One Family, Under God

Story/Video posted May 6, 2016 in Best of CommMedia by Gabrielle Chappel.


So a priest and an orthodox Jewish family end up at Penn State…this may sound like the beginning of a soap opera, but in reality, it is the final line to a long tale of how two people created a family through their religious journeys.

Since 2013 Sarah Vigon has worked with Jewish students at Penn State, but her journey began in California, a secular Jew at the time, when she decided to quite literally take a leap of faith and become orthodox. This required a few sacrifices, and a lot of moving.

Father Matthew Laffey did not become a priest until late in life. After a series of life events, including picking out furniture, he knew that what would make him truly happy was not within a traditional marriage.
“Religion is not a bandaid”, but for some, it creates a family.

By the numbers