Rev. Donald J. Planty, Jr.

Father Don Planty hails from a U.S. Foreign Service family, so he grew up living in Latin America and Western Europe; but home in the States was Reston, Virginia, where he attended public schools. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, majoring in Government and in French, having spent his Junior Year in Montpellier, France, and having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Father Don then attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received an M.A. in Theology, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Arlington in 1993. He subsequently served as Parochial Vicar both at St. Charles and at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington. Beginning in 1996, he studied in Rome, in preparation for the diplomatic service of the Holy See, and obtained a Doctor of Canon Law degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, writing his dissertation on the laws governing sacred architecture. His work with the Holy See included service at the Secretariat of State in Vatican City, in Egypt, in Ethiopia, in Eritrea, and with the African Union. Father Don returned to the diocese in 2003, and since then has served as Pastor at Holy Family Parish in Dale City, as Head Chaplain of Christendom College in Front Royal, and as Pastor of St. Charles Parish in Arlington since 2014. In 2024 he was one of seven priests chosen to represent the United States at the World Meeting of Parish Priests (Pastors) for the Synod in Rome.  

He serves as a Defender of the Bond on the diocesan Tribunal, on the bishop’s Presbyteral Council, and on the diocesan Liturgical Commission. He has been published in First Things, in National Review, and in Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and has lectured on Canon Law and sacred architecture, on Canon Law and the role of pastors, as well as on sacred art and on sacred architecture. Father Don is fluent in Spanish, French and Italian.

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