The hidden ministry of deacons is full of wonder
Thirty-three years ago, Ray Duplechain was a regular Sunday Catholic – maybe, if truth be told, a back-pew Catholic – when Msgr. Allen Roy, the pastor of Holy Spirit Church in Algiers, spotted something that perhaps Duplechain had never seen in himself.
“I was 33 years old, and I had never left the church, right?” Duplechain recalled. “Even when I was in college, I always went to church. I sometimes had difficulty with the structure of the church, like I still do today. Me and Jesus used to have these little talks.”
The bottom line was that Msgr. Roy walked up to Duplechain one day, out of the blue, and said, “Ray, I’d like you to consider becoming a deacon.”
“I said, ‘Sure, Father, whatever you want,’” Duplechain recalled. “I didn’t have any idea what a deacon was. I had never seen one. So, I went home and looked it up.”
After carefully analyzing the job description of a permanent deacon, Duplechain was even more certain that this was not for him.
“I’m not obedient, I don’t like structure; none of those things fit,” he said. “I called Father Roy back and said, ‘Father, this is not for me. I don’t work well in a structure like the church. And, there’s too much foolishness and sinfulness. Anyway, here I am, 33 years later.”
Duplechain was ordained as a permanent deacon in 1996, and he is now the director of the archdiocesan Office of the Permanent Diaconate, overseeing the ministry of 212 active and semi-retired deacons and also directing the 5 1/2-year formation process for men, who like he once did, are wrestling with the idea they may have a vocation to ordained ministry.
As the Archdiocese of New Orleans prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first class of permanent deacons – 13 men were ordained by Archbishop Philip Hannan on May 18, 1974 – Deacon Duplechain can see movement of the Holy Spirit through the discussions of the Second Vatican Council that led to Pope Paul VI’s decision in 1967 to reinstitute the permanent diaconate.
New Orleans was among the first dioceses in the U.S. to take the ball and run, fueled by the encouragement and passion of Archbishop Philip Hannan.
“The diaconate was to be a driving force to recapture the ministry of service in the church,” Deacon Duplechain said. “That goes back to the priest-worker movement in France and the Dachau prisons (during WWII). There were so many people dying in prisons, and the question came up, ‘How are we going to rebuild the church?’ In Germany, that was a big impetus for the restoration of the diaconate. The restoration was first intended for places like Africa, where there was a dearth of vocations, but it didn't develop there at all. They went the way of lay catechists. It was the United States and Germany and a little bit of Europe where it really took off.”
Of the approximately 50,000 deacons worldwide, about 21,000 serve in the U.S., and their service has been instrumental in reaching people who otherwise might have been overlooked. Rarely a day goes by when Deacon Duplechain – and every other deacon – is not asked to help a family with funeral services or to simply provide a listening ear.
“A portion of the ministry of a deacon is hidden from most people,” Deacon Duplechain explained. “When I’m out in the grocery store or the hardware store or at a baseball game for kids, I don’t have a collar on. That’s freeing, while at the same time, it’s a challenge. But, ultimately, the core of it all is, ‘Who am I called to be? Why has God ordained me to be, not better, just different? You can talk to any deacon and he will give you numerous examples of how the Gospel penetrates into culture in ways it probably wouldn’t without a diaconate. There are people who talk to a deacon because they feel comfortable talking to a deacon. It’s kind of like going to mom instead of dad.”
The diaconate community will celebrate its golden anniversary with a social gathering Aug. 2 at St. Philip Neri’s Parishioners Center in Metairie. A new class of permanent deacons will be ordained in June 2025; the 2027 class is already in formation; and Archbishop Gregory Aymond has approved the call for men discerning the diaconate that would eventually lead to their ordination in 2029.
Deacon Duplechain says he is “eternally grateful” for Msgr. Roy’s inclusive priesthood and his call to consider a vocation.
“What drew me to him was how I saw him pick up people who were hurt and suffering, dying and sinful, stand them up, dust them off, and restore the dignity that God gave them to give them another shot in life,” Deacon Duplechain said. “And he did it consistently and was always, always non-judgmental of people.”
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