BY RITA McINERNEY

Staff Writer

SNELLVILLE --The funeral Mass for Deacon John G. Cicala, Sr., was celebrated Oct. 20 at St. Oliver Plunkett Church, by Father Thomas Carroll, MS, pastor.

Deacon Cicala, 76, died Oct. 17 at his home in Stone Mountain. He had been in poor health for the past year. A deacon at St. Oliver Plunkett, his last public function was the dedication of the new sanctuary in November 1994, Father Carroll said.

A prayer service was held Oct. 19 at the parish. Burial was in Eternal Hills Memory Gardens.

The pastor called him a quiet, reserved man, "extremely meticulous in whatever assignment he was given." He also knew him as a doting grandfather who "adored his one grandchild."

He retired as judge of the Connecticut Superior Court in 1968 after a series of heart attacks. He and his wife, Theresa Soli Cicala, moved to Florida where he began studies for the permanent deaconate at the regional seminary in Miami. The three-year program included study in canon law. In addition, Deacon Cicala took a 20-hour course aimed at helping people seeking church annulments.

At the conclusion of the program Deacon and Mrs. Cicala moved to Atlanta in 1984 to be near their son, John and his family. Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan ordained him to the permanent diaconate that same year at St. Oliver Plunkett Church.

Along with his work of preaching, baptizing, training the altar servers, working with the RCIA and various other duties, Deacon Cicala volunteered at the Metropolitan Tribunal for several years. He served as judge of archdiocesan annulment cases and also served on the appellate court on annulment cases for other dioceses in the Province of Atlanta.

In an article about Deacon Cicala in the June 20, 1985, issue of The Georgia Bulletin, Msgr. Edward Dillon, at the time head of the tribunal, said, "He has been instrumental really in helping us get caught up on our caseload. He has been a godsend in that respect."

In the same article, the deacon talked about his volunteer work and his years on the bench. "Being in an open courtroom, I think I acquired a knack for determining the veracity and truthfulness of witnesses. Even though I don't actually see the people here, I think I get a feel for when people are telling the truth ...and when they are perhaps exaggerating it or coloring it a bit."

But most important to him, he said, was that he believed he had been guided "almost throughout my life by the Holy Spirit and/or my guardian angel."

This "protection" served him well while assigned to handle organized crime cases while a judge on Connecticut's Circuit Court and later the Superior Court. Often he and his family were threatened or harassed.

"There were periods of time when the Connecticut State Police were on our property for weeks," he recalled in the article.

Deacon Cicala was a graduate of Yale University and the University of Connecticut Law School.

In addition to his wife and son, he is also survived by daughter-in-law Margaret A. Cicala, his grandson, John G. Cicala, III; two sisters, Agnes Cicala Auger and Josephine Cicala Ludemann, of West Haven, Conn., and two brothers, Joseph A. Cicala, of McLean, Va., and Russell S. Cicala, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A brother, Anthony M. Cicala predeceased him.