When he was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington at the age of 43 after a career in social work and education, Father Charles Gregory Butta said, “God brought me in His way, and it took time.”
Father Butta – who in his 34 years as a priest served in local parishes and later as the director of the Cardinal O’Boyle Residence in Washington and the St. John XXIII Residence for retired priests in Hyattsville, Maryland – died on May 20, 2025 at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, where he was in hospice care. The priest, a native of Herrin, Illinois, was 77 years old.
Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the main celebrant at Father Butta’s Mass of Christian Burial on June 5 at St. Patrick Catholic Church in the nation’s capital, expressed thanks for “the loving pastoral care he gave to older priests.”
In 1991, Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, ordained Father Butta to the priesthood at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville, Illinois, so his elderly father Charles Butta who had Alzheimer’s disease, along with his mother Florence Butta, could witness their son becoming a priest.
The next day at the new priest’s first Mass in the St. Louis area, then-Father Peter Vaghi, a fellow priest from the Archdiocese of Washington, noted that some might wonder why someone in their mid-40s “would leave everything to follow Jesus as an ordained priest. We sometimes forget that each of the apostles was a second-career man” who had toiled as fishermen and as a tax collector.
Before entering the priesthood, Father Butta earned a doctorate in counseling and student administration from American University and a master’s in social work from the University of Maryland. He served as a social worker in Montgomery County, taught sociology and social work at area colleges and universities, and worked in educational administration at American University. He also directed local programs for gifted and talented students and was a family therapist at the Psychiatric Institute at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore.
The future priest also volunteered with Covenant House in New York City and with the Missionaries of Charity in Washington, taught religious education classes and helped with the Special Olympics.
Before his ordination, he said his call to priesthood “was a decision for radical rededication by me to Christ and His Church,” and he added that love for Christ would be his primary motivation as a priest.
After his studies as a seminarian at the North American College in Rome and his ordination as a priest, Father Butta served as a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Washington, St. Andrew Apostle Parish in Silver Spring, St. Augustine Parish in Washington, St. Ann Parish in Washington, St. Jane de Chantal Parish in Bethesda, and St. Patrick Parish in Washington. Father Butta served as the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Washington from 2001-11 before being named parochial administrator of St. Nicholas Parish in Laurel. He earlier served as a parochial administrator at St. Gabriel Parish in Washington.
In 2014, Father Butta was appointed as the chaplain at the Carroll Manor Nursing Home and as the director of the Cardinal O’Boyle Residence for retired priests in Washington. The John Carroll Society in 2016 presented Father Butta with the group’s award for outstanding service in health care ministry. In 2020, he was appointed as the director of the new St. John XXIII Residence for retired priests in Hyattsville, where he served until his retirement in 2024.
At Father Butta’s Funeral Mass, Msgr. James Watkins – the pastor of St. Ann Parish in Washington who served as the homilist – acknowledged the priest’s brother, Christopher Butta, who had traveled from Houston, and expressed sympathy to their family. Father Butta’s survivors also include his sister Kathleen.
“Truly he was a brother to all of us,” said Msgr. Watkins, who was among 14 priests and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. who concelebrated the Mass with Cardinal McElroy.
Msgr. Watkins noted how over the years, many people had received the Eucharist from the hands of Father Butta, and he had administered the sacraments of Baptism, Marriage and the Anointing of the Sick and presided at Funeral Masses for the people he served.
“We now entrust Greg’s hands back to the Lord’s hands,” he said.
After Cardinal McElroy presided at the Final Commendation for Father Butta, sprinkling holy water on his casket and incensing it, priests in attendance served as pallbearers and sang “Salve Regina” for their brother priest and friend. At a later date, interment will be at St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery in West Frankfort, Illinois.
