In loving memory · 1949–2025

Gregory G.
Caiazzo

A life of faith and service.
A world of stories.

Priest · Navy Chaplain · Captain1949–2025

Faith · Service · Compassion · Humor · Wonder

The measure of a life

Different ways of being present.

For nearly fifty years, Greg wore a priest’s collar. For three decades, he also wore a Navy uniform. To him, both were ways of meeting people where they were and staying when the moment was difficult.

Rank and title tell only part of it. Greg loved travel, culture, good food, searching conversation, and the animals who made a home feel like home. He could bring gravity to a ceremony and laughter to the table after it.

A verified record of remarkable service. A personal home for the photographs and stories that official records cannot hold.

1976Ordained a Paulist priest

30Years in the Navy Chaplain Corps

CAPTUnited States Navy

5Meritorious Service Medals

The chapters

A life of many callings

The dates, duties, and places that shaped Greg’s public life.

1949

New Jersey beginnings

Gregory Gene Caiazzo was born on June 21 and grew up in New Jersey. Curiosity, faith, and a lifelong instinct for service shaped the years ahead.

1976

Ordained to serve

After formation at Maryknoll College and Washington Theological Union, Greg was ordained a Paulist priest and began in campus ministry.

1981

A second calling

He entered the United States Navy Chaplain Corps, beginning three decades of ministry to sailors, Marines, and their families.

At sea

A chaplain underway

Greg went to sea aboard USS America and served wherever the work took him: ships, shore commands, submariners, Marines, and military families.

Abroad

Leadership across the Mediterranean

His assignments included leadership of Navy religious ministry in Southern Europe and service at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily.

In counsel

Preparing others to serve

As a senior chaplain and Force Chaplain for the Navy Reserve, Greg helped prepare the next generation for the practical and spiritual demands of service.

After uniform

A ministry continued

Greg continued serving as a civilian priest, including at Travis Air Force Base. Travel, learning, good food, animals, and long conversations remained essential parts of his life.

2025

A story carried forward

Greg died peacefully on June 1. He was laid to rest with military honors at Florida National Cemetery, in the same section as his parents.

The service photographs

The work, in context

Photographs from Greg’s archive, arranged around the chapters they illuminate.

Chapter one

At sea

Uniform, ritual, and everyday life aboard ship. These photographs show a chaplain working inside the rhythms of the Navy—not apart from them.

Greg Caiazzo in his United States Navy dress uniform — 01Official portrait · 1989

Greg Caiazzo celebrating Mass aboard USS America — 02Mass aboard USS America · 1989

USS America cruise book page for the Religious Ministries team — 03Religious Ministries team · 1989

Chapter two

Among colleagues

Greg’s work was built through trust: speaking, listening, teaching, and sharing responsibility with people across services and faith traditions.

Greg Caiazzo speaking at the USS Midway Museum — 04Speaking at the USS Midway Museum

Greg Caiazzo with a United States Navy lieutenant — 05At the United States Navy Memorial

Greg Caiazzo with fellow United States Navy chaplains — 06With fellow Navy chaplains

Chapter three

Ceremony and care

He brought steadiness to milestone moments, and an ease that helped people feel seen inside them.

Greg Caiazzo officiating a wedding in a chapel — 07Officiating a wedding

Greg Caiazzo at a wedding ceremony at the World War II Memorial — 08A ceremony at the World War II Memorial

Greg Caiazzo smiling while holding children’s drawings — 09A familiar warmth

Chapter four

Across the years

Formal portraits and candid moments, early assignments and later gatherings—the visual record of a vocation lived over decades.

Formal portrait of Captain Gregory Caiazzo — 10Captain Gregory G. Caiazzo

Greg Caiazzo working in an office during an Okinawa assignment — 11With Third Marine Division in Okinawa

Greg Caiazzo in an early-career office photograph — 12An early-career candid

Greg Caiazzo with another priest — 13A life shared in ministry

What his life made visible

Faith made practical through presence.

Greg’s own public record shows a ministry rooted in real settings and real needs—from the deck of a ship to the quiet conversation after a difficult day.

Presence, wherever people gathered

Greg understood ministry as the work of showing up. At sea and ashore, the setting changed; the attention he gave people did not.

Ceremony made personal

He marked weddings, baptisms, promotions, losses, and returns with dignity—and with a gift for making formal occasions feel human.

A practical kind of faith

His public writings returned to spiritual readiness, expectation, resilience, and the inner lives of people carrying difficult responsibilities.

Warmth beyond the uniform

Rank was only one part of Greg. Friends and photographs preserve the humor, hospitality, appetite for travel, and affection for animals that made life around him feel larger.

Have a story about Greg?Help this memorial keep growing.

In his own words

Notes from a chaplain

Greg wrote about the inner life with the same practicality he brought to service.

On spiritual readiness · 2007

“Spirituality balances out our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.”

Read Greg’s article On expectation · 2006

“The reality of ‘what is’ often falls short of expectation.”

Read Greg’s article Graduate thesis · 1988

Media uses in religious education and worship

Explore the university record

Beyond the uniform

The life between the milestones.

Food to share. Dogs to fuss over. A new city to walk. A view worth stopping for. These are not footnotes to Greg’s story; they are where much of its warmth lives.

Greg holding a small white dog at an outdoor table — 01The animals who made a place feel like home

Greg smiling beside an enormous pizza — 02A meal worth remembering

Greg serving dinner at home — 03Hospitality, at home

Greg visiting Tower Bridge in London — 04London · one of many journeys

Greg standing beside an Alpine lake — 05Wonder, wherever the road led

The archive in motion

A gentle film made from real photographs.

The moving sequence uses Greg’s authentic archive without synthetic speech or invented scenes. The opening landscape is Higgsfield-assisted tribute artwork, presented as artwork rather than documentary evidence.

Tribute artwork: Higgsfield Nano Banana Pro · Photographic sequence: Greg’s family archive

A living memorial