Deacon called to serve others

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
August 31, 2006

ALGONA - Deacon Bob Larsen explained the ministry of the permanent diaconate in simple terms. He described it as a ministry of service.

"Whatever needs to be done in the area of service, that's what we are called to do," said the deacon. "We are ordained to serve."

A native of DeWitt in Eastern Iowa, he was ordained in June of 1984 to the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Davenport.

"We take a vow of obedience to the bishop," noted Deacon Larsen. "Deacons are ordained to the bishop and not to a particular parish. Sometimes I think that is a misconception."

While Larsen and his wife moved to Algona in 1999, he was only recently incardinated into the Diocese of Sioux City.

David Lopez, diocesan director of the diaconate, pointed out that whenever someone is ordained, they are automatically incardinated where they are ordained. Then if the cleric leaves one diocese permanently, they generally request to become incardinated in the diocese where they live and work.

He mentioned that incardination is a protection for the church against someone who is pretending to be a cleric or against a cleric who is not in good standing. Lopez acknowledged that rarely does someone try to deceive the church and usually the ministry in which the cleric has been involved looks the same before and after the official incardination.

This process generally takes several years and Lopez believes that is intentional to allow time for examination of the person coming in.

"The person who is coming in, the cleric, is responsible for requesting incardination. You request incardination in the new diocese. At the same time, you request excardination from the old diocese," said Lopez. "It makes a commitment, not just to the church but to the church in this diocese."

After the bishops receive their letters, the prelates communicate and make the decision.

Larsen's ministry hasn't changed since the incardination, but now there is that official commitment.

The deacon is no stranger to this procedure as he was incardinated into the diocese once before. Jobs brought the Larsens to Carroll in the early 1990s with Bob working at Kuemper Catholic High School as coach and theology teacher and Lorri serving at St. Lawrence Church. He served in this diocese from 1992 to 1995.

He was reincardinated in Davenport after returning to his home diocese.

"When I came back here in 1999, Bishop DiNardo gave me permission to serve as a deacon and the faculties of a deacon. We didn't do the formal transfer right away," explained Deacon Larsen, who added that time went by and eventually he thought he better check out the formal transfer process once again. "We plan on staying in Algona and in the Sioux City Diocese, so after a discussion with Bishop Nickless I would request incardination."

Once again, Deacon Larsen is officially a deacon of the Diocese of Sioux City.

Presently, the deacon works in ministry at Bishop Garrigan High School and at St. Cecelia Church, both in Algona. At Bishop Garrigan, Deacon Larsen serves as the pastoral director of the K-12 system and he teaches theology and economics. In the parish, he is the business manager and oversees much the work related to the building and grounds. While Deacon Larsen happens to work at a Catholic school and in the parish, many deacons work in the secular world.

"I started moving from full-time teaching, doing more parish work when we moved back to Iowa City in 1995," noted the deacon. "Lorri had been very active as the director of religious education and she became a pastoral associate there. Our ministries went hand in hand."

With that in mind, the Larsens last two career moves were made when positions were available for both of them. Lori works at St. Cecelia in Algona as a pastoral associate.

Along with his job-related business duties at the parish, he is involved in numerous ministries as a deacon.

"The preaching and the weddings that I do - that's my diaconal ministry," noted Deacon Larsen. "I have been very fortunate that the pastors that I have worked with have allowed me to do all the ministries in which a deacon is able to do. I preach on a regular basis. I do baptisms on a regular basis. This year I already have 10 or 12 weddings that I will be doing. I assist Father Eisele at funerals."

Pastoral outreach is also a strong element to his ministry. He visits patients in the hospital at two to three times a week.

"One of the ministries that my wife and I do together is visiting the homebound. You get to know the people who are a little older," said the deacon. "We go to the nursing homes and visit people in their homes."

Given the mission to serve, deacons usually sign a ministerial agreement with the parish where the pastor identifies areas in which he would like the deacon to serve.

Both the joyful and sorrowful times in ministry have been meaningful to Deacon Larsen.

"I truly enjoy doing baptisms. It is a very joyous time and I enjoy preaching because when you prepare for preaching you learn a lot about yourself and a lot about your faith. You hope that in some way you can pass that faith on to others," he said. "Preaching is teaching."

While interacting with people in the hospitals and at funerals can be a challenge, those are the times when other people's faith often teaches him.

He acknowledged that it may be the teacher in him, but the deacon said he is a strong believer in continuing education to ensure that he grows in ministering abilities.

"It's like anything else, if we get to the point where we don't try to grow then it become stagnant," said Deacon Larsen. "I tell people that they should always work to learn more about their faith and if they don't know something, ask questions."

Given that Lorri is involved in ministry, the two have attended some conferences together. He mentioned that she is very supportive of his diaconate ministry.

Prior to his ministry in the diaconate, they were both involved in religious education. After a visit to see Pope John Paul II in Des Moines in the late 1970s, they both knew they wanted to increase their involvement in the church. Shortly thereafter he started in the formation process for the diaconate and in that particular program the wives were required to take classes as well.

The couple's children are grown now, but he mentioned the diaconate positively impacted the faith of the entire family. At the time of his ordination his children ranged from 8 to 15. The Larsens now have four grandchildren with another on the way.