(OSV News) ─ Deacon Sam Puleo Jr., serving at St. Francis Assisi Parish in Seffner, Florida, learned how to lean on his faith when his son Roman died of cancer on his 26th birthday in 2022.
"It's something you just have to deal with," Deacon Puleo, 61, told OSV News. He's retained the advice a priest gave him to cope: "Loving your faith is what really means the difference."
That love accompanied his journey to the permanent diaconate. Deacon Puleo was ordained last October for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, which ordains new deacons every two years.
What compels men to listen and follow Jesus Christ's call to become permanent deacons in 2026? The common thread among three deacons interviewed by OSV News is a love of service combined with a growing recognition of the gifts that others have recognized in them. Overall, no one becomes a deacon without constant encouragement from their priests and their families.
"The ministry of a deacon is never about self-promotion or prestige," Bishop John S. Bonnici of Rochester, New York, noted in his homily as he ordained two new permanent deacons on May 30. "You are not ordained for yourselves. You are ordained for Christ and for his people."
"The gold standard in ministry is love," Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori said as he ordained 14 new deacons on May 9. "Not the self-centered love of the world, but the self-giving love of Christ, who is the source of all consecration and ministry."
A 2025 survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which conducts social scientific studies for and about the Catholic Church estimated that there were 13,864 permanent deacons in active ministry in 2024. Since 2011, their number has averaged 19,184 and ranged between 16,966 and 20,888.
Simply because most seek the diaconate after their children are grown and their families demand less of their time, they skew toward retirement age -- most active deacons are between 60-69 years old (42%), followed by deacons 70 and older (36%). Nine in 10 (93%) active permanent deacons are currently married, 4% are widowers and 2% have never been married. Almost all (96%) active permanent deacons are at least 50 years old.
And no two faith journeys are ever the same, except for the moment of sensing the call to service. It can be difficult to explain, but they know it when it hits them.
"My parents weren't religious at all," recalled Deacon Puleo, who owns landscaping and plumbing businesses and has been married to wife AnnMarie for 33 years. But he had a faithful grandmother who would take him to Mass, and he was eventually baptized at 12.
"I always had kind of a feeling that God has some purpose for me," he said. "I did not know what that meant. It was just something inside me from a very early age."
Conversion, he concedes, "is an ongoing process. You try to become the man you want to be, but it's something you'll never complete unless you're in the presence of God at life's end."
His most cherished task, Deacon Puleo said, is "spreading the message of the Gospel." St. Francis of Assisi parish has about 1,400 members, which he thinks is ideal. "It's not so big that you get lost in the crowd. It's a humble community."
Deacon Jim Grevenites, chairman of the executive committee of the National Association of Diaconate Directors, director of deacon personnel for the Diocese of St. Petersburg and a deacon for 26 years, has recently supervised his ninth class of new deacons. He says he looks for the moment "when we see the heart of the deacon developing," and "you know they can work themselves into any circumstances and be a presence of Christ."
And it also requires a shift in perspective, he said. "There shouldn't be a lot of resisting to it."
By that he means "obedience to the bishops," which he thinks is a more difficult concept for men accustomed to being their own boss. "We’ve seen them all, from all walks of life."
Deacon Sal Heredia, 50, ordained May 16, serves at St. John Vianney Parish in San Jose, California. As he nears retirement after nearly 25 years with the Santa Clara County Probation Department, he recalled that leadership qualities have always been something others sensed in him.
"Sitting in the back pew, then someone tapped me on the shoulder. Next thing you know, I'm in the front pew," beginning a 15-year journey to the diaconate, which included the five-year formation overlapping with three years in the San Jose Diocese's Institute for Leadership in Ministry. He said the message he kept hearing from priests was, "You have to understand the gifts that God has provided to you."
Deacon Heredia said when his three children with wife Luz were young, he always had "a long list of excuses," beginning with "I am not going to neglect my domestic chores." But "I think people just knew I was committed. I was honestly committed."
His parish priest, Father Steve Brown, was a big influence, nudging him every six months to "just go for the discerning years, then go from there."
His children have always been active in the parish, and son Marco, 21, the second oldest, who just graduated from the University of California-Davis, is entering Mount Angel Seminary in St Benedict, Oregon, on his path to the priesthood.
Deacon Angel Velasquez, 43, a native of Venezuela who immigrated in 2014, is at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Abingdon, Maryland, after his May 9 ordination. The owner of Maryland Appliances and Mattresses has two children with Jaisa, his wife of 12 years. Before he went into business, he worked for Maersk Drilling as an electrical supervisor on offshore drilling rigs.
He was doing that job, which entailed working seven days on, seven days off, when he first got married. "That kind of job is not good for marriage," he observed. For that, "you have to be there every day."
The best aspect of the diaconate for him "is accompanying parishioners at every stage of life -- births, marriages, funeral Masses -- to remind them "the church is always there."
Deacon Velasquez first felt the call in 2015 in conversation with another deacon. "I cannot even explain it. A lot of people ask me, 'What makes you think this is the right moment?' I just wanted to follow, to respond to the call."
"God gives us the grace to fulfill all these ministries," he reflected. "The Lord gives us power to do so if we offer his grace."
And for anyone considering the diaconate, "spend some time in prayer," he advises.
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Kurt Jensen writes for OSV News from Washington. Contributing to this story were Mike Latona of the Catholic Courier in Rochester and George P. Matsyek Jr., of the Catholic Review in Baltimore.
