I was born in a small town south of Buffalo, NY by the name of Boston in June 1949. My father lived his entire life in Boston and owned the local lumber company. My mother was a housewife but was very much into the Red Cross and community service. Education ranged from a four-room elementary school to the State University of New York at Buffalo with a B.S. in Management. After high school, I entered a Conventual Franciscan novitiate but left and joined the U.S. Air Force with assignments to the Latin American Forcast Center in South Carolina and Headquarters, 2nd Weather Wing in Germany. During my three years in Germany, I had a second job on a small horse farm and learned the language. My one negative experience was losing my cousin during this time in the Vietnam War.

During this period, my struggles with the Catholic Church ended in my leaving it in 1971 and becoming quite anti-Catholic. However, while in college, I worked as a handyman for the Newman Center and used to argue with the Catholic chaplain about religion. Having enjoyed life in Germany, I returned there in 1976 and worked at a hotel along with returning to my old farm job. From there I was recruited to be a department manager for the Marbella Club Shajah in the United Arab Emirates. It was there that I had my first real encounter with Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The hotel guests and staff were equally divided among these three religions. Often Muslims and Hindus would say: "Mr. May, you're the first real Christian we've ever met." My response was that I didn't go to any church. They would say: "We don't know about church but we do know that the Prophet Jesus taught his followers to love others and we see how you love us."

Some of the Indian staff, who were Catholic, asked me if I would like to join them for Mass. I would refuse but join them for "bingo" afterwards. Little by little, their persistent invitations paid off. Then there was a Palestinian Lutheran from Bethlehem who said: "Doug, have you ever thought of ministry?" Returning to the U.S., I decided to follow up on all these "invitations". I first approached a Divine Word vocation minister and voiced my concerns that someone who had been "around the block" in life as many times as I had really shouldn't be a priest. His comment was: "Doug, God doesn't care who you were but who you are and who you want to become." At this point, my former Newman Center boss recommended Maryknoll and wrote my letter of recommendation to enter the Society.

As part of my seminary formation, I returned to the Middle East recalling what a friend in Sharjah had said when I left there. "Doug, the sand is in your shoes and the salt is in your blood; you will be back." My addiction to Egypt began back in 1982 and even though it's not always good for my health, I can't seem to shake it. After ordination in 1986 and again after seven years of Mission Promotion in the U.S. from 1991 to 1998, I have returned twice to the "Gift of the Nile" and the "Mother of the World". My work has ranged from teaching at a nursing school for Palestinian refugees to being on the education-formation staff at the Coptic Catholic Seminary. I learned about Islam and Palestinian History at the former and about Coptic Christianity and Eastern-church History from the latter. I have continued to try to blend my Latin-rite, English-speaking Western world with my Coptic-rite, Arabic-speaking Eastern world in the seminary, at several churches, in the gym or during retreats. My latest focus is helping to build Our Lady Queen of Peace Home for Mentally Handicapped Children with a Coptic Catholic priest friend. This will be his life in the future and part of my life as well. Not only do I hope to work there, but I hope to have my seminarians and friends visit these children just as we visit prisoners. Along with youth ministry in Cairo and Upper Egypt, this is how I still try to follow the Prophet Jesus who is also my Lord and God.

Visit  Doug and his Ministry Cairo

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