For Edwin Ramos-Echandi and Javier Perez, being ordained permanent deacons May 18 marked a joyful recommitment to their faith after marriage, families and military careers.
For six other men who were ordained transitional deacons at the same celebration, the special day marked the final step before they are expected to be ordained priests in another year.
Archbishop William E. Lori celebrated the liturgy at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland during Mass packed with family and friends and occasionally rocked with applause and cheers.
The archbishop was joined by Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker, Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., and retired Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden.
Deacon Ramos-Echandi, at 66, is the oldest of the new deacons in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. After eight years in the Air Force, the native of Puerto Rico spent another 30 years as a schoolteacher in San Antonio.
He and wife Kate – they met when she was an Air Force flight nurse and are parents of three adult children – marked their 33rd wedding anniversary in December. They live in Aberdeen, and their home parish is St. Patrick in Havre de Grace.
“Here we are,” Deacon Ramos-Echandi said of the culmination of his faith journey. “I feel very blessed.”
Deacon Perez, 57, also born in Puerto Rico, grew up in Bridgeport, Conn. He and wife Vivian, married since 1988, have two adult children, live in Brooklyn, and their home parish is St. Athanasius in Curtis Bay.
As a master sergeant serving as a police officer in the Air Force, his postings included Turkey, Iceland and England before he finished up his career at Joint Base Andrews.
Raised in the Church of the Nazarene, he met his future wife, a cradle Catholic, at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. He recalled attending an Ash Wednesday Mass in 1988 with Vivian. Deacon Perez succumbed to a moment of skepticism and thought, “These people are hypocrites.” And as sometimes happens, at that moment he heard an inner voice asking, “Who’s the hypocrite? At least they believe!”
On the following Easter Sunday, “I still would recall that Catholic Mass. I still feel that’s the time God called me to service” He was accepted into the faith in 2000, and entered the diaconate program in 2017.
In addition to the two permanent deacons, the transitional deacons ordained at the cathedral celebration were Deacon Pelagio “Jun” R. Guamil Jr. of Immaculate Conception in Towson; Deacon Bienvenu Ilanga of St. Matthew in Northwood; Deacon James Lancelotta of St. Joseph’s Monastery in Baltimore; Deacon Shiadrik Mokum of Holy Family, Davidsonville; Deacon Alex Mwebaze of St. Joseph, Odenton; and Deacon Thomas O’Donnell of St. Mark, Catonsville.
Each man knelt in front of the archbishop during the Mass to pledge respect and obedience to him and his successors. Then they lay prostrate on the floor for the litany of saints. They knelt again before the archbishop as he laid his hands on each one to confer the Holy Spirit. The men were then vested with the symbols of the diaconate, a stole worn diagonally across the chest and a dalmatic, a liturgical vestment.
The archbishop prayed over each man with the book of the Gospels, saying, “Believe what you read, teach what you read and practice what you teach.”
In his homily, Archbishop Lori said the new deacons were “chosen by God’s mercy” – not because they deserved it or were more deserving than others.
He thanked them for giving themselves “so willingly to God and his church.”
The new deacons’ interactions in their parishes “must be marked by a gentle pastoral love that puts people at ease,” Archbishop Lori added, noting that that love must be extended to those “most in need.”
Deacon Mokum, 28, originally from Bamenda, Cameroon, said his faith journey began in 2006, starting with serving as an altar server and later as a liturgy assistant.
“Gradually, that is how I got my call,” he said. After high school, “I knew the only direction I could take was to go to seminary.”
He said he looks forward to “baptizing and preaching with passion and zeal.”
Deacon Lancelotta, 52, originally from Ellicott City, went into the restaurant industry at age 15, and after culinary school and stops in Savannah, Ga., and Washington, D.C., he was an executive chef. A career in restaurant kitchens is hard, grinding, repetitive work and conducive to substance abuse, but Deacon Lancelotta, who attended Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington, said his faith helped him regain his bearings.
“I’m a recovering alcoholic,” he said, sober since 2015. “As I got sober, religion held a greater role for me.” He entered St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park in 2018. “I always felt called to the priesthood in high school, but I ran away from it.”
His greatest strength? “I really think I’m very relatable. I live in the real world, so I can relate to people and help them on their journey toward the Lord. I know we’re all broken and I’m extremely broken, but we can let the Lord heal us and make us stronger.”
Father Steven Roth, director of vocations, encouraged the congregation to pray for more religious vocations.
“It is a great cause for us to be intentional in our prayer, thanking the Lord for these men and to also ask the Lord to guide them as they begin their future ministry,” he said at the outset of the liturgy. “It is alway a wonderful opportunity for those of us who have also found our vocation, whether it is to the priesthood or religious life or to the married state, to use this beautiful ritual to recommit ourselves in living out our particular vocation.”
Father Roth encouraged anyone present at the liturgy to speak with a representative of the vocations office after Mass if they feel they might be called to a religious vocation.
At the end of the celebration, Archbishop Lori announced that the new deacons will serve at the following parishes:
- Deacon Guamil: St. Matthew/Blessed Sacrament, Baltimore
- Deacon Ilanga: St. Joseph, Fullerton
- Deacon Lancelotta: Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, and St. Thomas Aquinas, Hampden
- Deacon Mokum: St. Peter the Apostle, Libertytown
- Deacon Mwebaze: St. Louis, Clarksville, and St. Francis of Assisi, Fulton
- Deacon O’Donnell: St. Mark, Fallston
- Deacon Perez: Christ the King, Glen Burnie
- Deacon Ramos-Echandi: St. Stephen, Bradshaw, and Holy Spirit, Joppa
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Read capsule profiles of the new deacons here.
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