it.
From the tone of your posted comment, I’m guessing that you are either a non-catholic, or someone who doesn’t like those who are.
Connie: I’m curious. Are you Catholic?
What changed is that he converted and then was ordained
In what way is Fr. Moger’s journey unique?
Fr Moger didn’t know there was a pathway for him to become a priest after converting.
Either way, even if it’s not unique to you, it is to him as a convert. If you’re a cradle Catholic like myself, it’s often harder to see the uniqueness of someone’s conversion.
In general, a typical Baptist believer is regenerated and saved according to the Bible. Christ lives in them and they have a relationship with God. A typical catholic is not regenerated, not saved, and has religion,which is void of a normal loving relationship with God. Therefore, this person never knew God and regressed to religion where there is no God. Pity
JF Acosta: Say what????
I am a trad. Catholic my whole life and always look up at the Eucharist during the Consecration and the 3x: Lord, I am not worthy. It is all about the presence of Jesus, of course.
Unfortunately many of Catholics do not believe in the Transubstantiation which is why so Sadly many Catholics drifted
Miss Connie , Christ may be amused or saddened sometimes by our actions but He founded the Catholic Church.
If you believe in Catholic teaching, especially about the Eucharist,and wish to be received into the Church the door is open. There’s a process though. You don’t just show up at the Communion rail.
Jesus Christ was celibate. Vatican II Council unequivocally endorsed priestly celibacy.
From Fr. John Hardon (Servant of God):
“If anyone asks me, and I have been asked more than once, what positive good has come from the Second Council of the Vatican, I could give a dozen answers. But somewhere near the top is its unmistakable support for priestly celibacy. As the following statement of the Council makes clear:
‘Based on the mystery of Christ and its mission, celibacy, which at first was recommended to priests, was afterwards on the Latin Church imposed by law on all who were to be promoted to Holy Orders. This Sacred Council approves and confirms this legislation. (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 16).'”
See: https://www.therealpresence.org/archive/archives/Priesthood/Priesthood_010.htm
Didn’t Think So above (8:16 p.m.) –
What I was getting at is that Fr. Moger is not the first Protestant pastor/minister/priest to become a Catholic priest.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker, e.g.
Maybe Fr. Moger is the first (American) Baptist pastor to make the trek?
Cleo
It almost seemed slightly downplaying to me.
I’m sorry for my snappy response.
Fr Moger could be the first American baptist minister to be ordained as a Catholic priest. As you said, many Lutheran and Anglican ministers have been ordained.
Fr. Longnenecker is a former Anglican priest. He became a Catholic priest under a special provision made by the Holy See for Anglican priests. Fr. Moger was given a dispensation from celibacy by Pope Francis to be ordained a Catholic priest in the Latin rite. These circumstances are not the norm in the Latin rite. The discipline of celibacy remains in the Church, that to be ordained a priest in the Latin rite one takes a vow of celibacy, which the Church teaches is a higher calling because Christ, himself, was celibate.
I bet that there are married, permanent Deacons who would be good priests.