Future deacons gearing up to promote mercy and hope
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Archbishop Shawn McKnight has summoned 14 men to the Diaconate — 13 of them for the permanent Diaconate and one seminarian for the transitional Diaconate.
He plans to ordain them during Mass on Saturday, June 7, 2025, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City.
The permanent Diaconate candidates and their wives have been preparing since 2020.
This is the third in a series of articles profiling the candidates:
Glad to help
Michael W. Dorrell is an admirer of the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux and her “little way” of pursuing holiness in the seemingly insignificant circumstances of each day.
“As a future deacon, I don’t have lofty goals in mind,” said Mr. Dorrell, a member of St. Bonaventure Parish in Marceline.
“I want to be available to God, the Church, and the community for even the small things and allow the Holy Spirit to lead me,” he said.
A lifelong Catholic, Mr. Dorrell was born and spent most of his childhood in Colorado.
“My father was in the Air Force so we moved around a lot in the states and overseas,” he noted.
The family always loved Marceline, where Mr. Dorrell’s father was born and raised.
“We moved back to Marceline and I finished high school here,” said Mr. Dorrell.
He met his wife, Velvet, there. They have five children.
Mr. Dorrell is a retired rural mail carrier. Mrs. Dorrell is a retired schoolteacher who now cooks for Fr. McCartan Memorial School in Marceline.
Mr. Dorrell believes being summoned to the Diaconate will give him abundant opportunities to help God draw people to himself.
“I do feel it is a calling and that there is a definite need for more clergy,” said Mr. Dorrell. “I have always been one to serve where there is a need.”
His pastor serves four parishes that have never had a permanent deacon.
“If I can help in any way to share the faith with our community, especially sacramentally, I would be honored to assist,” Mr. Dorrell stated.
He emphasized that God is the one who draws all people to himself.
“If we allow his Holy Spirit to use us as a conduit of his mercy and love, I think the opportunities will abundantly occur,” he said.
He noted that there are many people who are isolated — especially those who are homebound, in the hospital or living in rest homes — who would benefit from personal contact with an agent of the Church.
He said the Jubilee Year of Hope is a great time of blessings, with a special emphasis on reconciliation and making pilgrimages.
“For those who can’t make it to the Jubilee pilgrimage sites, I would like to encourage people to make the small pilgrimage back to their local church,” he said.
For some, it could be a homecoming.
“We have so many people who have retreated from practicing their faith, who are in need of God’s love and his mercy,” Mr. Dorrell noted. “Perhaps this Jubilee Year of Hope will be an incentive if we reach out to them.”
He pointed out that he and his classmates are still works in progress.
“Our class has studied hard, but we are just beginning to put it into practice,” he said. “Please continue to pray for us and allow us some grace, as we sometimes awkwardly perform our new duties.”
He requested prayers for a great outpouring of God’s Spirit upon him and his classmates.
“None of us are professional speakers or theologians,” said Mr. Dorrell, “but we have said our ‘yes’ to God and trust that his grace will be sufficient, as we humbly serve the people of our diocese.”
Inside and outside
While ministering in prisons, Chad R. Freie meets people who have hit rock-bottom and don’t feel worthy of forgiveness.
“I hope that I can help them see that God does love them, that he is forgiving and merciful and wants a relationship with them,” said Mr. Freie, a member of St. Clement Parish in St. Clement.
He grew up in Middletown and graduated from Wellsville Middletown High School.
He was a member of another Christian faith community when he met his future wife, Danielle.
They got married in 2003 and have a son and a daughter.
He works for the Missouri Department of Transportation as a highway maintenance crew leader.
Mr. Freie became Catholic through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults in 2015.
In high school, he dreamed of becoming a pastor, but it seemed unlikely to him because his family was not particularly close to God.
“For me, leaving the church that I was raised in was honestly one of the hardest decisions I have made,” Mr. Freie stated.
“Yet, as I came to believe in the truths of the Catholic faith, and I joined the Catholic Church, I again had that vision of serving God on the altar, and teaching the people,” he said.
As a deacon, he hopes to instruct the faithful “that our faith is an ongoing conversion drawing us into a deeper relationship with God.”
In the parish, he anticipates focusing on the ongoing formation of the faithful, encouraging parishioners to continue to grow in their faith.
He also hopes to continue serving in prison ministry for many years to come.
“It is such a blessing to take Holy Communion and share God’s love, mercy and forgiveness with those who need it,” he said. “It is also inspirational when you go inside the prison for a Residents Encounter Christ retreat and see men on fire for Jesus and who care about evangelization.”
Mr. Freie believes he can give strong witness by intensifying his own walk with Christ.
“The fact is that I, too, am in need of that ongoing conversion, and I pray that my growth can encourage others to grow,” he said.
He asked for prayers for him to live and teach the Gospel faithfully, and continue to follow wherever God calls him to go.
“I pray that I serve Christ’s Church humbly and faithfully,” he said.
Witness to hope
Keith G. Henke prays that his being ordained a deacon will bring hope to others who are discerning a vocation.
Specifically, he wants people in his parish who know him to recognize how amazing it is to serve the Lord in whichever way God is calling.
“I hope people see my love for the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and wanting to do my part in bringing these vessels of grace to them,” he said.
Mr. Henke is seeking to become a deacon in order “to serve God on the greatest stage — the altar — and to serve the people of his Church through various ministries.”
“I hope to be a humble servant-leader, to serve faithfully and to treat people with love and mercy,” said Mr. Henke, a member of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Taos.
A lifelong Catholic, Mr. Henke was born and raised in Taos.
He and his wife, Mary Jo, have been married for 32 years and have three grown children and six grandchildren.
After serving for eight years in the U.S. Navy, he came home and has been working for the state government for the past 34 years — in the Departments of Public Safety and Health and Senior Services.
Mr. and Mrs. Henke currently help with prison ministry at the Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City.
“We find this spiritually fulfilling in answering Christ’s command to visit the imprisoned,” Mr. Henke stated. “I pray to answer the bishop’s call to whatever he directs me to.”
He said his fellow members of this year’s ordination class have become brothers to him.
He was quick to note that Mrs. Henke has been his rock and strength throughout these past five years of diaconal formation.
“I couldn’t have done this without her,” he said.
He asked for prayers for him to grow always in the virtue of humility, “and that in my walk through the Diaconate, I will always keep Jesus and his mother by my side.”
“I would also like people to pray for my wife and all the wives of the men being ordained — for the strength and wisdom to help their husbands in their ministry,” he stated.
