Reverend Monsignor Donald A. Guglielmi, S.T.D.

Biography

By way of introduction, I am the Reverend Donald A. Guglielmi, a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT.  I was born in New Haven, CT to a devout, close-knit Italian-American family, and raised in East Haven, CT, a town on the shoreline in New Haven County.  I attended public schools, except for the ninth grade, where I attended our parish parochial school.  In college at the University of Bridgeport, I majored in Political Science and Nursing.  During college, I received a scholarship to participate in a graduate course in Soviet-Type Governments, which included a study tour of the former Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and East Germany. Following graduation, I passed the R.N. licensure exam and began working full time as a nurse at Yale-New Haven Hospital on an acute medical-surgical unit.  I then transferred to the Neuropsychiatric Evaluation Unit at Yale where I worked as a Psychiatric Nurse Clinician.  This time provided invaluable training in the psychiatric assessment of acutely ill patients, working with a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and social workers.  During this time, I had my own apartment in New Haven.  I also found time to participate in my favorite hobbies: international travel, cycling, opera and classical music, and professional tennis.

I was drawn to the priesthood at an early age, inspired as I was by my very devout parents, and parish priests, especially the Dominican Friars at St. Mary's Church in New Haven.  Suffering was also a major factor in the discernment of my vocation. My father was ill for nearly twenty years with chronic cardiovascular and kidney disease, until his death in 1992. In addition, I witnessed the deaths of many family members since I was twelve years old.  This experience of suffering, my own and others, caused me to reflect more deeply on the deeper questions of life, and led to my entrance into the seminary in the fall of 1981.  Following ordination as a priest, I  served in a variety of ministerial roles - parochial vicar,  high school chaplain, pastor of a large parish, and theological censor for the Cause of the Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty. Twice I was sent for graduate theological studies in Rome, in the fall of 1996 to work on a Licentiate degree, and again in the fall of 2002 to complete a doctorate.  In the spring of 2014, my bishop invited me to leave my parish to do seminary work, and I began as a full time faculty member at St. Joseph's Seminary.  In December, 2017, I published a book entitled, Staritsa: The Spiritual Motherhood of Catherine Doherty, by Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR. I continue to do work for the Bishop as the diocesan Censor Librorum. 

Education

University of Bridgeport:  B.S. in Social Sciences/Nursing (R.N.)
 
 Seton Hall University: M.Div. in Pastoral Ministry
 
 St. John's University: M.A. in Catholic Theology; Advanced Diploma in Catechesis
 
 Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas - Angelicum - Rome:
 S.T.L. and S.T.D. in Spiritual Theology