In his homily at the July 14 Funeral Mass for Father Gerard Trancone – who served in ministry to Deaf Catholics in the Washington area for nearly four decades – Father Timothy Daly paid tribute to his friend and mentor, noting that the Mass was celebrated at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church in Riverdale Park, Maryland, where Father Trancone was first assigned after his 1969 ordination to the priesthood. And he remembered what Msgr. Thomas Dade, St. Bernard’s founding pastor, said about Father Trancone’s ministry.
“Monsignor used to say, ‘Well of course he got into Deaf ministry. He’s Italian, and he always talks with his hands!”
Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory was the main celebrant at Father Trancone’s Mass of Christian Burial, and 15 priests concelebrated the Mass, including Father Min Seo Park, the chaplain to the St. Francis Deaf Catholic Church in Landover Hills, Maryland, and the Catholic chaplain at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., who also provides pastoral ministry for Deaf Catholics throughout The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
After becoming proficient in American Sign Language, Father Trancone in 1978 was appointed chaplain to the Catholic students of Gallaudet University, and he later also served as director of the archdiocesan Center for Deaf Ministries at Saint Francis of Assist Deaf Catholic Church. He served in those roles until his retirement in 2015. Father Trancone died on July 4 at the age of 80.
During the Mass, laypeople provided interpretation for the Scripture readings, prayers and songs in American Sign Language. Along with Father Park, two other priests prayed the Eucharistic prayer in ASL – Father Michael Depcik from Detroit who will be serving Deaf Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Father Shawn Carey, the director of Deaf ministry for the Archdiocese of Boston.
In remarks after Communion, Cardinal Gregory noted that some priests serve different language groups in the Archdiocese of Washington, to meet the needs of this diverse community.
“Father Jerry obviously fell in love with the Deaf community, and he decided to learn that language so that they would be part of this family (of faith) in a more direct way,” the cardinal said.
Cardinal Gregory then offered thanks to Father Trancone “for the ministry that he provided, for the service that he gave, and for the love he shared with so many.”
Father Daly, a priest of the Diocese of Orlando, Florida who formerly served as the rector of the Basilica of St. Paul in Daytona Beach, noted that he grew up in St. Bernard’s Parish and as an eighth grader first met the newly ordained Father Trancone there.
“He became a very special person in all of our lives,” Father Daly said, noting that the priest had a dramatic personality and worked with the St. Bernard’s Teen Club in staging Broadway musicals at the parish.
Noting the impact that Father Trancone had on the teens at St. Bernard’s and later through his nearly 40 years of service to the Deaf Catholic community in the archdiocese, Father Daly said, “He brought us hope, and through that hope, we saw Jesus Christ in action.”
Father Daly noted that Father Trancone was a man of prayer who was devoted to the Eucharist, and when he led St. Francis Deaf Catholic Church, he had terra cotta artwork installed behind the altar that featured handprints of the Deaf Catholics who worshiped there, symbolizing how they came together for the Eucharist.
The priest pointed out how Father Trancone took a famous quote by Blessed Columba Marmion, an Irish Benedictine monk, “Joy is the echo of God’s life in us,” and varied the wording for the Deaf Catholics he served. At the Funeral Mass, a banner hung from the lectern with the words, “Joy is the sign of God’s life in us.”
After the Mass, Mary O’Meara, the Executive Director of the Office of Deaf and Disabilities Ministries for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, reflected on the impact that Father Trancone had on her life and on the lives of Deaf Catholics in the archdiocese.
“Father Jerry was larger than life,” O’Meara wrote in an email to the Catholic Standard. “He was the first person I met at Gallaudet, when I started there in 1984 as a first-year graduate student. He had me at hello. Father Jerry welcomed me to the Deaf Catholic Community without hesitation. I shared with him that I grew up in New England in a very small Irish parish and had never lived more than an hour from home. ‘Well welcome home then,’ he said. ‘We are your parish and your home.’ I never looked back. His welcome and deep joy were infectious to each of us Gallaudet students from all over the USA and the world. Gallaudet is the only liberal arts university for the Deaf in the world, and the seedbed for Catholic Deaf vocations universally. Father Jerry’s reach and impact changed many of our lives for the better.”
O’Meara also noted, “In 1998, I found myself working full time for the Archdiocese of Washington, side by side with Father Jerry. For a second time, his infectious love of the Lord and of the ministry with and by Deaf persons became my model and my norm. The inclusion of Deaf persons in the life of the Church here in the Archdiocese of Washington is all down to Father Jerry’s determination and love. I pray to impart a fraction of the advocacy Father Jerry shared over a lifetime of ministry. There could be no better role model.”
See related story: Father Gerard Trancone, longtime chaplain to Deaf community, dies at age 80
