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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2010 /  26 permanent deacons celebrate jubilees

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 30, 2010

Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic Deacon George Posavetz holds twin babies after baptizing them in 2002.

DETROIT – When a man who had told Deacon John Barbera he had contemplated suicide noticed the "Footprints in the Sand" clock on the wall of his office, Deacon Barbera saw it as an opportunity to talk about God's love.

The man, in his mid-50s, had been unemployed for a year and a half, and was about to become homeless. He had come to see Deacon Barbera in his capacity as a licensed professional counselor, so did not know he was a clergyman.

Deacon Barbera began to talk about the "Footprints in the Sand" poem's meaning – that the man should think of it as depicting Jesus carrying us through our adversity. "The man brightened up, and asked me, 'Are you a Catholic?' I told him I was, and he said, 'So am I.' We talked some more, and he promised he wouldn't take his own life, and if he had any more thoughts like that, he would call me," Deacon Barbera said.

The story gets better: "Just a few hours later, the man called me from his home to tell me he had gotten a phone call calling him back to his old job," Deacon Barbera continued.

It was an example, he said, of the most rewarding aspect of his diaconal ministry – "working with people, and watching people benefit from becoming empowered by the Holy Spirit."

Deacon Barbera, 69, is one of 26 permanent deacons in the Archdiocese of Detroit who will celebrate significant milestone anniversaries of their ordination at a Mass and dinner this Sunday at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

He is one of two deacons celebrating 35 years of diaconal ministry this year. Besides his basic assignment to St. Louis Parish in Clinton Township, Deacon Barbera also serves as chaplain to the Clinton Township police and fire departments, and at Martha T. Berry Hospital in Mount Clemens, a county-run hospital for indigent persons.

In past years, he was also a prison chaplain at the Macomb Regional Correctional Facility.

This year's other 35-year jubilarian is Deacon Joseph Daratony, whose principal assignment is at St. Michael (Melkite) Mission in Plymouth. Deacon Daratony, 76, is bi-ritual, meaning he is authorized to serve in both Melkite Rite and Latin Rite parishes, so he also serves at Resurrection Parish, Canton Township.

Nowadays, his diaconal ministry mainly involves helping out at both parishes—proclaiming the Gospel and otherwise assisting at liturgies, performing baptisms and weddings, preparing people for baptism or marriage, and counseling married couples.

But he looks back fondly on his former work as a prison chaplain, "until they closed all the prisons around here."

"I always look back at my prison work as the highlight of my ministry. I found it really fulfilling to work with those guys," Deacon Daratony said. He also spent a number of years dividing his time between Detroit and Palm Springs, Calif. While out west from January to April each year, he served at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and at Desert Regional Hospital in Palm Springs.

One of the patients he visited at the hospital was actress Loretta Young, one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1940s and '50s. And he was with her again at the dedication of the hospital chapel she helped make possible.

While he has stayed in Michigan for several years now, he said he might start going back out to Palm Springs again to help a new Melkite parish that is being formed.

Deacon Daratony said his life as a permanent deacon has enhanced his faith life: "As a Christian, part of my view has always been the importance of serving others. When I'm serving others people, it deepens my understanding of the Gospels and strengthens my faith, because I could better understand what it means to serve."

Deacon Mark Springer, 63, is one of seven permanent deacons celebrating the 30th anniversary of their ordination.

While Deacon Springer's ministry has included all the standard diaconal functions at a parish, its principal focus has been youth ministry, and that is also the aspect he said has been the most rewarding.

"It has been my full-time ministry all these years. I've been working in youth ministry since 1972, and have been a deacon since 1980," he said.

He is in his 11th year at St. Alexander Parish in Farmington Hills, and was at St. Anastasia Parish in Troy before that.

"I'm called to be in ministry with youth, I have no doubt about that. I learn from the teens and young adults, and they learn from me. Sometimes I'm challenged by things that are going on in youth ministry, sometimes inspired," Deacon Springer said.

About 80 teens are involved in the youth ministry at the 500-family parish. "We're a small parish with a large youth group," he said.

The parish calls itself the "Servant Church of St. Alexander," and Deacon Springer said the parish tries to live out that name with its many service projects. Among those are the annual week-long service trips for youth that regularly involve 52 teens and about 15 adults who go to various parts of the country to live with the poor or elderly and help rebuild their homes.

Those trips have taken them to Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia. And both the youth and adults of the parish work on similar projects locally, he added.

Deacon Springer's work has provided the material for two books – "The 7 Principles of Effective Youth Ministry – A Handbook for Growth," which he wrote in 1995 with Cheryl Smith, and a new book on the confirmation preparation process, which he just recently completed and is now trying to get published.

Deacon George Posavetz, 79, one of three deacons celebrating their 20-year jubilees, said, "I've enjoyed every bit of it."

But he went on to say that he has most enjoyed working with people, and especially paying visits to people in hospitals and nursing homes. "I always come back refreshed; they make you feel real good," Deacon Posavetz said.

Although he now has senior deacon status, Deacon Posavetz is still helping out at St. Mark Parish, Warren, where he was assigned for all of his officially active ministry.

The deacon said the process that led to him becoming a deacon followed the loss of his son, Jeff, in a 1975 auto accident at the age of 17. "My wife and I turned it all over to God," he said.

Deacon Posavetz said he started taking classes in 1983, and was ordained in 1990.

"Being a deacon, I've met a lot of people with strong faith lives and that has helped me. Without them, believe me, I wouldn't have survived," he added.