�God's highway' brings 13 to permanent deaconate

By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

MIAMI | This is how an opera singer, a college football player and a cop become permanent deacons: “God’s highway,” said Deacon Nestor Cardenas. “He detours you so he can bring you to where he wants you to be.”

Deacon Cardenas is the opera singer who, along with 12 others, was ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Miami Dec. 6. (Read brief biographies of each of the new deacons here.)

The ordination Mass packed all the pomp and ritual of Catholicism � incense and chant, symbols and silence � into two emotional hours, not just for those being ordained but for the nearly 1,200 family members, friends and fellow parishioners who witnessed the ceremony.

All the new deacons are married, and were accompanied by their wives, children and, in some cases, grandchildren. The permanent deaconate is open to married men, but if they are widowed they cannot remarry. Transitional deacons are those who will go on to be ordained priests, and therefore cannot be married.

Deacon Cardenas’ journey began many years ago in his native Venezuela, said his wife Dulce Cardenas. As a boy, he considered a vocation to priesthood. But then he left the Church, studied opera and traveled the world performing on stage.

He did not even want to be married in the Church, Dulce Cardenas said, and did so only at her insistence.

“I prayed aloud for him to come back to Church,” Dulce Cardenas recalled.

He started attending Mass with her a year after their wedding. In 1997 they moved from Indiana, where they had lived since 1982, to South Florida. He began to serve as an usher in their parish, St. Bonaventure in Davie.

One Christmas Eve, he told her that he wanted to go to confession, because he wanted to be able to receive Communion. The good news traveled fast by way of Dulce to Nestor’s parents in Venezuela.

Eventually, she told Deacon Victor Pimentel, director of the permanent deaconate in the archdiocese, “I think I overdid my prayer because now he wants to become a deacon.”

“I know that his mom and his father � they passed away � they would be here today really happy for him and for us,” said Dulce Cardenas. She described the five years of discernment and study in preparation for ordination as “the most wonderful time, not only for him but for us as a couple. Just to see this, sitting here, I just cry.”

The youngest member of the new class of deacons is John Clarke, a 1995 graduate of Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory and member of Nativity Parish in Hollywood who served as a police officer for 11 years.

“Protecting, serving is who I am,” said Clarke, the father of five, ages 7 years through 3 months. His wife, Dawn, took up the offertory carrying baby Willow.

Deacon Clarke now teaches martial arts. He said a near-death experience in 2004 convinced him, “It’s no longer I that lived but Christ in me.”

“I always thought it was something I’d do later in my life,” he said of the permanent deaconate. “But the call came early.”

For Deacon Blaise Augustin, the deaconate means doing more of the same, said his wife Algalite. As a lay man, he was instrumental in building up the community at St. Joseph Haitian Mission in Pompano Beach. He has been involved in Church ministry “since he was a boy” in his native Haiti, she added.

Another new deacon who has been involved in Church ministry all his life is Argentina native Adrian Zapatero. He met his wife Patricia through that involvement. She is a convert from Judaism who wound up as vice-president of Catholic Action in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, and now promotes it in the U.S.

Patricia Zapatero said her husband toyed with the priesthood as a young man and always retained “a vocation to serve the Church as more than a lay man.”

Eventually, his work as a patent and trademark agent brought the family to Miami, where they are members of Holy Rosary-St. Richard Parish in Palmetto Bay.

“We asked ourselves many times why the Lord took us out of (the life) we had built (in Buenos Aires),” Patricia Zapatero said. “And now we know what for.”

Deacon Zapatero is the first Argentine to be ordained a deacon for the archdiocese, said Deacon Pimentel, and as such has sort of a connection in Rome: “His cardinal is now the pope.”

Indeed, Patricia Zapatero recalls being present at the episcopal ordination of Father Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires. It was a double ordination, and “about 90 percent of the people were there for the other bishop,” she said. “We asked ourselves, who is that little guy next to Raúl (the late Bishop Raúl Rossi of Corrientes). And he wound up being the pope.”

Pope Francis is the same person he was when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, she added, “only he smiles more now.”

Deacon Mark Westman traces his journey toward ordination back to high school, when he joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes while playing football for South Miami Senior High.

“That’s where I found Christ, and it continued from there in Oklahoma,” he said. He played center for the University of Oklahoma football team, under quarterback and later Congressman J.C. Watts.

Raised Methodist, Deacon Westman converted to Catholicism after marrying his wife, Ileana. He credits his involvement in the Emmaus group at their parish, St. Louis in Pinecrest, for revealing “a very strong calling and development of the faith.”

Adding to his joy is the fact that he has been assigned as a deacon at St. Augustine Parish in Coral Gables, where there is a possibility he could serve as chaplain for the University of Miami athletic department.

“The athletes these days need a lot of faith,” Deacon Westman said, stressing “the need for evangelization through our athletic teams.”

Then he added, giving voice to the desire of the entire new class of deacons, “I’m a servant of Christ. I’m ready to go to work.”

To see where the new deacons have been assigned, click here.

FYI

• The deaconate is an ordained ministry, along with the priesthood and the episcopacy (bishops). Deaconate is the first order, with priesthood second and the bishop having the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders.

• Permanent deacons preach and teach, baptize and assist priests and bishops in the celebration of the Eucharist, and oversee ministries of charity and justice.

• Permanent deacons maintain their professions and jobs.

• In the Archdiocese of Miami, the permanent diaconate is open to both married men (at least seven years of sacramental marriage and no second marriages) and unmarried men between the ages of 30 and 60. Candidates must have a strong Catholic faith and a solid reputation and character.

• If a candidate is married, the consent of his wife is necessary. If he is not married, he must be willing to promise celibacy at ordination. In case of the death of a wife, a widower deacon is not allowed to remarry. Transitional deacons are men on the way to the priesthood and therefore not allowed to be married.

• The class of 2013 brings to 164 the number of permanent deacons serving in the Archdiocese of Miami.