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BY PRISCILLA GREEAR
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--John Barranco was an altar server in grade school, high school and
college where he recalls being taken out of class to serve at funerals.
Decades later, he and other members of Knights of Columbus Council 11402 at
All Saints Church, Dunwoody, return with reverence to the altar during funeral
Masses and form the Senior Acolyte Assembly.
Dressed in blue blazers and gray slacks, one of four teams, each composed of
six Knights, serves at funeral Masses every one to two weeks, leading
processions and assisting priests at the Mass and during the blessing where the
priest uses both holy water and incense.
“It’s very interesting and very fulfilling,” Barranco said.
“After many years I’m back doing it again.”
Msgr. Donald Kiernan, pastor of All Saints, initiated the senior assembly
last summer after Pinecrest Academy relocated from the church to its current
school in Cumming. This left All Saints with a shortage of young altar servers
at the parish, who typically served for funerals during the week. While All
Saints has used youth from other elementary schools, the pastor said that it is
often inconvenient for parents who have to drive children to the church.
Msgr. Kiernan provided a training program for the Knights, most of whom are
retired. The senior assembly is now on call to serve at funerals as needed
year-round except in July.
“They’ve done a marvelous job. To my knowledge they may be one of
the first in the country. It’s been a big help to us,” said Msgr.
Kiernan.
On such emotional occasions, the senior assembly “adds a lot more to
the dignity of (funerals),” said Msgr. Kiernan. “It’s nice to
see men with dedication and reverence and devotion.”
“Funerals are the time you really need them--with the incense, the holy
water. A person can do it by himself, but you have to stop and get the incense.
It adds a lot when it’s a planned ceremony,” he said.
Assembly member George Novac, 68, described a family’s appreciation for
the Knights’ presence at a funeral for a 14-year-old killed in an
accident.
“That was a very emotional service. Just having the grown men, the
adults, there made the family feel so much better, “ he said. “When
the service is over, to have a family (member) come up and say, ‘We really
appreciated your serving here’...That’s the kind of gratitude we get
for it.”
Novac added that he and most of the other members were altar servers as
youth and that the responsibilities have come back to them naturally.
Barranco, 65, recently was an acolyte at a funeral for a man whose children
were in the congregation. Many funerals, like this one, are especially
emotional and he acknowledged that he struggles to control his emotions.
“Some are extremely sad,” he said.
Barranco believes the Knights contribute to the funeral by their uniform
dress, their decorum and the intensity of their focus on “trying to be
very somber and attentive and giving.”
As the Knights’ main focus is charity, “It brings a lot of pride
to us and it makes the people of the church feel good to say, ‘These are
the Knights of Columbus and they are living up to what the fraternal order is
about,’” Novac said. “It’s serving the parish in times of
need.”
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