For a decade, Deacon Frank DiGirolamo has found sacred ground in places others would avoid — the streets of Seattle’s marginalized neighborhoods where homelessness, addictions and sex trafficking exist.

Whether it’s finding a barefoot homeless man sleeping in an alley, meeting a woman tangled in trafficking, or talking and praying with someone suffering an addiction, Deacon Frank and those serving alongside him through Operation Nightwatch bring a ministry of presence, “listening first and offering an expression of God’s love.”

It’s part of his “ministry of charity” as an ordained permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

A deacon’s ministry of service is threefold: word, liturgy and charity. The first two usually happen inside the church building, where the deacon proclaims the Gospel, preaches, teaches and serves. The ministry of charity begins at the dismissal of Mass, when the congregation is sent to announce the Gospel to the world in words and deeds, Deacon Frank explained.

“A majority of what a deacon is and does is never seen by the congregation. It’s maybe seen more by people who are outside of the church,” he said.

At Operation Nightwatch, where Deacon Frank became executive director in May, “we serve the people who fall through the cracks of the cracks.”

The organization sends street ministers to 10 marginalized Seattle neighborhoods, provides hot evening meals and refers people to emergency shelter, where they can get a shower, a good night’s sleep and a hot breakfast. Many of them are chronically homeless, “thrilled to just find an emergency bed somewhere for the night.”

Operation Nightwatch also manages 24 units of housing for low-income seniors. Besides walking the halls to say hi to the residents or chatting with them when he sees them outside, Deacon Frank has breakfast with them on Friday mornings.

“It’s a joy,” he said.

Deacon Frank DiGirolamo talks with Dottie Harrell, right, and caregiver Donna Nolcini in north Seattle. (Stephen Brashear)

The call to compassion

Deacon Frank’s call to compassion and serving people on the margins began in childhood. He grew up in Russellton, Pennsylvania, a coalmining town where his parents were teachers and his grandparents lived two doors down. It was a relatively simple life, but one filled with love and support.

“I think I’m a direct product of just unconditional love and attention, so much so that I can’t contain it,” Deacon Frank said. “Everywhere I go, I see the person who maybe isn’t benefitting from being loved.”

He saw his parents live their Catholic faith “with integrity all the time,” fostering friendships, paying attention to the needs of others and never excluding anyone. He also learned about sacrifices made in love and how life can be turned upside down for anyone at a moment’s notice.

His parents gave up their ambitions in Hollywood, where his father was a writer, to move back to Russellton to provide a better life for Frank and his older brother Larry.

Then, when Frank was in third grade, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. “I got to see her just continue to love us through all of that,” he said. Frank was a freshman in college when she died. Just six years later, his dad died in his sleep.

“I was aware of the gift of a parent’s love,” Deacon Frank said. “You love when you can, and you don’t take for granted that you’re going to be around tomorrow.”

An awakening

Lessons in ecumenism came while attending Grove City College, a small liberal arts college north of Pittsburgh associated with the Presbyterian Church. “I had great friends and we focused on what we all had in common,” he said. “It prepared the Catholic to go out into the world.”

After graduating with a degree in business and marketing, he went to Los Angeles to work for Disney, training staff and traveling the country to help open new stores. It was in L.A. that he experienced “the awakening of my eventual call.”

Joining his friends for dinners in nice parts of the city, “more than once I would excuse myself because I saw somebody hanging outside on the sidewalk,” Deacon Frank said. Concerned, “I’d just go outside and talk to the person.”

Los Angeles is where Deacon Frank met his future wife, Shelley, who also worked at Disney. They married, and after their daughter Mary Elizabeth was born, they decided to leave Pasadena and move to the Northwest to be closer to family. Both ended up getting jobs at Starbucks’ Seattle corporate headquarters. He worked in human resource development at a time when the company was focusing on the concept of servant leadership, which “is really modeled after Jesus,” he said.

One day, a newly arrived executive asked Frank what he would be doing if money were no object. “It was like a moment of truth,” he recalled. As surprised as anyone, the words came out: “I’d probably be working for the Church in some way.”

Frank DiGirolamo, left, stands with other permanent deacon candidates at their ordination in 2012.

Depending on God’s providence

Within a year, he was working for his parish, St. Monica on Mercer Island.

