Deacon Adrian Gomez, 14 August 2025
The Diocese of Parramatta has been featuring various people’s stories for Vocations Awareness Week. How exciting to see that Deacon Adrian Gomez, who has appeared on this blog before, was spotlighted on Tuesday. Here is some of the story:
Deacon Adrian Gomez is passionate about working with young people, helping them in their formation as Catholics, and especially as leaders in their faith.
It’s something he’s been doing for years, firstly in the Broken Bay Diocese and now in Parramatta, where he works with the Mission Directorate within Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese (CSPD), supporting schools in the Blacktown and Mt Druitt areas in the area of mission…
But he has another string to his bow – that of a Navy Chaplain – which at first glance looks to be very different from his work in youth ministry, but as he discovered actually has a lot of similarities…
He said chaplains in the navy occupy a unique position outside the command structure, and this allows anyone – officer or sailor – to feel they can go to them for confidential support.
“The chaplains are really trusted,” Deacon Adrian said. “That’s a historical thing. Anyone can go to a chaplain and just get support, or for them to be a sounding board because things can get really frustrating in military life.”..
He said the navy has a tradition of holding baptisms on ships, which goes back hundreds of years to when it was first started by the Royal Navy.
“We take the ship’s bell, flip it upside down, put it in a stand, fill it with water and that’s what we use for the baptismal font.
“I then bless the water, and afterwards the child’s name and the date of the baptism are engraved on the inside of the bell.”
This is an excerpt of the full article. To read the whole, visit the Catholic Outlook page here.
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Liturgy on the Margins 