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October 30, 2025By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
The young man wanted to take his date “some place nice.” He chose a spot he’d visited with a future bishop, a place “where you found God.”
“I took Nancy on our first date ... to Purgatory,” Deacon John “Jack” Franchi said.
This year they’re celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
They were among 22 couples attending the diocesan Wedding Anniversary Mass that Bishop McManus celebrated Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral. The couples celebrated a collective 888 years of marriage.
“The anniversary Mass was beautiful,” said Deacon Franchi, who is retired but still serving. “The homily was on love and marriage.”
During his homily, Bishop McManus read a marriage instruction that he said “succinctly sums up the Church’s teaching on the nature and purpose of marriage” and “for generations and generations married couples heard on the day of their wedding.”
The instruction Bishop McManus read said that “because these words require such solemn obligations, it is most fitting that you (the couple) rest the security of your wedded life upon the great principle of self-sacrifice.
“... You will belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may be required to make to preserve this common life, always make them generously. There will be problems which might be difficult, but genuine love can make them easy, and perfect love can make them a joy.”
The “purgatory” the Franchis started out in was Purgatory Chasm, a state reservation in Sutton.
Mrs. Franchi said that, when she was young, her family used to go to this fun, peaceful place, where people could climb between the rocks.
“You could find Jesus very easily there,” added her husband, who’d been there with then-Father George E. Rueger, later auxiliary bishop of the Worcester diocese. Father Rueger, associate pastor at his parish, Our Lady of Lourdes, took the Catholic Youth Council members on this and other outings.
Mrs. Franchi said she was a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Worcester. They met through a CYC friend of his, with whom she worked.
“When I met Nancy, it was love at first sight,” Deacon Franchi said. “I wanted to be her best friend. I wanted to be her boyfriend. ... I wanted to marry her.”
“I wanted to marry him,” Mrs. Franchi said.
They “went together” two or three years. Father Rueger celebrated their wedding at Sacred Heart on Nov. 27, 1965.
“I think one of the wonderful features of our marriage [was] we had good communication” and were respectful, which their parents modeled for them, Deacon Franchi said.
“Faith was the baseline. We were good Catholics. ... Father Rueger baptized our kids,” John and Maria. (The couple now thanks God for their five grandchildren.)
The Franchis bought a three-decker off Lincoln St. in Worcester and got involved in St. Bernard Parish. Deacon Franchi worked in civil engineering.
When he was director of Voices In Vital America from 1970-1973, they moved to Connecticut, then New York. He was on the road for this group’s effort to raise awareness of Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action during the Vietnam War.
Mrs. Franchi stayed home with their children. Her husband said she was a wonderful mother. (Before they were born, and after they grew older, she worked for the telephone company. After retiring from there, she spent 20 years with Charter Communications, retiring around 2015.)
The family moved back to Worcester in 1973, and from then through 1996 he was on active duty with the Air National Guard.
Then he retired. Bishop Rueger told the couple about the permanent diaconate, they applied and were accepted.
“It was wonderful!” Deacon Franchi said. “We became a very tight family” with the other deacon candidates and their wives.
“I enjoyed it truly, because we met so many lovely people,” Mrs. Franchi said. “It was easier for us” wives. (They got to attend the classes – without taking tests!)
“The mission was fantastic – for Jesus Christ,” Deacon Franchi said. “I enjoyed that immensely, because she was at my side” during the classes.
Meanwhile, he was working full time for the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, helping homeless veterans. When that job was cut, he worked with hospice veterans for a private company.
In 2004 he was among those ordained to the permanent diaconate.
He was assigned to St. Joseph Parish in North Brookfield – a 45 minute drive out to the country.
The pastor, Father Richard T. Carey, “drove me around the parish,” Deacon Franchi said. “And the first road he took me down had chickens in the road.”
“We would visit the elderly in the parish – Communion calls,” Mrs. Franchi said. “I enjoyed that.” Her husband said the people were wonderful.
Later he served at St. Brigid Parish in Millbury, then went on to Anna Maria College in Paxton for a bachelor’s in psychology.
“Nancy said, ‘Why don’t you see if they need a deacon? It’s a Catholic college,’” Deacon Franchi recalled. He was welcomed on board.
“Nancy and I spent a lot of time with the students,” who were impressed they’d been married so long - 45 years when he started there in 2010, he said.
Now “I’m the deacon emeritus” at Anna Maria, he said, and joked, “That means I’m very, very old.” (He’s 83; his wife is 82.)
He talks with students, assists at Mass, helps the campus ministry director and leads the football team in prayer, telling them, “The game is for Jesus.”
He said his wife has her own ministries at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. But none of his ministry at the college and in various parishes “could have been done without my wife.” She supported him.
“I’m okay to be in the background,” Mrs. Franchi said.
She and her husband said being understanding is important for a marriage.
“We’re children of God,” Deacon Franchi said. “God brings us together, but we’re two separate individuals. That’s where the love and respect [for each other] come in.”