The Public Face of the Church: Finding where God is Present

Deacon Adrian Gomez, 21 March 2024

Deacon Adrian Gomez takes me back to the dawn of the reinstitution of permanent deacons in the Western Catholic Church… a dream that emerged in the concentration camps of World War II, as Lutheran and Catholic priests looked to renew the diaconate. “There are images of Christ the king and Christ the priest, but we also need an image of Christ the servant.” That is the ideal that inspires Adrian today, as he lives it out in reality.

Adrian became more and more involved with the church as a young adult, taking on ministries with music, youth, Vinnies Van and as a Parish Council youth representative. Yet that wasn’t enough – he had “a longing to serve God and God’s people more.” This took him to the seminary and a discernment of priesthood for three years, which he found “incredibly formative” as he studied, lived and prayed in community. However, while Adrian was definitely called to ministry, he felt that it would be within the vocation of marriage. 

Leaving the seminary, Adrian took up teaching, focusing on religious education and youth ministry. In this time, he also got married and had two children. A pivotal moment came when a friend died, when Adrian was 33 years old. He began thinking, “Where am I going with life? What do I want to do?” When he was young, he had never heard of the permanent diaconate, but his strong vocational pull now led him to explore it. As he had young children, Adrian’s bishop initially said ‘no’. But with persistence and the support of his parish priest, Adrian eventually began the pathway to his ordination for the Diocese of Broken Bay.  

None of this was easy or simple, especially with family demands. Adrian’s formation took place over 10 years, but his ordination in 2017, at the age of 44, was worth the wait. Since then, he has exercised various ministries at a diocesan level rather than in parishes, which has been the Broken Bay model. He has worked in marriage formation, the Marriage Tribunal, youth ministry and, recently he became a navy chaplain.

Baptism at St Patrick’s Church, Asquith NSW

Before, during and after Adrian’s ordination, he has also been a youth ministry coordinator in a Catholic secondary school. The role involves preparing and leading the liturgical and social justice life of the school, as well as teaching religion classes. He finds that retreats, in particular, offer a great “opportunity to creatively engage with students spiritually and find those points of connection to something beyond themselves.” As “the vast majority… are on the fringes of religion,” Adrian starts with their personal, human experience and helps them to reflect and “open their eyes to a bigger picture, a greater connectedness to something beyond.” With the sharing of their experiences and creative gifts, it “brings the liturgy alive.” 

I ask him about what difference being a deacon has made; after all, he was still operating in the same situation. Adrian says, “My role description was the same, but I have become a public face of the Church.” Both staff and students came to him about religious and personal matters, who hadn’t come before. An early change was that the Vicar General asked the school community to call him “Reverend Gomez” rather than “Mr Gomez” and this quickly became the affectionate “Rev”. Yet it “changed the way people saw me, I was different from a normal teacher.” And the difference was positive – it “opened up possibilities” for leading school liturgies and preaching at Mass. 

Adrian’s diaconal identity and ministry has also led to sacramental involvement, including celebrating funerals and weddings of previous members of the College. Many weddings have been ‘on the margins’ – between a Catholic and non-Catholic or between a practising and non-practising Catholic. Many have been celebrated outside of the sacred space, as one of the families would not come otherwise. These have been a “privilege and opportunity to share the goodness and beauty of the Catholic faith with those who are sceptical.” He has had wonderful feedback from participants who had left the Church for a long time. As a deacon, Adrian is able to “make them meaningful, joyfilled celebrations for them and their families.”       

Wedding at a Hunter Valley Vineyard, NSW

Being able to preach in the liturgy is also “the great privilege and responsibility of the diaconate.” Adrian says that it is about “being incarnational”: finding where God is present in the lives of the people before him. Preaching means “to continually wrestle with the scriptures and find what makes them transformative in the lives of the community I am faced with.” This is where he sees the value of the diaconate as a permanent vocation. It can bridge a gap between experiences of priests and laity, as most deacons have a wife, children and paid profession as well. Then when deacons celebrate key events in the lives of families – baptisms, weddings and funerals – they bring both “personal experience as well as the sacramental presence of the Church.” This has been “really powerful” to Adrian, and I can see that his diaconal ministry has truly made Christ the servant present in our world.

Prayer Network