New deacons urged to be beacons of ‘generous charity’

(Photos by Frank J. Methe and Cheryl Dejoie-Methe, Clarion Herald)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

As five seminarians took their first sacramental step toward becoming priests at their May 21 ordination to the transitional diaconate, an exhortation from Gospel of St. John clarified their fundamental vocational directive: Be like Christ, the Good Shepherd, “who lays his life down for his sheep.”

Four of the transitional deacons – David Michael Doyle, Cory Paul Ford, Long Thanh Pham and Kevin Alden Seay – will serve as deacons and future priests for the Archdiocese of New Orleans; a fifth ordinand, Deacon Jude Tadeo Friday, was ordained for the Archdiocese of Tororo, located in his home country of Uganda.


Same vocation, different faith journeys

During the homily, Archbishop Gregory Aymond noted that all five men had heard and answered a resounding “yes” to God’s “whispering” in their hearts to “Come follow me. I need you to carry on my ministry today.”

Yet, despite having that common bond, each of their vocational journeys had been very different, the archbishop observed:

• For Deacon David Doyle, a native of New York and a longtime altar server and sacristan who suffered the loss of his parents in his 20s, the “New Orleans family” who embraced him after he assumed a position in the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ Office of Evangelization “opened wide his heart to the priesthood,” the archbishop said.

• Deacon Cory Ford, who grew up in Ascension of Our Lord Parish in LaPlace, felt his awareness of the priesthood as a vocation – initially planted by his grandfather – being reignited after noticing that Archbishop Aymond would conclude every confirmation Mass with the same bold statement: “I am sure there are young people in this church right now who are being called to the priesthood or religious life.”

“After hearing that five times, (Deacon Ford) took it personally,” the archbishop said.

• Saigon, Vietnam-born Deacon Long Thanh Pham’s journey to the transitional diaconate was launched – at the ripe old age of 5 – when his great-grandmother  challenged him to answer a question: “What is life about?” When Deacon Pham heard Christ saying, “‘I am the way, follow me,’ he did (follow Christ),” Archbishop Aymond said.

• God tugged at Metairie-raised Deacon Kevin Seay’s heart throughout college and graduate school, and ultimately, “God won, and Kevin said yes,” the archbishop said. Deacon Seay’s early vocational seeds had been nurtured at Stuart Hall and Jesuit High School in New Orleans, the latter helping him ponder his life’s direction through a discernment group during his senior year.

• For Deacon Jude Friday, who rarely was able to avail himself of the Eucharist while growing up in Uganda, the yearning to serve the church was inspired by the priest who visited Friday’s mission parish a few times a year to celebrate Mass.

“When the priest (celebrated Mass), he felt a special closeness to the priest,” the archbishop noted.

A special vocation, rooted in Scripture

Before the five ordinands stood in front of the archbishop to offer their lives in service to the Church, pray the daily Liturgy of the Hours, live as celibates, preach the Gospel in both word and deed, and foster their own spirituality as leaders among God’s people, Archbishop Aymond reminded them of the diaconate’s scriptural and historical underpinnings in the Acts of the Apostles.

As Christianity spread, the 12 apostles realized they would need extra help to attend to the needs of the people and to spread God’s word — especially among the poor and marginalized. They chose highly respected men to be their “co-workers,” the archbishop said — leaders who were “humble and willing to serve not only at the eucharistic table, but at the table of everyday life.”

To consecrate these new church leaders and guide them in this demanding ministry, the apostles laid their hands on the heads of the elect – beginning with St. Stephen – and called on the Holy Spirit to ordain them for their special role in the church. That same laying on of hands, set into motion more than 2,000 years ago, would take place at the Mass, the archbishop noted, as each of the five men knelt before him for the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the Prayer of Ordination.

Wide-ranging ministries of the diaconate explained

Archbishop Aymond also outlined the ”threefold ministry” of deacons for the ordinands and for congregants present in the cathedral and tuning in to the livestream of the Mass at home.

• First, deacons must be men of charity, he said, urging the ordinands to take this responsibility to the next level by becoming beacons of not only ‘charity,’ but “generous charity” in their communities.

“You (will) become, in a sense, the conscience of the Church,“ helping the poor, the helpless, the undocumented, the lonely, victims of racism and many others, Archbishop Aymond told them. “They (will) look to you!”

• Secondly, each deacon is expected to be “the voice of Christ who is teacher and preacher,” the archbishop said, adding that each would be presented with his own bound volume of the Book of the Gospels to assist him in the unpacking of God’s word in his new role a potentially life-changing homilist.

“Teach what you believe and practice what you teach,” Archbishop Aymond instructed them. “Never preach without (first) praying. People are hungry to hear you!”


• Finally, deacons are to lead God’s people in prayer and help the priest with the sacramental needs of the Church by assisting at Mass, baptizing, witnessing marriages, burying the dead and taking Communion to the sick and dying.

