Deacon Jim Merle
Dear St. John Paul II Parishioners –
It is an honor for me to serve as a deacon at St. John Paul II Polish Center unofficially since August of 2018 when Father Zibi asked for my assistance. In January 2020, I was assigned here by Bishop Kevin Vann in tandem with serving at St. Joseph, Placentia. In November 2023 I became a full-time deacon for the Polish Center.
Though I have shared snippets of who I am in the last 6-1/2 years through homilies I have given at weekend English Masses, I thought you might want to know some basics of my background and my personal and faith involvements here and at the Diocese of Orange offices.
I was born on the north side of the City of Chicago two blocks from Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. Most of my education though college was in Chicago, including a two-year high school stint at Quigley Preparatory Seminary for the priesthood. The longest job I held in Chicago was with the Chicago Tribune in various capacities as a writer/reporter.
My wife, Candi, and I met while performing in a musical near the famous Second City comedy club. After a six-month courtship, we married 57 years ago and started a family beginning with our son followed by his three younger sisters. After seven years of marriage, we moved to California, living in La Mirada for 21 years and now 29 years in Brea. Our children are grown, married and producers of ten grandchildren (one died in 2018 of illness). In the last nine years, we have been blessed with six great grandchildren.
I was ordained April 30, 2005, by Bishop Tod Brown and served seven years at St. Angela Merici in Brea. In 2012 I was asked to transfer to St. Joseph in Placentia and in 2020 to serve in tandem at St. John Paul II Polish Center. My parish involvements have centered on Baptism, weddings, vigils, funerals, gravesides, Confirmations, Faith Formation, annulments, teaching liturgical classes and wherever needed.
My diocesan involvements are in liturgical areas of worship as a Master of Ceremonies at Confirmations, ordinations, installations and other ceremonies. I also renewed my Advanced Master Catechist Certification for an additional 10 years in 2017 to teach theological and certification classes in the diocese.
Five years ago, I resigned as coordinator of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) diocesan board after 14 years. CCHD is the domestic social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which distribute parishioners’ donations for non-profit organizations to empower the impoverished, marginalized and disenfranchised who have social justice needs.
In January of 2020, I was elected for a three-year term and renewed for another three-year term on the Diaconate Personnel Board. I was a founding committee member of the God’s Servants’ Committee (a diocesan educational component of quarterly meetings for diocesan deacons) and spearheaded a diocesan program I wrote for deacons to introduce, identify, develop and implement Gospel Justice that addresses root causes of social justice issues needed to be corrected and to make systemic changes while working in the seven deaneries. Starting this January, the Diaconate Director selected me to head up a Deanery Council of Deacons and their wives to support their ordination faculties and activities in each of the seven deaneries.
Lastly, I started a blog entitled: “A Catholic Deacon’s Perspective” in 2019 with the original purpose to take a three-year cycle of A, B and C Gospels and readings from each Sunday and provide a perspective as it pertains to our current lives as seen through the eyes of a Catholic deacon who for the last 19-1/2 year has served Catholics in words and deeds per his ordination. The intention was and still is to help all those who read the blog to find the purpose for which God created them and in turn to use the God-given gifts and talents they possess to fulfill that purpose. It is offered online at the parish at no cost.
My purpose for writing this is to be present to you as it pertains to my active participation as a deacon on parish and diocesan levels. To answer, as best I can, any questions you have about those areas in our Church and to share some of my involvements.
Please pray for me as I will pray for all of you.
God Bless,
Deacon Jim Merle