Missionary priest serving Archdiocese for 30 years is moving on

Maryknoll Father Rafael Davila (far right), along with married couple Deacon Arturo and Esperanza Monterrubio, attend the national convention of the Catholic Christian Family Movement in Denver, Colorado, in 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Monterrubio Family)

HOUSTON — Father Rafael Roman Dávila, at 93 years old, has traveled the world as a Maryknoll missionary, but the bulk of his 66 years as a priest bloom in Houston.

Born in 1931 in New York City, son of Venezuelan immigrant parents, Father Davila also grew up in Houston, graduating from St. Thomas High School. He then entered Maryknoll College in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in the fall of 1949 and was ordained a priest in 1958.

Now, he faces a new assignment and will be reporting to Maryknoll in New York to see where he will be placed.

Father Rafael said he has recently enjoyed multiple farewells at different parishes he served at, such as Christ the King Church and St. John Vianney Church.

“The people of Houston have opened their homes and their hearts to me. That is what I will carry with me,” Father Davila said. “But we still need more Spanish-speaking priests and deacons in our communities.”

Among those compassionate people, married couple Arturo and Esperanza Monterrubio first met Father Davila in 1991 when they attended a talk he gave in Houston.

Esperanza said, “Father inspired us to participate in our community and made us feel like active, living members of the Church.”

She added, “He invited me to participate in the vocations committee in the Galveston-Houston diocese. Holding a foster baby in my arms, I was the only lay woman attending these meetings, and I felt welcomed.”

The family’s participation in vocations also inspired Deacon Monterrubio to answer the calling of becoming ordained as a permanent deacon. “This call came about after many prayers for vocations that we had committed to daily as a family,” he said.

Father Davila, who served in missions in Venezuela and in the U.S., traveling among Texas, New Mexico, and other mission churches, now works with the Monterrubios in Houston as Maryknoll missionary disciples for pastoral ministry with families.

Deacon Monterrubio, who previously served as Archdiocesan director for the Office of Family Life, helped his mentor priest to support a Spanish language branch of the Christian Family Movement (Movimiento Familiar Cristiano Catolico – MFCC).

The mission helps couples and their families live their Christ-centered faith and improve society through love, service, education and leading by example. Father Davila served as national spiritual advisor of the MFCC, which holds a national conference every three years with thousands of families attending.

The Monterrubios continued to work even more closely during the past six years with Father Davila after the couple became mission education promoters for the Maryknoll fathers and brothers. “Father Davila has been our guide, mentor and a model of missionary discipleship,” Esperanza said. “We admire his discipline, his organization, his wisdom and humility.”

Hilda Ochoa, Archdiocesan director of the Missions Office, said, “Father Rafael is admired not only by the Hispanic community of the diocese for his tireless work as a missionary and priest but also throughout the diocese.”

She also pointed out that this year’s World Mission Sunday is coming up on Oct. 20 for parishioners to donate to The Society for the Propagation of the Faith. As part of that mission, The Pontifical Mission Societies USA helps more than 1,000 missionary territories in building churches, schools, seminaries and other needs to spread the faith.

In 1926, Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church, with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927. The Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next-to-last Sunday during the month of October. That day is celebrated in all the local Churches as the feast of Catholicity and universal solidarity so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility regarding the evangelization of the world.