It had come out of the blue, on Good Friday night, when a parish staffer asked if he would ever consider working for the Church. They talked about it later, and in April 2007 he began serving in parish ministry.

“It was freeing,” he said. “It was a toe in the water of depending on God’s providence, because I left a corporate salary to work in an area where we all depend on folks putting $5 at a time in the collection basket.”

He began coordinating the parish’s many ministries and focusing on stewardship as a way for parishioners to foster a relationship with Christ and participate in his ministry. That fall, someone suggested he consider applying for the permanent diaconate program.

After completing the lengthy application, including vocational and life biographies, he sent it off and prayed. “I said if nothing else ever happens, this was a great gift just to sort of consider my whole life trajectory as God’s beloved and being loved by God,” he said. “I could see how God was showing up in my life.”

Every step of diaconate formation was a unique gift, Deacon Frank said.

It’s not like entering school, he said, “it’s just continued moments of abandoning ourselves into God’s providence, offering ourselves to be instruments in  his hands.”

Spouses are included from the beginning of the inquiry phase, and some wives choose to be more involved than others. Although Shelley is not as directly involved in his ministry, she has always been supportive, Deacon Frank said. “It’s never a ‘me’ thing, it’s a ‘we’ thing. The spousal relationship always takes precedence.”

He was ordained with 21 other men on October 27, 2012, at St. James Cathedral. Even with five years of discernment and preparation, “I had no idea how it would affect really every moment of every day,” Deacon Frank said.

The gift of an ‘identity in Christ’

Becoming a deacon put him in touch with his “identity in Christ as a fellow member of the body with all my brothers and sisters,” he said. “It’s such a gift that you can walk through the world with that identity.”

After his ordination, Deacon Frank continued working at St. Monica Parish in a variety of roles, then in 2015 was hired by the archdiocese as director for deacons and senior priests, a position he held until becoming director of Operation Nightwatch.

The deacon’s ministry, he said, is “always about expanding our circle so there are no margins left.”

During the formation years, diaconate candidates try out different ministries suggested by the core team. “I was nervous about going on the streets, so that’s where they sent me. And I fell in love,”

Deacon Frank said. Even as director of Operation NIghtwatch, he still goes out on the street some nights.

“I hear the beauty of hope on the hearts of all God’s people through their suffering,” he said. “I’ve often said that the most beautiful homilies I hear are from someone who’s lived outside on the streets for 10 years and knows of God’s care.”

After a decade of ministering to those on the margins, Deacon Frank is in his comfort zone. He doesn’t expect to lead Operation NIghtwatch for 28 years like the previous director, but will continue being involved in ministry.

“I’ll always be doing that equivalent of leaving the L.A. restaurant and going outside on the sidewalk and talking to somebody,” Deacon Frank said. “We just can’t bypass each other.”

What is the permanent diaconate?

Deacons Juan Lezcano, left, and Frank DiGirolamo hold the Book of the Gospels over the head of Bishop Frank Schuster during his ordination by Archbishop Paul D. Etienne. (Stephen Brashear)

The permanent diaconate, with roots in the early Church, was restored by the Second Vatican Council and reinstated in the U.S. in 1968. Ordained to a lifelong ministry of service, permanent deacons can be married before ordination. The Archdiocese of Seattle has had nine classes of permanent deacons; the last was ordained in 2020. Today, 120 permanent deacons serve at some 81 parishes in the archdiocese. A new deacon class is being formed; an inquiry year for interested men ends in August 2023.

Permanent deacons have three ministries of service:

  • Word — Proclaiming, preaching and teaching. They may prepare couples for marriage, parents for baptisms and individuals for reception into the Catholic Church.
  • Liturgy — Serving at Mass in a variety of ways, such as proclaiming the Gospel and preparing the gifts of bread and wine at the altar. They can baptize, preside at weddings and conduct funerals.
  • Charity — Most of a deacon’s work is done outside the church, proclaiming God’s mercy, love and justice while inspiring others to do the same. Deacons can be found ministering on the streets, in hospitals, inside prisons, at food banks and elsewhere.

Learn more

To learn more, visit the permanent deacon page on the archdiocese website. Click here for details about the diaconate formation program.