Bishop to ordain Rev. Mr. Gregory Clever to Priesthood on Dec. 7 in Cathedral
Who in the world is Rev. Mr. Gregory Joseph John Clever?
“A child of God,” he stated. “When you’re baptized, you’re in a covenant relationship with God, which means you’re a member of his family.
“In the end, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
Rev. Mr. Clever hopes to continue directing his life and ministry toward that end as a priest of this diocese.
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight will ordain him to the Holy Priesthood at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, 2305 W. Main St. in Jefferson City.
All are invited to attend. The Mass will be livestreamed.
For more information and to RSVP, visit diojeffcity.org/ordination-2024.
Raised in faith
The third of nine children born to Dr. Henry and Dorothy Clever, Rev. Mr. Clever grew up in a family that took its Catholic faith seriously.
His parents raised, home-schooled and catechized five sons and four daughters through elementary school.
“Mom and Dad are saints! That’s the first thing you need to know,” he said.
Young Gregory and his siblings had a lot of fun and mostly got along.
“We always had someone to play with, someone to fight with,” he recalled. “It’s always been a pretty close family and we got along well and helped raise each other.”
His father is a dermatologist and his mother is a nurse.
Priests and transitional deacons at their home parish, St. Joseph in Cottleville, in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, were a steady presence in the Clever children’s lives, as was their great uncle, Jefferson City native Monsignor John H. Westhues (1922-2008), who was a priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese.
“They were just men,” Rev. Mr. Clever noted. “But, they were striving to be holy. Holiness attracts people, no matter who it’s in.
“It’s a misconception that you have to be young to inspire,” he said. “Older people who are very holy will inspire holiness in the youth, as well.
“If you are authentically living out holiness, you will make people want to be holy, including young people,” he stated.
Rev. Mr. Clever went to DeSmet Jesuit High School, an all-boys Catholic school in the heart of St. Louis County.
Several young men in his parish and his high school entered the seminary to formally consider becoming priests.
“You always knew someone right in front of you who went ahead of you,” he recalled. “It’s a lot easier to make that call when there’s a face to it.”
He attended several spiritual retreats with seminarians who were actively seeking God’s plan for them.
“That was big,” Rev. Mr. Clever recalled, “getting to know seminarians and seeing that they are real people who have fun in their lives and that they’re just like me.”
Spending time in prayer brought him profound peace.
His parents, siblings and friends were aware of his priestly aspirations and supported his decision to enter priestly formation for the St. Louis archdiocese.
He majored in philosophy at Cardinal Glennon College of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis and continued with post-graduate theology studies and priestly formation at Kenrick-Glennon.
Fellow seminarians included Paul Clark, Christopher Aubuchon, Joshua Duncan and Cesar Anicama, who eventually became priests of the Jefferson City diocese; and Andrew Auer, who’s now a priest of the St. Louis archdiocese serving at St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish in Columbia.
They made him want to be a better seminarian and a better man — “and that hopefully translates into being a better priest,” he said.
In sorrow and joy
Seven years after entering the seminary, Rev. Mr. Clever decided not to continue.
“God does funny things to help us get to where he wants us to be,” he stated.
Simply, he was no longer finding peace in prayer.
“There was a disquiet in my soul in which God was saying, ‘Maybe not right now,’” he recalled.
It didn’t feel to him like he was closing the door on Priesthood forever.
“It was more like, ‘God, I’m not sure what you want, so I’m just going to be open to it,’” he said.
Rev. Mr. Clever accepted and thoroughly enjoyed the role of middle-school religion and science teacher at Sacred Heart School in Valley Park.
“It was a joy to do it,” he said. “They were great kids. I was very proud of them. I still am.”
All the while, he continued making regular visits to one of his favorite places, the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows in Starkenburg, in the Jefferson City diocese.
“God’s presence is so clearly there,” he said. “It’s the most consistently prayerful place I’ve ever been to. It just keeps drawing me back.”
The historical shrine in the Ozark foothills honors the Blessed Mother and the sorrows she accepted upon becoming the mother of the Savior — not only his violent death on the cross but also the ingratitude with which his sacrifice has been met by so many through the ages.
“I’ve always been able to see God in the sorrows of Our Lady, so I find a lot of solace in prayers for her intercession,” said Rev. Mr. Clever.
His sense of peace in prayer gradually returned, and he knew God was calling him back into priestly formation.
This time for the mostly agrarian Diocese of Jefferson City.
“I love where I came from, but I love it out here. I love the rural life,” he said.
He contacted the diocesan vocation director and set his sights on doing whatever the Holy Spirit would lead him to do.
Becoming and revealing
Bishop McKnight enrolled Rev. Mr. Clever in Mundelein Seminary in Chicago.
The deacon described Mundelein as “a good place of human formation.”
“They’re very good at helping you become the person God made you to be,” he said.
His instructors were deliberate about helping future priests learn to preach good, accessible homilies for parishioners.
But more than that, “the big thing is how they formed my heart into hopefully the priest that I will be,” he said. “I would say the biggest thing is to become the man that I am, and helping to reveal the merciful love of God.”