“Much is asked of you as we ordain you,” the archbishop said. “Can you fulfill this ministry, as awesome and overwhelming as it is? (I say,) ‘Yes!’”

The archbishop said that three promises they would make on their ordination day would help them in their new roles as deacons: promises to pray without ceasing; to be obedient to their diocesan bishop – for example, to always humbly accept wherever they are sent to serve; and to live lives of celibate chastity.

Afterward, the five elect prostrated themselves before the altar as a sign of their willingness to submit to the will of God, as the cantor led congregants in the singing of the Litany of Supplication.

Hands-on parish experiences in the offing

In July, the newly minted transitional deacons will begin a four-month internship at their assigned church parish. They will subsequently complete their final months of study at Notre Dame Seminary before being ordained to the priesthood in June 2023.

The interships – designed to help the deacons learn the nuts and bolts of parish ministry and administration – will give the men hands-on experience in being prayer leaders, assisting the priest at Mass, taking Communion to the sick and dying, baptizing, witnessing marriages and burying the dead.

Here is a peek at where each deacon will take that next step:

• Deacon Doyle, 31, a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a former Americorps “JumpStart Corps” member who helped at-risk preschoolers, will undertake his diaconate internship at St. Clement of Rome in Metairie.

During college, Deacon Doyle worked as a receptionist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and initially discerned for the priesthood by enrolling at St. Joseph Seminary on Immaculate Conception’s campus. Deacon Doyle was recruited to the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ Office of Evangelization in 2015, earning a master’s degree in pastoral leadership in 2019 from the seminary’s Institute for Lay Ecclesial Ministry. “The right priest – at the right time, saying the right thing,” led him to enroll there as a seminarian, he said.

Noting that his most emotional point of the Ordination Mass came when he prayed with Archbishop Aymond during the laying on of hands, the New York native said New Orleans has become home. As a deacon-intern at St. Clement of Rome, he is looking forward to preaching homilies, celebrating baptisms and guiding others who might be discerning the priesthood.

“(The people of New Orleans) opened their hearts and their homes; it became a family, welcoming me,” Deacon Doyle said.

• Deacon Ford, 27, will spend his diaconate internship at St. Ann Church and Shrine in Metairie. He originally planned on becoming a mechanical engineer, but vocational clarity finally came when he heard a voice after the consecration saying, “Cory, follow me.”

A survivor of Stage 3 melanoma, Deacon Ford said cancer has taught him to be “a better person” and will help him in his ministry of praying with and for the sick and dying.

• Saigon, Vietnam-born Deacon Pham, 34, has been assigned to St. Rita in Harahan for his transitional diaconate internship. His  maternal great-grandmother taught him how to pray the rosary and also posed a pivotal question to him at a funeral when he was 5 years old: Where do you want to be after you die?

“I looked into myself and thought, ‘How will I get to heaven?’” recalled Deacon Pham, who decided to take to heart Christ’s words of “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

“I need to walk with him so that I can get into heaven and help other people get into heaven also,” he said.

Following eight years with Domus Dei Vietnamese religious community – four of them discerning at their novice house in New Orleans – and earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Holy Apostle College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, Deacon Pham discerned a calling to the diocesan priesthood. He said he is especially looking forward to ministering to St. Rita’s sick and homebound.

• Deacon Seay, 29, grew up attending the Metairie churches of St. Clement of Rome and St. Angela Merici. He will spend his diaconate internship at yet another Metairie church: St. Catherine of Siena.

Deacon Seay said his vocational discernment unfolded gradually, driven by his fundamental openness to giving the priesthood a chance – that “idea that God might be calling me and sending me out.”

Calling the devotion to prayer and faith role models of his Catholic schooling a “huge” part of his vocational journey, Deacon Seay said he is most looking forward to serving at St. Catherine of Siena “according to God’s will, (as) mediated through the people and the pastor.”

• Deacon Friday, 28, studied at Notre Dame Seminary, but will ultimately serve as a priest for the Archdiocese of Tororo in his native country of Uganda. He will complete his diaconate internship at St. James Parish in Syracuse, New York, under the guidance of the Ugandan-born priest who baptized him.

Deacon Friday, who felt drawn to the priesthood from age 13, said he felt fundamentally changed after the rare times he was able to receive holy Communion at his mission church in Uganda.

“I always admired everything about the (visiting) priest – his gestures, the welcome he received, the change in the way we prayed at Mass and the respect he carried with him,” he recalled.

Deacon Friday studied in Uganda until high school, after which he was assigned by his archdiocese to study philosophy in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Philosophicum of the Apostles of Jesus Congregation. Although his family and friends – eight times zones away in Uganda – were unable to attend his May 21 ordination, he said he was definitely feeling their presence.

“I dearly thank everyone who either directly or universally assists me in my formation to the priesthood,” Deacon Friday said. “I ask for your continued prayers and the usual support you offer me. I love and pray for you always.”

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