This is part of a series of articles throughout the
year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reinstitution of the permanent
diaconate in the United States.
The deacon usually has the last word at
Mass. “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” he says. The congregation
replies, “Thanks be to God.”
Permanent deacons are meant to be in the
world, so their role in the liturgy follows their role in life, said Deacon
Lawrence V. Hammel of St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville. “It should
be a sign for all Catholics that we are to go out from Mass to proclaim the
Gospel,” he said.
Though Deacon Hammel prepares some
couples for marriage or the baptism of their child, the majority of his
ministry is intentionally outside the parish. He coordinates prison ministry at
the Loudoun Adult Detention Center and is a hospital chaplain at Loudoun Adult
Medical and Psychiatry Services. “Jails, hospital, soup kitchens — that is how
the church grows, not necessarily in numbers but in richness of faith,” he
said.
Deacon Hammel was born in New York City
in 1935 and grew up on Long Island. He was raised Catholic and attended the
University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. He met his wife, Marianne, at a
Catholic young adult dance, and they started dating when he saw her at another
dance several months later.
He was setting up for the event, and Marianne
was there with her older brother. “So I asked her if she wanted to get a block
of ice with me,” he said. That night at the square dance, she came dressed in
yellow as a cowgirl, he recalled. They were married in 1959 and had four
children.
He became interested in the permanent
diaconate shortly after the vocation was reinstated in 1968. “There’s an Irish
saying that when God takes someone to heaven, he gives another grace,” he said.
“St. Bridget’s on Long Island had seven deacons in the first class. My mother
died in 1979, just about the time when those guys were ordained and I knew all
of them.” Inspired by their action, he
began formation in 1981 and was ordained for the Diocese of Rockville Centre,
N.Y., May 19, 1984.
Deacon Hammel worked as an engineer in
transportation planning for 30 years before he felt he needed a change. “I had
no incentive to leave it, but I needed more in my life,” he said. “I needed a
challenge.” So he went into a year of chaplaincy training at a county hospital on
Long Island.
He first volunteered for an AIDS and HIV
unit. “Going in there was scary at times. What did I know about AIDS?
Absolutely nothing,” he said. But he still felt called to serve there. “The
Holy Spirit does prompt you at times,” he said.
The Hammels moved to Virginia in 2000 to
be closer to some of their children and eight grandchildren. Deacon Hammel
began ministering in the Diocese of Arlington and the Diocese of
Wheeling-Charleston, where he also serves in prison ministry as well as at Our Lady
of Grace Church in Romney.
Deacon Hammel organizes the current
group of 54 volunteers of all backgrounds at the Loudoun Detention Center. “One
man is an eight-term former Congressman. He is there one Sunday a month. He
also does juvenile ministry,” said Deacon Hammel. “We have another man on the
team who is a janitor. ‘Jesus loves you,’ that is what he proclaims.”
The team hosts Scripture services from
the common lectionary that attracts Catholics and Protestants. There’s Mass
once a month and confession when inmates want to go and priests are available,
he said. Occasionally, inmates will ask to be baptized or confirmed and three are
in formation now.
Deacon Hammel usually doesn’t know if
the people he ministers to keep their faith or even stay out of jail, but he
believes it’s his job not to look at the results but to be present to the inmates
now. “There are some success stories, but one really doesn’t know because our
part of the ministry does not follow them afterward,” he said. “To evangelize
is not just to proclaim that message to the inmates. If they have family, they
are going to mention it (to them and) the deputies know what’s going on (too).
We must be present.”
Deacon Hammel also goes to a locked psychiatric
hospital unit. “The brokenness there is extreme. Most of the patients have
attempted suicide or seriously considered suicide,” he said. “Basically, what
you profess there is that God loves them. Because when you think of taking your
life, life is so hellish that you can’t face it anymore. You don’t solve their
problems, but you give them some hope that they are made in the image and
likeness of God, same thing that you did in jail. Proclaiming the Gospel that
we are saved, (and) we have to accept salvation.”
Deacon Hammel believes his work and the
work of fellow volunteers is a critical part of the mission of Christianity. “I
think we’re painting the real face of what Christ has charged his believers
with,” he said. “To bring the Gospel to the broken. The broken may reject it
and that's ok, we have free will. But the beauty is that the church is there
and the faith persists because of the faith of the people in the pews.”