What kind of priest does God want him to be?
“A holy one,” he stated.
He noted that there are always people who make everyone around them want to be better people.
“That’s holiness,” he said.
Being authentic
Rev. Mr. Clever completed his theology studies at Mundelein this past May, receiving a Master of Divinity (theology) degree.
On June 1, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Bishop McKnight ordained him to the Order of Deacon, which he will carry with him into Priesthood and for the rest of his life.
He was assigned to assist in the diocesan Youth/Young Adult Ministry Office through the summer, then to work in pastoral ministry at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City, with residence at St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City.
He also served as assistant master of ceremonies for the bishop.
As a deacon, Rev. Mr. Clever got to baptize one of his cousin’s children.
“That was amazing,” he said. “You’re claiming someone for Christ. Wow!”
He’s enjoyed his work at Helias Catholic.
“The kids are great,” he stated. “I really love working with them and the faculty.”
He’s convinced there’s no great secret to connecting to young people.
“People of all ages can smell phony pretty quick, someone who’s not being themself,” he said. “If you’re trying to pander to them, they won’t like you.
“But if you’re just being the person God made you to be, and doing it in a holy way, that draws people to Christ,” he said.
“Christ is what they truly desire, and if you’re being Christ to them, they respond well to that,” he said.
He’s also gotten to preach homilies, as he will do even more frequently as a priest.
“It’s really the fact that God’s flock is being entrusted to you in that moment when you are preaching,” he said. “That’s not something that should be approached lightly.
“Fortunately,” he stated, “they’re all in God’s hands.”
Opportune moment
Rev. Mr. Clever is not sure what his great-uncle, the revered priest, might say to him at this time.
“But I do hope to find out some day in the Sweet Bye and Bye,” he said. “If he does his job and I do mine ... .”
Two things the future priest is especially looking forward to about his Ordination Mass are when he will lay prostrate before the altar, a gesture of total surrender and obedience to God, while the choir and people invite the saints to join them in praying for him; and when the bishop ceremonially presents him the sacred vessels with which he will offer the Mass.
“The handing on of chalice and paten is a really neat symbol,” Rev. Mr. Clever noted. “My understanding is that it goes back to medieval times: when you joined a guild, they’d hand you the tools of it.
“So, having one of the successors of the Apostles hand you two of the greatest tools of the Priesthood — it’s a powerful symbol that you are now a priest,” he said.
Monsignor James J. Ramacciotti, who was a member of the faculty at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis during Rev. Mr. Clever’s time there, will ceremonially help him put on his priestly vestments at the ordination.
“He’s a priest who I always looked up to as a holy man,” said Rev. Mr. Clever. “He shepherded me, showed me how to be a priest, guided me through seminary and really supported me.”
Rev. Mr. Clever said he’s looking forward to being able to offer the Mass.
“The words of institution are going to be pretty special,” he said, referring to the words the priest speaks in the voice of Christ, through which ordinary bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.”
He’s also looking forward to giving absolution in the Sacrament of Confession and bringing more people into the Church through Baptism.
He knows he’s entering the Priesthood at a time when the Church is experiencing unique changes and difficulties.
“Opportunities for holiness,” he called them, half-smiling.
When asked about his favorite Bible verse, Rev. Mr. Clever cited John 3:30, in which St. John the Baptist, referring to Jesus, says, “He must increase, I must decrease.”
“It’s a very striking verse,” the future priest noted. “But, it’s also true. This is all about Jesus. It’s not about me. If you try to make the Priesthood about yourself, you’re going to be pretty miserable.”
When in need of saintly intercession, Rev. Mr. Clever turns to the Blessed Mother under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows, and to his three patron saints, Gregory, Joseph and John.
His great-grandmother was who suggested naming him Gregory, after St. Gregory the Great.
As pope, St. Gregory not only popularized the type of prayerful chanting that takes its name from him, but also wrote an invaluable resource, “Pastoral Role” — on how to be a good pastor.
“He goes through the importance of holiness, and how to work with various types of parishioners you encounter in different aspects of ministry, and how to help them,” Rev. Mr. Clever noted.
The Lord will provide
Rev. Mr. Clever will offer Mass at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8, in St. George Church in Hermann.
He considers St. George to be his home parish in this diocese.
“They’ve given me lots of prayer support and moral support,” he said. “Especially the Knights of Columbus there. It’s a great community. Hermann is a wonderful town.”
He said he’s incredibly grateful for how good God has been to him.
“I’ve been greatly blessed!” he stated. “I’m very grateful to be in the diocese that I’m in, with the people I’m with.”
He asks for prayers for a simple intention: “That I would be a holy priest.”
For those who want to help God answer that prayer, he suggests: “Be saints. That will take care of it. Pursue holiness. The sacraments are very helpful. That’s a good start.”
For anyone who’s seriously trying to figure out what God created to them to be in the Church, he suggested: “Pray, pursue holiness and talk to a holy priest or a holy sister.”
Specifically, for men who are wrestling with a possible call to Priesthood, he counseled: “If God wants it done, he’ll take care of it. It’s his problem. Your job is just to follow him.”
