American journalist who wrote for Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong ordained priest in Washington

Reverend Donald Gerard Gayou, a journalist who worked in Hong Kong for the Wall Street Journal, was ordained to the priesthood at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on June 21.

Gayou, 31, hearkened to his call for the priestly vocation while in Hong Kong, where he worked for the Wall Street Journal as an editorial writer from 2017 to 2018.

Gayou, who hailed from St. Louis, Missouri, went to George Washington University in DC, where he graduated with a degree in International Affairs and Chinese Language and Literature. 

During his years at the university, he went through a spiritual struggle and eventually rose above it.

“From about age 18 to 23, I alternated between total commitment to the faith and resistance to it,” the Sunday Examiner quoted him as saying. “Finally, God revealed to me definitively my desperate need for a Savior.”

His spiritual experience led him to Hong Kong.

He also worked for Princeton in Asia, an independent affiliate of Princeton University that offers transformative and service-oriented experiences for graduates in educational institutions, the business sector, the media, and non-government entities across Asia.

During a Sunday stroll, he chanced upon Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Parish in Wan Chai, where he witnessed something deeper than a religious structure. The Catholic community in the parish helped draw him into God’s call.

“I stopped in for a Sunday evening Mass and met Father Thomas Law Kwok-fai, Sister Victoria Victorino of the Sisters of Disciples of the Divine Master, and several parishioners who are still friends to this day,” The Homestead, a parish publication, quoted him describing his first encounter with the OLMC parish. “They encouraged me to go on a parish retreat. I wanted to make friends, so I went—but the priesthood was the last thing on my mind.”

Fr. Law's straightforward question during a retreat prompted him to critically assess his Catholic identity.

“You’re twenty-five years old; what kind of Catholic man do you want to be?” the Hong Kong priest once asked him.

“I decided I couldn’t keep God waiting any longer,” Gayou said, recollecting that encounter with Fr. Law that left an impact deeply entrenched in him. “If he wanted me to be a priest, it was a call too important to ignore.”

Everything changed in the course of the Eucharistic adoration at that retreat.

“While looking upon the Eucharist, a question welled up in my heart: ‘What if this were my job?’” he wrote. That moment of grace became the catalyst for a deeper calling.”

Gayou had a successful career as a journalist, but he chose to walk on the path that drew him into his calling.

“I entered seminary even though I loved my job,” he said. ‘Life is good,’ I thought, ‘but I believe God is calling me to something even bigger."

He flew back to the US and went to St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington in 2019. He also later studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. 

He recounted his formation as “five years of learning that God’s plan is greater than my own.”

Gayou grew up in Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights, Missouri, but he acknowledges that Hong Kong and OLMC played a major role in his spiritual journey.

“Our Lady of Mount Carmel brought me close to her Son in Hong Kong,” he said. “In doing so, she worked through so many of you.”

He also expressed gratitude to Sister Victorino and many members of the Liturgical Bible Study for walking with him on the path to discernment. 

“God is amazing for giving me a home—your home—so far from my own,” he wrote, addressing the Hong Kong faithful. “Please keep me in your prayers as I get closer to giving my life to the Lord.”

Gayou was one of five deacons ordained to serve the church's mission in Washington.

The solemn liturgy was presided over by Robert Cardinal McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington.

His friends and former parishioners in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Wan Chai were among the well-wishers who joined him at his ordination in Washington.

Gayou, who also speaks Mandarin Chinese and Italian, celebrated his first Mass on Sunday, June 22, at the Immaculate Conception Church in Washington. 

“I hope one day I can celebrate a Mass with you all at OLMC—the great fosterer of my vocation,” he told his friends and parishioners from Hong Kong.