Elisabeth Heslop
Step closer
to dream of
priesthood
When he was a kid, Victor DeGagné wanted to be an architect.
Now, after 10 years away, the farm kid from Crozier has returned to his home town for “the biggest moment of my life so far.”
This past Sunday (May 24), DeGagné was ordained as a deacon, through the Diocese of Thunder Bay, at his home parish of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Fort Frances.
DeGagné, 29, said it was very important for him to come back home for this special day.
“Family is very important to me,” he remarked in an interview last week. “This is where my family is and this is where most of my friends are.
“There is always something about coming back to your roots and coming back home that really means a lot to me.
“Although I’ve been away for most of the last 10 years, I’ve never forgotten where I’ve come from and I’ve never forgotten the people who helped me along this way.
“Coming back home,” he added, “is my way of showing the appreciation and gratitude I have to all of those who helped me get where I am today.”
DeGagné is the first to be ordained to a “priestly vocation” in this area since the Diocese of Thunder Bay was created in 1952.
“We don’t ever recall an ordination like this in Fort Frances,” said Yves DeGagné, Victor’s father, adding it was “very special for the people.”
DeGagné’s earliest career thoughts were for the priesthood.
“Everybody goes through that stage in a Catholic school—Grade 2, Grade 3, all the boys want to be priests, all the girls want to be nuns,” he noted. “It’s just a normal Catholic thing.”
He was an altar server in church, and people told him that he would make a good priest some day, but what really inspired him was architecture.
“That’s what my focus was,” he said. “There was something about that that I just loved.”
“He had some books and rulers in his room,” his dad remembered. “He has that kind of mind.”
So how does one go from architect to priest? When he was 16, his first nephew was born, and DeGagné said that standing in the hospital, holding the infant, he came to a turning point in his life.
“To hold him for that first time, and see the new life that was there, the fact that at this point in his life, every door lay open and he could do anything that he wanted in life—that challenged me to say, ‘Where am I going and what am I going to do with my life?’”
DeGagné started talking with his parents about it, and people still said to him, “Have you ever thought of being a priest?”
“That’s when I started really taking it seriously,” he said.
Now, after four years studying philosophy and Catholic studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., and then six years studying at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ont. for his Masters of Divinity, DeGagné is on the way to fulfilling that dream.
Being ordained as a deacon is “the major step along the road to priesthood,” he explained, adding he has one more year of studies before he can be ordained as a priest.
But being a deacon is about more than a stepping stone in a career path, DeGagné stressed.
“Being a deacon is really about service to the people, and reaching out to the poor and the neglected in the community,” he remarked. “You put your life at the service of others, so it’s really about putting others ahead and your own preferences take second place.
“You are really meant to be at the disposal of the people and to help them in their journey toward God.”
That could be a difficult thing to ask of anyone but he said, for the most part, he is OK with that.
“Sometimes there is a little doubt there—can I really do what is being asked of me? Will I have the courage to be that voice [of Christ] in the community or in the world?
“That’s kind of a big responsibility,” he admitted. “But at the same time, my faith and my education tell me that I can.
“Ultimately, God is in charge, regardless of my own faults and failings,” DeGagné added. “It brings great consolation because I don’t have to be perfect, no one has to be perfect.”
For the immediate future, DeGagné will serve as a deacon at St. Dominic’s Church in Thunder Bay, assisting the priest there, but in the long-term, he has goals for his future work.
“I want to be able to be that presence of Christ in the community,” he stressed. “To be the best person that I can be so that I can help others, to bring hope, to bring joy.
“Just to be a good priest.”
In school, DeGagné studied complex theological issues for years, “but the everyday situation—that’s where we’re really needed.”
The challenge now, he added, will be learning to take on that role.
“It’s going to be a steep learning curve,” he conceded. “The expectations from the people are going to be greater . . . now that I’m not just a seminary student.”
Down the road, as a priest, DeGagné said his greatest challenge likely will be that there is a shortage of priests, especially in a northern diocese like this one. And that shortage means there is “so much to be done.”
According to his father, though, the organized frame of mind that would have served his son well as an architect also will be a great benefit as a deacon and, later, as a priest.
“He has a good memory so when someone asks a question, instead of going back to the catechism or the Bible, he will know the answer,” his dad said.
“It should serve him well.”
For now, DeGagné is enjoying a few days at home with his family before beginning his service at St. Dominic’s, which he said will be an interesting challenge since he is French and St. Dominic’s is one of the few Italian parishes in Thunder Bay.
