Called to serve: Bishop ordains men 
to the diaconate

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Deacon Philip McManamon, a permanent deacon at St. Christopher the Martyr Parish in Metairie, Louisiana, didn’t let his twin’s ordination keep him from playing a practical joke.

On a more serious note, he joined others in rejoicing as Bishop McManus ordained his brother, John Anthony McManamon, and James Clement Guillette, permanent deacons, and Jonathan Elliot Amidon and Zachary Tyler Sullivan transitional deacons who are preparing for priesthood.

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After the ordination Mass, which drew more than 200 people to St. Paul Cathedral Saturday, some of the new deacons’ supporters shared their sentiments and experiences.

Deacon Philip McManamon said that when he was wearing his stole, before the ordination Mass began, someone said to him, “Oh, John, congratulations!”

“You missed the Mass; I’m already a deacon,” quipped Deacon Philip McManamon. (He’d been mistaken for his identical twin, who was about to be ordained and therefore not yet vested.)

“I don’t have to introduce myself to anybody” said Deacon Philip McManamon. People figured he was Deacon John McManamon - or his twin.

“I’m very proud; I’m happy,” the Louisiana deacon said, adding that their parents must be rejoicing from heaven.

“It’s a good thing to have twins ... responding to the call of the diaconate,” said Fr. Raymond Igbogidi, pastor of St. Christopher the Martyr, who also came from Louisiana for the celebration. “That speaks to the good family both of them came from. That is a good example for ... everybody.”

“I’m from Illinois; we were in the same parish growing up,” said Benedictine Father Anthony Kloss, vocation director at St. Benedict Abbey in Still River. “My parents were best friends with the McManamons’ parents.”

He said it was “amazing” to be at Deacon John McManamon’s ordination.
“It’s been a long time in coming,” said Patrick McManamon, the new deacon’s son. “I’m very happy for him. I’m proud of him. ... He’s worked very hard in his studies,” in addition to having a full-time job and cantoring at his parish, Sacred Heart of Jesus in Milford.

Deacon Guillette had been working with the Brazilian youth group at his parish, Holy Family, now called St. Joseph and St. Stephen, before his assignment as a deacon candidate at St. George Parish. He “blames” Deacon Alex M. Garcia, who serves at St. Joseph and St. Stephen, for getting him into the diaconate program.

“Big heart James has,” filled with simplicity, Deacon Garcia said. “He’s a complete deacon. ... He can give himself” to the diaconate. Seeing that, he pointed Deacon Guillette in that direction.

What was it like seeing that come to fruition at the ordination?

“No words,” replied Deacon Garcia. “I just say, ‘Thank you, God.’”

He said that, through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Deacon Guillette was “transformed into a new man,” who wants to do everything God tells him to.

“Nothing stops God’s word,” Deacon Garcia’s wife, Rubia Matias, said in English. She said they speak only Portuguese and Deacon Guillette speaks only English but “when you start adoration, when we’re serving, we speak the same language.” She said Deacon Guillette’s wife, Debra Guillette, joins him at retreats in Portuguese.

Yvonne Murray said she has been so blessed by the  Guillettes, whom she met at St. George’s and at the School of the Holy Spirit she helps to organize at Anna Maria College in Paxton.

“We pray together in the car” when going to weekly “Glory Nights” of praise and worship at St. John the Baptist Parish in Quincy, she said.

“I was so blessed to be here [at the ordination] because ... I believe he was definitely called,” she said.

Marie France Valentin, of St. Peter Parish, said she attended the ordination to support the Amidon family. She said Deacon Amidon’s mother taught her daughter math at St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Jr./Sr. High School and the two maintained their relationship.

Ms. Valentin said she didn’t know that Deacons Guillette and McManamon, whom she’d met in different church groups, were being ordained.

“I like to go to ordinations ... just to support the Church, the diocese, the people that are being ordained ... without having to know them,” she said. She didn’t recall knowing Deacon Sullivan, but said, “I heard he’s a very nice young man.”

She rejoiced that the ordination was the day before Pentecost, saying, “It was a very nice way to start your Pentecost Sunday.” She figured this was another way to honor the Holy Spirit, who would empower the new deacons with his gifts, as he did the apostles on Pentecost 2,000 years ago, for “the work of ministry,” as prayed in Saturday’s opening hymn.

The Rite of Ordination included the calling and election of the candidates to the order of deacon; their promise as the elect; the litany of the saints, during which they lay prostrate before the altar; the laying on of hands, the prayer of ordination; their investiture with stole and dalmatic; the handing on of the Book of Gospels; and the welcoming into the order of deacon, when the bishop and fellow deacons embraced them.

In his homily after their election, Bishop McManus noted that, as deacons, they are to proclaim the Gospel, distribute Communion, and baptize people and instruct them in holy doctrine, among other forms of service, in imitation of Christ, who came as one who served.

The bishop told the ordinands to be beyond reproach, never allowing themselves to be taken away from the hope the Gospel offers. He expressed hope that, on the last day, God will tell them, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”