Five deacons ordained at St. Paul Cathedral

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

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WORCESTER – Religious sisters and priests, parents and children were among hundreds of people gathered at St. Paul Cathedral Saturday for the ordination of five deacons.
Two – Isaac Cross and Conner Morgan – are transitional deacons, preparing to be ordained priests for the Worcester diocese. The three permanent deacons – Alejandro Henao, Daniel Malo and David Soares – are married men who are to remain deacons.  
A Missionary of Charity (St. Teresa of Kolkata’s community) said she and a fellow sister came from Boston to support Deacon Morgan who worked with their sisters in Washington, D.C. Amory Navarro PhotographyAlso there for him were the Religious of the Assumption from Worcester. He came from Minnesota to volunteer with their Assumption Mission Associates (AMAs) in 2019, and ended up pursuing priesthood for the Worcester diocese, explained Sandy Piwko, the sisters’ director of volunteer and vocation ministry, who attended the ordination too.  
“We’re so happy and proud of him,” she said. “A very giving young man. He’s so smart. He’s got a great sense of humor.”  
During his two years as an AMA he renovated Assumption Center, where the AMAs live, did work at the sisters’ house near Assumption University, helped with the food pantry at St. Peter Parish and taught religion at St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School, among other volunteer work, she said.
“He found a home here in Worcester” and became good friends with Msgr. Francis J. Scollen, then St. Peter’s pastor and now sacramental minister there, and Father John F. Madden, pastor of St. John Parish, she said.Amory Navarro PhotographyAbbot Marc Crilly and Father Anthony Kloss, Benedictines from St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, came to the ordination for Deacon Cross.
“He plays basketball with us” and for 20 years his father has been referee for the Thanksgiving Day basketball game played by brothers and friends, Father Kloss said.
Abbot Crilly said Deacon Cross’ parents attend the community’s Saturday morning Mass.
Before the Mass, Silvia Rey said it was a blessing for their family that her husband, Deacon Henao, was being ordained.
“It’s a gift,” Alessandra Soares said of her husband, Deacon Soares, taking this step. As she waited to process into the Mass with him, she said that their six children were expected to be there – even the one from Alaska.
“It’s brought me closer to my faith,” Andrea Malo said of her husband, Deacon Malo, pursuing this vocation.  
She said she was so proud of him, going back to school again in preparation for ordination, and she is so happy for him.Deacon Alejando Heneo and his wife, Silvia Rey
Amory Navarro Photography“He put in a lot of effort,” she said. “He’s really grown in giving homilies.”  
“I’m very excited for our journey together, serving God together for the rest of our lives,” she concluded.
Bishop McManus preached about deacons’ ministries, including instructing and baptizing people, assisting at Mass, and doing works of charity. He urged the ordinands to serve others as they would serve the Lord and to be men of good reputation.
“The Lord knew what he was doing” in calling Deacons Morgan and Henao, commented Marilyn Berthiaume, who knows them from her parish, St. John Paul II in Southbridge. “It’s a joy to be here.” She said Deacon Morgan served there last summer and is doing so this summer and Deacon Henao is a dear friend from the parish, with whom she served as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.  
After the ordination, Father Adam R. Reid, pastor of St. Anne Parish in Shrewsbury, where Deacon Malo served and is to continue to serve, said he is “very excited for him on this remarkable occasion” and feels blessed to be able to work with him.
“I think it’s so special,” Judy Savoie, of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Westborough, said of Deacon Malo’s ordination. She said she and others who came to the ordination are in a Divine Mercy Cenacle with the new deacon’s wife.
Noting the present shortage of priests, Mrs. Savoie said that permanent deacons are “such a help to the priests who are alone” in a parish.Amory Navarro Photography
After Saturday’s ordination at St. Paul Cathedral, photographer Thomas Keegan is photographed with Worcester diocesan vocations directors: Father Donato Infante III (2019-present), Father James S. Mazzone (2005-2019) and Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan (1995-2005). Mr. Keegan started photographing ordinations in 1955, five years after the diocese was formed, and has kept up this voluntary service ever since. At his studio he took official portraits of the diocese’s bishops, priests and deacons. Generations of clergy have begun their ministry before his camera. “Great memories I have,”
Mr. Keegan said this week.
Maria Gallagher is anticipating the ministry of her brother, Deacon Cross, as transitional deacon, which she called “a huge blessing for our family.”
“We’re very excited, because he’s going to be able to baptize our baby, who’s coming in July,” the second child for her and her husband, Robert Gallagher, she said.  
Phillip and Ciara Meckley, of St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, had their three children with them at the ordination. Mrs. Meckley said it was “very cool” to see Deacon Cross take this step.
“I grew up with him,” she said. “We were in the same homeschooling group when we were younger.” She said she went to high school with him at Trivium School in Lancaster, and she and her husband and others present attended Thomas Aquinas College in California with him.
After the ordination, James Brehany, of St. John’s in Clinton, said, “For our particular school community, this is a big day.” He was referring to Trivium School, which his children attended and where he taught for several years. He said Deacon Soares and his wife sent children there and Mrs. Soares teaches there part time.  
Of Deacon Cross, Mr. Brehany said, “We remember Isaac from when he was a little kid” asking questions when Trivium School seniors defended their theses and took questions from the public.  
“His older brothers and sisters were there; his mother taught there for years,” Mr. Brehany explained.
He said he told Deacon Cross in a note, “It’s been a joy to watch you grow and mature.”
It was nice that Deacons Cross and Soares were ordained the same day, Mr. Brehany said.
He said he became friends with Deacon Soares about 10 years ago, through mutual friend Lee Oser, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross.
“We would have evenings of conversation,” he said of the three of them. Their wives sometimes joined them, as well as Christopher Klofft, who teaches at Assumption University, and his wife, Bridget.
Mr. Brehany recalled Deacon Soares saying that his parish priest had told him, “I think you would make a great deacon.” After that, when they saw the future deacon, they’d ask where he was in that journey “and he would fill us in on his classes,” Mr. Brehany said. “It was all very interesting.”