Deacon Richard C. Caporiccio had a powerful spiritual experience that ultimately brought him to the permanent diaconate. Naturally, his wife, Madeline, didn’t have the same experience or feel the call her husband did. But together, they’ve navigated the joys and challenges of serving the church, each in their own way. For Richard, whether it was preparing couples for marriage, officiating weddings, presiding over holy hours or baptizing babies, “(It) was all God’s work.”
Richard, 79, serves at Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria and is a substitute teacher at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, where he taught religion for several years. Madeline, 76, works as a real estate broker.
The couple met at a school dance. “I was 16 (and) Richard was home from college for the weekend,” said Madeline. “I was like, ‘Oh, an older college man.’ And that was it — the romance kept going until he graduated and was commissioned in the (U.S.) Army. And then off we went.” The couple moved all around the world and eventually settled in Northern Virginia after Richard’s last assignment at the Pentagon.
While stationed in Puerto Rico, they attended a marriage encounter weekend. “I had a born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit experience,” said Richard. “Before that I was a mechanical Catholic. I didn’t miss Mass, went to confession and prayed, but it wasn’t from the heart. (But that weekend,) I felt that God loved us — me as an individual and us as a couple — for the first time.
“As I’m sitting there, I’m tearing up (and) I hear the flapping of wings above my head. I look up and it’s a white dove. And then I look back again and there’s another one,” he said. “That was, for me, some kind of a sign and I didn’t know where it was going to lead.”
When they got back from the weekend, Richard met with his chaplain. He got a copy of the New Testament and read it twice. “(My priest said) ‘You ought to be a deacon.’ And I said, ‘What the heck is that?’ ”
Richard gradually discerned a calling to the diaconate but the next diocese they moved to wasn’t ordaining permanent deacons. A priest friend encouraged him to apply to the Eastern rite Maronite diocese. Though he was a Roman Catholic, he was accepted and was ordained at Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Washington April 23, 1988. He has biritual faculties, meaning he can participate in liturgies at Roman Catholic and Maronite churches.
Richard’s interest in the diaconate was unexpected, said Madeline. “I did not get (the) spiritual awakening that he did,” she said. “(His deepening interest in the faith) totally took me by surprise. I did see a change in Richard that was really a very enlightening experience for me. He was getting closer to the church, which was really a blessing.”
It wasn’t always easy for the couple to juggle work, raising four children and Richard’s responsibilities to the parish. One little sacrifice stands out to Madeline. “People don’t think about it, but we never sit together at Mass. He’s on the altar and I’m in a pew,” she said.
Madeline supports her husband’s ministry in different ways, including editing his homilies. “Inevitably, people will say, ‘Man that was a great homily, especially that part about — (and) it’s a comment she gave me,” said Richard.
There’s a strong community of deacons and their families to rely upon, said Madeline, and there’s a lot of heartwarming experiences, too. She fondly recalls watching her husband baptize their grandchildren. “It’s just that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you see your husband doing something like that,” she said.
