By Elena Perri • Posted August 29, 2024

Daniel Drain didn’t know much about God or the Catholic faith while growing up in Toledo, Ohio. It took a bit of divine intervention for Drain to convert to Catholicism at age 17.

After completing grade school, Drain had the opportunity to attend St. Francis de Sales High School in Toledo. Due to the distance from his home, Drain had to take public transportation to and from school. Arriving before classes started, he began going to Mass with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the priests who taught at the school.

“The only thing I could do in the morning to stay busy was attend Mass with the Oblates in their community chapel,” he said. “That’s how I started learning the parts of the Mass and hearing Scripture at length for the first time.”

Drain’s conversion fueled his desire to learn as much as he could about Catholic theology. After graduating from high school, he double majored in philosophy and theology at DeSales University in Allentown.

“It was the only place I could afford with the help from the Oblates’ scholarships that they arranged for me,” Drain said.

He went on to earn a master’s degree in theological studies, and a Ph.D. in Theology – Marriage, Family, and the Person – at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC.

Drain, who began serving as director of the archdiocesan Office for Life and Family earlier this month, acknowledged that God has played an integral role in his life and the work he has done throughout his career.

“I managed to be brought out of poverty, and I was privileged to gain an extensive education and to meet and to know Christ and his Church,” he said. “There’s really nothing greater than that.”

As director, Drain will oversee programs related to marriage and family life, respect for human life, bioethics and end-of-life issues, natural family planning, and prison ministry.

“An exciting new thing that’s launching soon is a collaboration with the Office for Persons with Disabilities,” he said. “We are launching a Catholic mental health initiative, and we will be revitalizing prison ministry in the Archdiocese and building up the network of chaplains.”

While this is the first time Drain has worked for the Archdiocese, this is the second time he has lived and worked within its geograhic area. He was Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Doylestown for three years before spending two years as an assistant professor of pastoral theology at St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York. Drain also has been an adjunct professor at DeSales University.

He and his wife, Mary Colleen, and their 3-year-old daughter moved from Rochester earlier this summer and now live in St. Agnes Parish in Sellersville.

The difficult things Drain experienced growing up – poverty, family members with addiction problems, and his parents’ divorce – gives him a unique perspective on helping Catholics across the Archdiocese with the challenges they face within their families.

“My passion is to preserve the Church’s vision of the family and to help regular people attain holiness through regular living as husband and wife, and also healing through brokenness,” Drain said.

He also emphasized the importance of educating Catholics about Church teachings.

“Now is the time for formation, for the slow, quiet and patient work of being who we are more deeply,” Drain said. “I’m not in favor of conversion by concussion, but conversion by accompaniment, the sort of slow witness that my life is good, and it might be nice to live this way too.”

In a rapidly changing culture, Drain sees the Church in Philadelphia as “a place of hope.”

“The Office for Life and Family aims to show where Christ is in all issues of human life and the family, despite what the culture is saying,” Drain said. “We’re the Church and we have Christ, and that’s ultimately what people want.”