Father Matthew Reiman

Matthew Reiman can recite, and has since childhood in rapid-fire succession, the names of all 44 presidents of the United States beginning with George Washington.

It’s apparent that this cleric and aficionado of U.S. history and American politics thrives on matters of Church and state.

“One of the most fundamental rights we have is the right not to have to choose between practicing one’s faith or perhaps paying a fine or going to jail,” said Father Reiman, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Marist College in Poughkeepsie before entering St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie in 2009.

“We’re starting to see in our own society an increased intolerance for religious points of view—especially Christian, particularly Catholic.”

A litmus test of accountability, Father Reiman suggests, comes in the form of such questions as, “How much concern do I have for my neighbor? If someone is doing something in their own life that is destructive or sinful, do I turn a blind eye to that or do I try to help them? We are our brother’s keeper. Sometimes that means speaking up.”

Although he planned to teach history after college, those plans actually became history after he was asked by a friend who was discerning a vocation to the priesthood to accompany him on a visit to St. Joseph’s during his junior year at Marist.

He was surprised by the invitation, recalling that he had privately considered such a vocation but had never discussed the matter with that friend.

He had a good experience there, but decided to wait and see.

“I really did have a single moment where it became very clear,” Father Reiman said of the call that came later, the summer before his senior year of college, as he was driving along the Taconic State Parkway.

“It was June 29, the feast day of SS. Peter and Paul. I received an answer to what I had been praying about. I just had this total moment of clarity. Since the very beginning of this entire process, there has never been a time that I have doubted or had a very difficult time or some fear. That’s been a great grace.”

Among his apostolic assignments at St. Joseph’s Seminary were teaching parish religious education at Our Lady of the Assumption in the Bronx, leading days of recollection at Stepinac High School in White Plains and providing pastoral care at Calvary Hospital, the Bronx. Summer assignments were also Our Lady of the Assumption, the Bronx, and St. Patrick’s parish, Yorktown Heights.

He has served as master of ceremonies at the seminary for the last three years. His pastimes include long distance running.

For Father Reiman, 27, the eldest of three sons of Malcolm and Teresa Reiman, serving others is “in the DNA,” he said. Malcolm Reiman is a detective in the homicide division of the Bronx NYPD. Mrs. Reiman is a supervisor at a medical group. His brothers are Sean, 24 and Christian, 21.

Born in Danbury, Conn., he was raised in Holy Rosary parish in Hawthorne and St. John the Evangelist parish in Mahopac.

Father Reiman is grateful for the example of his seminary family, which, he said, prove “that you do not have to choose between being a teacher of the truths of the faith and being pastoral. You can be both and, in fact, you have to be both.

“It’s a great privilege and it’s also a great responsibility. That I’ve been called to that is very humbling.”

Father Reiman will celebrate his First Mass Sunday, May 24 at 12:30 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, Mahopac. The homilist will be Father Jeffrey Pomeisl, parochial vicar of St. Patrick’s parish, Yorktown Heights.