Twenty-five years after their ordination,
deacons talk about family, work and service to the church

The members of the “Class of 1981” were pioneers — many young fathers with families to raise, diverse in culture but one in faith.

These 13 men were the first permanent deacons to serve in the Sacramento Diocese.

They were ordained at three Masses celebrated in May and June of 1981 at Sacramento’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Vallejo and St. Joseph Parish in Redding by then Bishop Francis A. Quinn.

Their mission was the ministries of charity, of liturgy and the word.

“It was a proud day and quite a milestone for the diocese at the time,” said Msgr. James Kidder, pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in El Dorado Hills. “We wanted to fulfill the charism the permanent diaconate offers of service and charity.”

Msgr. Kidder, who was admissions director for the diocese’s permanent diaconate program at the time, explained that the diaconate was new within the diocese but deeply rooted in the history of the church.

The diaconate program was restored after the Second Vatican Council and set in motion by Pope Paul VI in his apostolic letter of 1967, making it possible for men to become deacons permanently without going on to the priesthood.

Permanent deacons had been traditional in the Eastern rite, but since the fourth or fifth century, the Latin rite churches followed the practice of conferring the diaconate only as a sacred order preliminary to the priesthood.

“To educate people throughout the diocese about what the role of the permanent deacon was, we had town hall meetings to create an awareness,” Msgr. Kidder said. “Come and See” nights were also organized to introduce potential candidates to the diaconate program.

Deacon James Healy and his wife Joan of St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento remember reading an article in The Catholic Herald about the diaconate formation program starting up at the former St. Pius X Seminary in Galt.

A three-year series of monthly classes included candidates from both the Sacramento and Stockton Dioceses.

“At first I thought it would be something to consider when I retired,” said Deacon Healy, who had just taken a job as principal of Galt Middle School and had two young daughters at home.

Deacon Healy said that timetable was moved up with encouragement from his wife and his pastor, Msgr. Brendan O’Sullivan. “I felt this was something I really wanted to do for the Lord,” he said.

Being the first class of permanent deacons, he explained, “was a mixed blessing.”

“There was no one ahead of us in this diocese so there was no one to model for us,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “but there were probably no expectations from people.”

Now having served as a permanent deacon at St. Anthony for 25 years, he views his religious vocation as a continual blessing.

“It is a ministry so complementary to marriage. You don’t have to accept a different lifestyle,” he said. “You have the grace of ordination to assist you in your ministry.”

Deacon James Weeks, another member of the first class of deacons and a longtime member of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Carmichael, recalled it was his pastor, the late Msgr. James Kenny, who asked him to consider becoming a deacon.

After retiring from a 30-year career in the U.S. Air Force, he had worked at the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, spearheading a community effort to save McClellan Air Force Base, then as executive officer at the Sacramento Board of Realtors until retiring in 1979.

“I couldn’t even spell it (deacon), but when I learned a little bit I was intrigued,” Deacon Weeks said.

From the day he walked into the first formation class at St. Pius X Seminary, there was “one thrilling adventure after another,” including sharing space with a few pesky bats who inhabited the seminary.

“We saw ourselves as a total community from the very beginning,” said Deacon Weeks, who assisted the late Msgr. Richard Dwyer, director of the diaconate program. “Regardless of where we came from, we all wanted to serve the Lord in this very unusual way.”

He said one of the most valuable lessons learned during the discernment process was the importance of keeping in order the priorities of the vocation.

“It is your family first, your work second and diaconate service third,” he said. “Your job is to balance those things in that order, and it’s sometimes tricky, but the Holy Spirit takes care of it.”

Deacon Henry Garcia remembers the day he first heard the diocese was opening up a new program to train men who would be ordained to serve the church in about the only way he hadn’t as a longtime member of St. Joseph Parish in Sacramento.

“I was sitting at home with Dolores (his wife), wondering aloud if just going to Mass worshipping the Lord one hour on Sundays was all there was,” said Deacon Garcia, who since joining St. Joseph in 1953 has served as eucharistic minister, lector, choir member and song leader. “I saw (in The Catholic Herald) that Sacramento was starting the diaconate program, and the words just leapt out at me.”

At the very heart of this ministry is that wives play a crucial supporting role.

“We did it together. I went to every class with him,” Dolores Garcia said. “The wives bonded, became really close, and we still are.”

Deacon Garcia said being able to assist at the eucharistic celebration, administer baptism and witness marriages is an incredible grace.

“When I was chaplain at Sacramento County Jail, I was able to do communion services, and when I served as chaplain at Kaiser North Hospital I was able to minister to the sick,” he said, “but baptizing children, who come back with their children, is one of the ministries I really enjoy.”

Deacon Colby Smith, also in the class of 1981, was living in Palo Cedro with his wife Mary, helping to raise their three young children, when he saw an announcement in the bulletin at St. Joseph Parish in Redding that classes were being offered to train permanent deacons.

As business manager of a public school and a eucharistic minister and lector at church, Deacon Smith found himself drawn to an opportunity to learn more about his faith and share that knowledge with others.

“I think one of the important parts of the permanent diaconate is that formation occurs within the community as well as outside the community,” he said. “People at church you are friends with observe the changes happening to you.”

Since his ordination on June 14, 1981 at St. Joseph Parish in Redding, Deacon Smith has served parish communities in Anderson, Lincoln, Wheatland, and in 2000 moved to Susanville, where he serves as deacon at Sacred Heart Parish.

At that time he met Deacon Dennis Merino from St. John the Baptist Parish in Folsom, who served as Catholic chaplain at California State Prison, Sacramento.

After visiting the prison with Deacon Merino and observing men’s support group and grief ministry programs, Deacon Smith found a compelling new way to serve God.

When the position as chaplain at High Desert State Prison in Susanville came up, he applied for the job.

He discovered in prison ministry he was able to hone his preaching skills, one of the primary functions of the diaconate, often celebrating as many as six communion services a week at High Desert Prison.

“One of the calls of the Gospel is ‘I was in prison and you visited me,’” said Deacon Smith, who after three years serving as chaplain, now works there as a volunteer. “Great things happen. Many lives turn around.”

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