Angelus News | May 31, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 20

Brian Humphrey
Age: 38
Hometown: Elyria, Ohio
Home parish: St. Francis of Assisi Church, Silver Lake
First Mass: 12 p.m., Sunday, June 2, at St. Francis
First parish assignment: St. Mary Magdalen Church,
Camarillo
Favorite hobby: Music production
VICTOR ALEMÁN
The path to the priesthood typically takes a lot of prayer,
study, service work — and in the case of Brian Humphrey,
hours in the recording studio.
“When I was working in the music business there would be
a glimpse of something that would sort of satisfy my intense
longing, this passion, this drive I had for life,” explained
38-year-old Humphrey, who worked in music production for
15 years.
Humphrey grew up in a suburb outside of Cleveland, Ohio,
and attended Catholic school through high school. Soon after
he moved to LA in hopes of starting a career in the music
business. For the next 15 years, he worked as an engineer and
producer with an array of artists ranging from Prince, Bon
Jovi, and even Jay-Z and Beyonce.
During a period of three years living in Connecticut to
work on a series of albums, he experienced a time of interior
struggle.
“I started to realize that I couldn’t carry all this weight and I
couldn’t do all this work by myself and I needed God in my
life,” recalled Humphrey.
Living away from home, Humphrey left the Catholic faith
for nearly a decade, going to church only on Christmas or
Easter. But the seeds of his faith planted by his family, which
includes two uncles who are a priest and a deacon, were still
there.
“My parents always had to do that dance with me. They
had to say, ‘Brian, you know there’s a church right down the
street from you.’ Or they had to decide to not say something
because they knew it would push me away.”
It was during a time of crisis in his life that Humphrey recognized
he needed help and chose to turn to God.
“So I turned to him and he was there.
“I thought that I could find what my heart was longing for in
music because there’s something transcendent being revealed
Brian Humphrey during a mission trip to Haiti.
there,” said Humphrey.
“And it just wasn’t enough. I was hungry ... I was longing for
more. And when I was introduced to Jesus in the Eucharist
and to the Word of God — reading the Scriptures — I started
to actually experience that satisfaction that I was made for.”
When he decided to pursue the priesthood, Humphrey
chose to enter the seminary in Los Angeles — rather than
back home — with the example of one of the apostles in
mind.
“I think about people like St. Paul who went to the big cities
to evangelize,” Humphrey told Angelus News.
“He knew that if he could be a light in that dark place, that
he could affect great change where there’s a lot of hurt and
a lot of pain. People are really suffering. And if I could even
just be present to one person in such a big town then I know
that that will have effects that go beyond me.”
Humphrey will begin his ministry as a priest at St. Mary
Magdalen Church in Camarillo.
BRIAN HUMPHREY
May 31, 2019 • ANGELUS • 15