TWO new permanent deacons followed their faith halfway around the world to discover their vocations in Brisbane.
Deacon Ernesto Villalba, born in Venezuela, and Deacon Adrian Eldridge, born in England, were ordained by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen’s Cathedral on November 13.
Deacon Villalba said he was “shaking like jelly but extremely happy” to be standing before the archbishop to be ordained.
Supporting him in the cathedral were his wife, two sons and daughter as well as close friends, Latin-American Catholic Community members, New Farm parishioners and members of his diaconal formation team.
Deacon Eldridge had his wife and two sons supporting him as well as members of his home parish who travelled down from Nambour.
He said he “felt Jesus very much present” during the ordination.
Deacon Eldridge’s diaconal ministry in the disability field follows from more than 30 years’ experience working with people with intellectual disabilities.
He works for the Endeavour Foundation as a home site supervisor, where he oversees the care of four adults who have intellectual disabilities and some other medical issues.
“We try to help them live in an ordinary house in an ordinary suburb of the community and participate in their own community and follow their own goals and desires,” he said.
“It’s very grounding (work).
“People with intellectual disabilities are very honest and they let you know how it is – there’s no pretence.
“It’s very humbling that people will place so much trust in you.”
He said he was hoping to bring the “presence of Christ into the lives of the people that we care for and the team members who support them”.
“There’s also a mutual giving here because Christ tells us that whatever we do for the least of his brethren we’re doing for Him; so for me, it’s meeting Christ daily.
“I must be one of the few who can say that I wash the body of Christ when I’m helping people with their personal hygiene.
“It’s very grounding and very humbling and it’s a constant reminder of the presence of Christ in our community.”
Deacon Villalba is a materials engineer specialising in metallurgy with a doctorate from the University of Queensland in corrosion.
His day job is spent investigating problems in metals, mechanics, and power – something he believes will feed into his ministry life.
He said his job was about “attention to detail” and saw that playing a part in his relationships with those he ministers to as a deacon.
New Farm parish had always been a significant part of his life in Brisbane too.
Deacon Villalba moved to Australia in 1999 to study English.
“When my wife and son arrived in Australia in the year 2000, we were living in a rented unit in New Farm and the first Mass we went together was at Holy Spirit Church,” he said.
“Twenty-one years later, I’m appointed as a deacon to the parish of New Farm, to the Holy Spirit Church.”
In those 21 years, Deacon Villalba had helped to build the Latin-American Catholic Community through ministry and hard work.
But ask him a few years ago what a deacon was and he said he would not know.
It was not until fellow Latin-American Catholic Community member Deacon Ivan Ortiz was presented to the community as a candidate for the diaconate that Deacon Villalba said he needed to go and ask about the diaconal program.
“Something was already inside me and was moving me to be a deacon,” he said.
Now ordained, he was eager to discover more about the depths of his new ministry.
“I think that’s something God is going to be showing me bit by bit,” he said.
He was a fervent believer in “just go and ask”.
“If you feel the call to be a deacon, just go there and ask the people in the program,” he said.
“Because maybe then, you’re receiving the call; it’s okay to have fears and doubts, and it’s better to be there than saying, ‘I thought you weren’t calling me when you really were calling me’.”
Deacon Eldridge’s own path to the diaconate began when he converted to the Catholic faith after a short career in the Royal Air Force.
He had never foreseen himself becoming a deacon.
When he first converted, he was drawn to the “silence and simplicity” of living as a Benedictine or Cistercian brother in a monastery.
He visited monasteries in the United Kingdom, and each time he did he found himself reading about the life of St Francis of Assisi.
“It was the way he (St Francis) gave totally with an undivided heart and pursued Christ so determinedly and wanted to conform his life to Christ so much,” he said.
“I still think that’s the thing that attracts people to St Francis so much today – that single-minded following of Christ, so much so he becomes such a reflection of Christ for us.”
After meeting his wife, Sian, an Australian, the couple decided to move to Queensland where Deacon Eldridge joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 2001.
It was after that he felt the call to the diaconate and said “it felt like a natural growth from the Gospel way of life that we try to live as secular Franciscans”.
Deacon Eldridge is now looking at studying to become a spiritual director.
The spiritual life was also of major interest to Deacon Villalba, who was drawn to the ministry of exorcism.
He had already had two weeks with the group and felt a deep calling to it.
“I know there are those people who have that inclination to work with the sick or the poor on the street, but my goal is to work with the sick but of the soul,” he said.
Both of the new deacons had nothing but gratitude for their wives, family, friends, formators and supporters throughout the diaconal formation journey.
They both said they were eager to begin sharing their journey with their communities.
