May 29, 2025 // Bishop

Four Men Ordained to the Order of the Diaconate

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

Deacons Hickey, Isch, Martinez, and Sullivan
Conformed to Minister as Christ the Servant

As their friends, families, and fellow clergy sang to heaven to seek the intercession of the saints for their new diaconal ministries, four men laid down their bodies across the cold, marble floor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Lying prostrate before the altar is a physical gesture representing an ontological change that takes place at every ordination Mass – one that conveys humility, obedience, and servitude. But for the newly ordained, it’s not only their bodies they lay down, but their very lives in service to the Church.

Click here for more photos from the ordination.

On Saturday, May 24, at the cathedral in Fort Wayne, hundreds gathered to witness Bishop Rhoades confer the Sacrament of Holy Orders to Johnathon Hickey, Noah Isch, Samuel Martinez, and Greenan Sullivan, who were ordained to the sacred Order of the Diaconate. While each deacon, God willing, will be ordained a priest in the near future, they will forever carry with them their diakonia (service to others) as they are now called to conform themselves to Christ the Servant.

With dozens of priests filling the sanctuary behind him, and many of the dioceses’ permanent deacons filling the pews in front of him, Bishop Rhoades thanked the men for accepting “the invitation of the Church and of Christ the Lord,” a phrase used by Pope Leo XIV on Good Shepherd Sunday, on which the Church also observes the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

“Taught by their parents and families, they have been following Jesus, the Good Shepherd, throughout their lives and have been growing in friendship with Him,” Bishop Rhoades said in his homily. “Guided by the Holy Spirit and compelled by their sincere love of Christ the Lord, today they will surrender their lives to Him in order to serve Him and His people. And so, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, they will be consecrated for the Church’s ministry by the laying on of my hands and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They will be raised to the Order of the Diaconate, the first degree or grade of holy orders. In this degree, the deacon is the one who personifies Christ the Servant. Being a deacon means making present the mystery of the servanthood, the diaconate, of Jesus Christ, His love in the Church.”

Bishop Rhoades continued, saying: “Before he became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as archbishop of Munich, said the following in a homily at a diaconate ordination Mass: ‘If the Church wants to be the servant of Jesus Christ, she needs the representation of the deacon Jesus Christ.’ … The future Pope Benedict XVI also spoke about the importance of men being ordained deacons before being ordained priests. He said that this isn’t just an old custom, but important since diakonia, or servanthood, is also necessary for priests and bishops. He said: ‘A priest who stopped being a deacon would no longer perform his priestly ministry correctly. And a bishop who did not remain a deacon would no longer be a real bishop. And a pope who was not a deacon would no longer be a true pope. The diaconate is and remains a dimension of every clerical ministry, because the Lord who sustains all these ministries became himself our deacon and remains such in the holy Eucharist until the end of all days.’”

Speaking directly to Hickey, Isch, Martinez, and Sullivan, who were seated next to one another at the front of the cathedral, Bishop Rhoades preached: “Johnathon, Noah, Sam, and Greenan, with humil ity, you can say with St. Paul: ‘We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.’ You and I, and all the ordained, are earthen vessels, yet we have within us the greatest treasure in the world. This treasure is the Gospel of Christ and ‘the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.’ It’s only by an act of mercy that we have received this ministry from Christ. We are all unworthy servants, but, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we receive the grace of the Lord to be His faithful servants.”

While the ordination Mass might seem like the culmination of years of discernment, prayer, and study, each of the new deacons shared with Today’s Catholic their understanding of it being more of a commencement as they begin their lives as ordained ministers of the Church. At ordination, the Church teaches that the very being of the man has changed. Like at baptism and confirmation, ordination confers an indelible mark on the soul of an ordained man – a spiritual reality that remains with them throughout their lives.

In interviews with Today’s Catholic, Deacon Hickey, Deacon Isch, Deacon Martinez, and Deacon Sullivan conveyed this following their ordinations.

“There is a peace that is here and a feeling of what I am and what I am doing as being ‘natural,” said Deacon Hickey, a son of St. John the Baptist Parish in Fort Wayne. “Everything feels right. I recall that moment when we prostrated ourselves on the floor by the altar, signifying a kind of death, and how I now think about how the life I’m living is no longer my own. There is also a certain weight about being a deacon, knowing that I will soon be administering the sacramental life of the Church in baptisms, marriages outside of Mass, and assisting at the celebration of the Eucharist. … There is a peace surrounding all of this,” added Deacon Hickey, who will serve this summer at St. Patrick in Ligonier before he and the other deacons return to their formation at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in the fall.

Deacon Isch, whose home parish is St. Charles Borromeo in Fort Wayne, said he now feels “the great responsibility I have undertaken in my ordination and in the promises I made before the bishop and before God. But I also feel a great joy in being able to serve the Lord and His people alongside the other deacons and priests of the diocese,” added Deacon Isch, who has been assigned to serve at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Elkhart this summer.

For Deacon Martinez, who also grew up attending St. Charles Borromeo, he said that, even for him, it’s difficult to explain “the metaphysical answer of how the ordination changed me,” but added that, “simply put, my soul has been changed, just like it is when we are baptized or confirmed, and therefore, I am a new man – a man configured to Christ the Servant! It is certainly a freeing feeling because you can actually know in this very moment that this is the reason I was born.” This summer, Deacon Martinez will minister to the faithful at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Wayne.

Deacon Sullivan told Today’s Catholic that “during and after the ordination, I felt a profound joy and peace. There is certainly a responsibility that comes with the diaconate, but it is an ‘easy yoke’ and a ‘light burden.” Deacon Sullivan will serve at St. Adalbert Parish in South Bend this summer, saying that his focus post-ordination “will be to live out my ordination promises faithfully and do what I was ordained to do: lay down my life at the service of the people of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic.