Priesthood ordinands share their vocation stories

Six men will be ordained by Archbishop Gregory Aymond to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New Orleans on June 4 at 10 a.m. at  St. Louis Cathedral. Here is the vocation story of Deacon Joseph “Jody” DiMaggio.

DEACON JOSEPH “JODY” ALFONSE DIMAGGIO III

Age: 49

First assignment: St. Clement of Rome, Metairie

First Mass: June 5, 11:30 a.m., St. Rita, Harahan

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

When he was in his early 20s, Deacon Jody DiMaggio recalls tuning out of the homily during Mass inside his home church of St. Benilde and putting himself into the shoes of the priest.

“I was daydreaming – so I don’t remember the homily – but I just felt kind of inspired and thinking about being up there (on the altar), and wondering, ‘What would that be like?’” said Deacon DiMaggio, who will get the answer to his question June 4, the day of his ordination to the priesthood at St. Louis Cathedral. “I just had that moment of, ‘Oh, wow! I think God wants this for me!’” Deacon DiMaggio said.

But DiMaggio, a graduate of St. Benilde School and Brother Martin High School, would put aside those early vocational tugs for the ensuing two decades, earning his accounting degree from Tulane, his MBA from Penn State and working in his family’s restaurant and catering business. He credits regular time in front of the Blessed Sacrament in his early 40s, inside the adoration chapel at St. Francis Xavier Church in Metairie, for helping him “take that big, scary step to seminary.”

“(In adoration) I felt those graces to overcome my fear, to really take that step forward,” he said. “It was a gentle pull toward the priesthood and toward that total gift of self in serving the Lord in this way. I felt it for decades, but I tried to fight it and ran from it and was scared of it, but it just wouldn’t go away. I came to the decision: ‘I really have to see about this, and if I don’t, I know I’ll regret it.’”

Deacon DiMaggio said a highlight of his diaconate internship at St. Rita Church in Harahan was witnessing how Hurricane Ida failed to break the spirits of parishioners. They showed up for Mass as soon as their damaged church reopened two days after the storm and continued to gather despite prolonged electrical outages and damage to their own homes.

“Everybody banded together,” Deacon DiMaggio said. “It was a powerful moment to see how God is present with us in the valleys. It was just so encouraging to my faith to see the faithful come and worship at Mass during that time.”

He said one of his biggest strides as a deacon-intern was becoming more comfortable preaching homilies. Deacon DiMaggio, with the help of his lay support group and others, learned to trust the microphone to do its job and to slow down his delivery – after being told that when he gets nervous, he tends to talk too fast.  

“The homily is an important moment – it’s that part in the Mass that God gives to (deacons and priests) to do,” Deacon DiMaggio noted. “The liturgy is given to us by God, and the homily God gives to us to handle, so you take that responsibility to heart.”

As a transitional deacon, he also had the honor of assisting the priest at the sacrament of the anointing of the sick in both home and hospital settings. He said he witnessed great beauty at a time that often is perceived to be quite dismal.

“You could see a change in a lot of people’s faces when they received the sacrament, the peace that they received with that sacrament. It’s real, and it’s supernatural,” Deacon DiMaggio said. “I’m looking forward to bringing those graces and being a vehicle for those graces at a moment for people in their lives when they really need it.”

Deacon DiMaggio said his priestly vocation also was affirmed and bolstered by the excellent preparation he received at the seminary. His final year there focused primarily on his upcoming duties as a priest – hands-on training in areas such as the ins and outs of hearing confessions and “practicing Mass” in a classroom set up to resemble a church, complete with a mock altar, tabernacle and other liturgical items.

“I’ve already got so much joy just in doing the practice Masses, so I’m really looking forward to celebrating the Mass,” said Deacon DiMaggio, who has two younger sisters.

He is grateful for the pastoral guidance he received as a St. Benilde altar server under the late Father Peter Peacock, the resident Benedictine priest and “a grandfatherly figure who took away any nervousness about serving at the altar and helped us to appreciate the beauty of serving at the altar.”

“We just couldn’t wait to serve Mass with him,” Deacon DiMaggio said, also crediting St. Benilde’s late pastor, Msgr. Carter Richaud, who served the parish from 1969-89.

Deacon DiMaggio said being taught by the Sisters of Loreto at St. Benilde, and then the Brothers of the Sacred Heart at Brother Martin, also helped lay “a solid foundation for the priesthood.” At St. Benilde, no fewer than five religious sisters were actively involved in the classroom during his years there, teachers whom he says embodied that perfect blend of “discipline with love.” 

“They knew that we, as children, were capable of doing great things, and they loved us into what we were capable of,” he said. “They stressed discipline – you’ve got to take your studies seriously – and that really served me well for the rest of my educational career. They set a foundation for education that was phenomenal and served me for the rest of my life.

“But it was the love they had for us,” Deacon DiMaggio recalls. “They viewed us as their children. They really cared for us, and you could tell that!”

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