By Susan Stevenot Sullivan, Staff Writer

LAWRENCEVILLE--When Deacon Walt Bedard was called to a meeting with Archbishop John Donoghue and Msgr. Don Kenny last September, he couldn’t imagine why.

He did not suspect that the latest chapter in his nearly 17-year diaconate was about to unfold.

A permanent deacon at Holy Cross Parish, Atlanta, he was informed during the meeting that the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales could no longer staff St. Lawrence Parish in Lawrenceville.

The archbishop asked Deacon Bedard if he would serve as parish administrator until a diocesan priest was appointed pastor in mid-January.

“The archbishop said I came highly recommended,” Deacon Bedard recalled. “I asked what a parish administrator is.”

A few weeks later the new parish administrator, the second permanent deacon to serve in that role in the archdiocese, preached at all the Sunday Masses at St. Lawrenceville.

He had spent his first weeks as administrator attending the meetings of most parish organizations and listening to parishioners.

“During my homily I said I had identified three major areas of concern among parishioners,” Deacon Bedard said. “Those areas are finances, liturgical aspects and communication. I outlined what we would do about these concerns in the light of the input I had received.”

Susan McGhee, a member of the staff at St. Lawrence for the last nine years, said that the parish has benefited from Deacon Bedard’s business and spiritual gifts.

“Walt has been a blessing for us as a parish,” Ms. McGhee said. “He’s brought a sense of continuity. Because he’s a deacon and ordained, I think that helped the people accept him.

“He came in not knowing a soul or a soul knowing him,” she continued. “It speaks highly of his gifts and talents that in a short time he endeared himself to the parish as a whole.”

Deacon Bedard was asked by the new pastor, Father Tony Curran, who was installed Feb. 26, to remain on the parish staff permanently.

“It’s his people sense and his common sense,” Father Curran said, “and his silver hair - which garners him a little respect - though he’s a boy of 57. The people’s response to him is just wonderful. He is a godsend.”

Deacon Bedard calls the series of events over the last several months, beginning with the loss of his secular job during the summer, “(events) that say the Spirit is alive and well and looking after Walt.”

His reaction to major calls from the Lord is consistent over the years, Deacon Bedard said. “It sounds good, but I’m kind of afraid,” he said. “I picked the song ‘Be Not Afraid’ for my ordination Mass.”

Walt Bedard and his family have been members of Holy Cross Parish since moving to Georgia in 1969. Bedard said his vocation, and that of the 18 other deaconate vocations at Holy Cross, was founded in a call from God that was given voice by parishioners and pastoral staff. Cursillo, and the renewal program’s follow-up Ultreya, has also played a pivotal role.

Bedard and his wife, Carol, who have four children, discussed the possibility of a vocation to the permanent deaconate for a year after Holy Cross pastor Father Ed O’Connor and assistant pastor Father Pat Bishop approached him.

“Through all our conversations I got nothing but support from Carol,” Bedard said. “I did assure her that I would balance my time. It would be crazy to get involved with something like this and wreck your family. God wouldn’t like that.”

“I remember being very scared about it all and how it would affect our lives, even though I wanted to support him,” Carol Bedard said.

Looking back on the actual experience, “I have not felt that the family has been put in second fiddle. That was my concern, and it hasn’t happened.”

Bedard and Richard Narey were among the second group of laymen to begin studies for the diaconate in the archdiocese. The program was still being developed at the time and formation took about five years.

During that time, Holy Cross became a parish shepherded by the Dominican order. The Dominican priests provided lessons on moral theology and lectoring along with individual guidance.

“It was the most ideal situation for our preparation,” Deacon Bedard said. “When we were ordained the pastor asked when we wanted to preach. I asked for the biggest Mass--Sunday at noon. I told him, “If I go down in flames I want to go down in front of a lot of people.”

Deacon Bedard continued working with the school of religion and Cursillo after his ordination in June 1978. He added staff meetings, weddings and baptisms to his schedule.

By the mid-80s he was assisting with and then directing the archdiocesan deaconate program under Archbishop Thomas Donnellan. The first class had 55 candidates who were ordained in May 1987.

Though the leadership of the program was very demanding, Deacon Bedard looks back on those times with a smile.

“It was a great experience. It was an experience of God,” he said.

Though leadership of the program was very demanding, Deacon Bedard looks back on those times with a smile.

“It was a great experience. It was an experience of God,” he said.

The demands of his secular job prompted Deacon Bedard to hand the directorship of the diaconate program to his colleague Deacon Narey by 1988, but he remained on the diaconate board until last year.

Deacon Bedard stays spiritually centered with the help of his spiritual director and monthly meetings of Jesus Caritas, a group composed of Religious and ordained which has met for 14 years.

“(Deacon) Dick Narey has had a very calming influence on my diaconate,” Bedard said. “Every time I start to go off the keep end he says, ‘Wait, Walt!’”

Deacon Bedard believes that diaconal activity is controlled by how well deacons are accepted by the priest. He said deacons are much better utilized now than they were in years past. The vast majority serve in unpaid positions.

“It’s the wave of the future,” Father Curran said of the role of deacons in parish life. “I don’t know how you can run places like this with 1,300 families on the books, but more like 1,600 and heading for 2,000, with two priests without running them into the ground.”

“The deacon is in the pulpit,” Father Curran continued. “The people in the pew see and hear him and decide if this is someone they can talk to. The deacon takes on a full pastoral counseling role like I do. He does weddings, marriage preparation, baptisms, funerals.”

“For the coming years,” Father Curran said, “this is where the church is going.”

The 61-year-old deacon has been turning down job offers lately so that he can stay in his new position at St. Lawrence.

“My experience at this parish has been an experience of God for me, too.”

“This has enhanced my spiritual life,” he said. “The real reason for what’s taking place is that there isn’t a person I’ve talked to that isn’t on fire in their hearts over their parish. They have a tremendous group of people here.”

“There are many well-qualified people here who know things. Everything was in place when I got here. It was a matter of addressing parishioners’ concerns in some areas,” he said.

“The spiritual and personal dimension in this is a kind of bonus I wasn’t expecting.”

This is the first in an occasional series of articles on the roles filled by permanent deacons in the archdiocese.