Mother of Dolors Parish in Vandalia achieved a welcome addition to its 171-year history Saturday, April 30, when parishioner Zachary Edgar was ordained a transitional deacon by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. Deacon Edgar is the first Dolors parishioner to be ordained.
The new deacon is the son of Kim and Paula Edgar of Vandalia, who are both converts to Catholicism. His little sister, Hannah, 21, goes to college in Edwardsville. Deacon Edgar graduated from Vandalia High School, and studied elementary education at SIU-Edwardsville for two years before entering Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.
Deacon Edgar usually played the organ at Mass in his home parish, as well as for weddings. “That is how I got to know some of the priests in our diocese,” he said. “Youth ministry was certainly at the heart of everything when I was growing up. In my freshman year, January 2000, it was my first time to go to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. I’ve since been there three times.
“Certainly Becky Bauerle, our youth minister, former pastors Father Stephen Sotiroff and Father Delix Michel, and present pastor Father Joseph Havrilka had an impact on my decision to become a priest,” says Deacon Edgar.
“But it was Father John Titus, when he was the diocese’s vocation director, who finally convinced me at least to go look at the seminary (Kenrick) — and that convinced me I wanted to give it a shot.
“I was one of those little kids who would play Mass. So the priesthood has always been on the front or back burner in my mind. Becky and many others certainly kept it on the front burner during my youth. But the moment when the light went on was when I visited the seminary in the fall of 2005.
“After two years there I am a candidate for holy orders, and God-willing, will be ordained to the priesthood in 2012,” Deacon Edgar said.
During his first year of theology he helped at St. Sabina Parish, in Florissant, Mo., and in his second year of theology he served at Our Lady of the Presentation, in Overland, Mo.
“This past summer I was with Father Tom Donovan, when he moved from Ss. Mary and Joseph, Carlinville, to St. Aloysius, Springfield. I’ve seen both sides — leaving a parish and coming to a new parish. When I was at Our Lady of the Presentation, the pastor there also had moved. I’ve seen parishioners’ reactions to the moves.”
He is presently teaching second grade, during the school year at St. Joseph Parish in Imperial, Mo., while in the seminary.
Deacon Denny Baker, at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Mt. Zion, vested Deacon Edgar at his ordination. “Denny and I have done a lot of work together in Teens Encounter Christ.”
Deacon Edgar will assist at his first Mass as a transitional deacon on May 1, at Mother of Dolors, Vandalia, with a small reception for the parish family afterward.