Three Salesians Ordained Deacons

Three Salesians Ordained Deacons

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, Latin-rite apostolic administrator of Jerusalem, on June 14 ordained Bro. Leonard Carlino, Bro. Steven DeMaio, and Bro. Craig Spence as transitional deacons. The ordinations were celebrated at the Church of All Nations in Gethsemane, Jerusalem

Deacons Steve DeMaio, Craig Spence, and Lenny Carlino

The three new deacons are members of the New Rochelle Province and have been studying theology for three years at the Ratisbonne Monastery in Jerusalem, which is affiliated with the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome. Because of current travel restrictions, their families were not able to attend the ordinations.      

Four other Salesians were ordained with Bros. Steve, Lenny, and Craig. All seven look forward to priestly ordination next spring or summer.

Deacon Lenny Carlino, 29, is a native of Hauppauge, N.Y. His parents are Leonard Sr. and Linda Carlino, and he has one brother.

Lenny entered candidacy at Orange, N.J., in 2009 and made his novitiate in Rosemead, Calif., in 2012-2013, professing first vows on August 16, 2013. He made his perpetual vows on August 17, 2019.

Bro. Lenny continued his college studies at Seton Hall University, and in 2015-2017 did practical training at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, La., where he taught Scripture to freshmen.

He says that being in the Holy Land has been a great experience for him, opening up the stories of both Old and New Testaments.

This past school year he ministered at the Good Shepherd Filipino Catholic Community, a direct chaplaincy connected with the Vicariate for Migrants. He served as an acolyte at their Sunday Mass, led catechesis sessions, and sat on their executive board. During the recent Covid-19 lockdown, Brother Lenny and the Salesian community livestreamed a private Mass from the monastery for the Filipino community.

This summer Deacon Lenny will exercise his diaconal ministry at St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester, N.Y.

For the future, Deacon Lenny aspires “to witness, through service, to God’s love for all people, especially the young and poorest among them.”

Deacon Steve DeMaio, 35, is originally from Sherman, Conn. His parents, Steven and Theresa DeMaio, now live in Ave Maria, Fla. He has an older sister, Melanie Hecht, and a younger one, Erika DeMaio.

Deacon Steve first became acquainted with the Salesians when he was serving as a lay missioner with the Salesian Sisters in Zambia. The Salesians of Don Bosco had a work nearby, and the joyful witness to a life of faith by so many Salesian sisters, brothers, and priests demonstrated to him through word and deed that a life of faith is not something complicated but consists in doing the ordinary with great love alongside young people and their families.

After returning to the U.S., Steve decided to become a Salesian in order “to live a life of service” and to give his own witness to “a joyful life of faith” like what he’d experienced in Zambia.

He entered the formation program in Orange in 2010, was admitted to the novitiate at Rosemead in August 2011, and made his first profession on August 21, 2012. He made perpetual vows on September 7, 2018.

After postnovitiate formation in Orange and studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, Bro. Steve did three years of practical training at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y. (2014-2017), teaching theology for two years and serving as campus minister for one year.

In Jerusalem, last year he did apostolic work at Our Lady of Valor Pastoral Center in Tel-Aviv, which ministers to thousands of migrant Catholics in the area, and he will continue that next year.

This summer he will minister as deacon in the Salesian parish and summer camp of St. Philip Benizi in Belle Glade, Fla.

Eventually he hopes to continue ministering as a Salesian priest in high schools. He has already used music to spread the Gospel and the Salesian message and aspires to “use social media as an evangelizing tool.”

Deacon Craig Spence, 43, is the son of Marcia Bickford and Chuck Spence and comes originally from Mobile, Ala., but later made his home in Pass Christian, Miss. He has a younger brother, Patrick, and a younger sister, Maggie.

Craig came to the Salesians as a lay missioner in 2001, serving first at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J. (where your humble blogger was the SDB community treasurer). After DBT’s closure in June 2002, Craig moved to Mary Help of Christians Parish in New York City for a second year as a lay missioner, after which he continued as a paid youth minister (the only one on the Lower East Side). He was a multi-faceted and much appreciated YM.

After the archdiocese closed Mary Help, and after a period of discernment, Craig entered Salesian formation at Orange in 2011, made his novitiate in Rosemead in 2012-2013, and professed first vows on August 16, 2013. He made his perpetual vows on August 17, 2019.

Bro. Craig completed his practical training at Salesian High School in New Rochelle in 2015-2017, teaching freshman religion and being heavily involved in youth ministry, including midnight run, weekly trips to the soup kitchen at Holy Rosary Parish in Port Chester, and a variety of monthly oratory-types of experiences for the students.

Deacon Craig lists Scripture as his favorite study. He enjoys living in the Holy Land, where our Christian faith had its beginnings. His apostolic work has been with Filipino migrants.

This summer he’ll exercise his diaconal ministry in the Salesian parish and summer camp of Mary Help of Christians in Tampa.