From Catholic New York:
After the Mass at which he was ordained in St. Patrick’s Cathedral June 25, Deacon John Tomasicchio recalled the beginning of his personal journey to the permanent diaconate. Father Michael McLoughin, then pastor at St. Stephen the First Martyr parish in Warwick, told him to stick close by the side of Deacon Emmett Noonan for a year, to observe and learn about what a deacon does, to see if it might be something he would like to seriously pursue. Tomasicchio joined Deacon Noonan as he carried out his ministry to the sick, and met with Eucharistic ministers and lectors of the parish. “He took me to everything. It was very hands-on,” Deacon Tomasicchio recalled. “Afterward, I said, ‘Yes, this is what I’d like to do.’” Deacon Tomasicchio also credited his wife of 32 years, Anne, for attending the diaconate formation classes with him in Poughkeepsie. “It was an amazing experience to go with my wife by my side,” he told CNY. Along with Deacon Tomasicchio, Cardinal Dolan, the principal celebrant of the morning Mass, ordained 11 other men from parishes across the archdiocese. They are Deacon Douglas Adams, Sacred Heart, Suffern; Deacon Kenneth Briskey, Regina Coeli, Hyde Park; Deacon Paul Brisson, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Catharine, Pelham Manor; Deacon John Catalano, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Catharine, Pelham Manor; Deacon Robert Cranston, St. John the Evangelist, Saugerties; Deacon Michael Hall, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Catharine, Pelham Manor; Deacon Frank Iovine, Sacred Heart, Newburgh; Deacon John Maulucci, St. Frances of Rome-St. Francis of Assisi-St. Anthony and Our Lady of Grace, the Bronx; Deacon Jorge Montealegre, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Elmsford; Deacon Robert Piloco, Transfiguration, Tarrytown; and Deacon James Quadrino, Holy Child, Staten Island. Cardinal Dolan began his homily by addressing each of the deacons by their first and middle names, in English and Spanish, and then echoing a line from the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” He then thanked them for their “openness” to the Lord’s call and for “the injection of hope that you give all of us this happy morning.” Even Jesus’ exhortation to be a light unto the world implies that there is darkness, the cardinal said. The need for salt, in terms of faith, relates to a message that has gone flat or stale. “We behold 12 men who want to cling to Jesus in His Church even more,” the cardinal said. “That gives us hope.”
Read more. And you can read about the men who were ordainedhere.
Ad multos annos, brothers, and welcome!
Photo: Chris Sheridan / Catholic New York
And today we celebrate...