MUNSTER – Deacon Steven Caraher has been involved with theater since the fourth grade, but he’ll take the biggest stage in his life this weekend when he is ordained a priest for the Diocese of Gary at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels on June 1.
His first assignment as a priest, effective July 1, will be as associate pastor at Holy Martyrs Parish and Our Lady of Consolation, both in Merrillville.
At his ordination, Deacon Caraher looks ahead to the bishop anointing his hands with oil, which symbolizes the Lord's presence to help with the priest's work, and the oil being wiped off with a linen cloth called a Manitou Geum, which he will present to his mother at his first Mass.
“I had a lot of nerves and butterflies being ordained as a deacon last year because it required making some big commitments, but I am looking forward to entering into the liturgy and being committed in a deeper way now,” he added. “When the bishop rubs the Holy Chrism on my hands it means my hands are being consecrated to consecrate the Eucharist.”
What the Munster native is most looking forward to as a priest is celebrating his first Mass, which he will do at 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 2 at his home parish, St. Thomas More, and hearing confessions.
“St. Thomas More is the place that nourished me during my childhood and it will be a really special moment for my first Mass with my family and friends there. I have asked the vicar general, Father Chris Stanish, to preach the homily.
“I’ve been going to Mass my whole life, serving at the altar and learning about the Eucharist and who it is, sustaining my faith life. In the seminary I really found the rhythm of my life and my identity was formed in the Mass as a deacon,” said the St. Thomas School (2010), Munster High School (2014) and Indiana University (2018) graduate who spent two years at St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Illinois before earning a philosophy degree from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit this spring.
“I also look forward to hearing confessions, especially for someone who hasn’t been to confession for 30-40 years and questions whether Jesus can forgive them. It doesn’t matter how far we’ve strayed from Him, He is so ready to forgive us, and I will get to say those words,” Deacon Caraher, 28, said.
While Deacon Caraher expressed sincere gratitude for the “band of brothers” he found among his seminary classmates as they all “tried to figure out their vocation, talking and thinking about where God is,” he gained invaluable experience during his summer assignments, which varied widely.
“I got to know the diversity of the diocese, serving in six parishes from St. Peter in LaPorte to St. John the Evangelist in St. John, as a Totus Tuus leader in 2018,” recalled Deacon Caraher. “There is no façade with children, and you know it if you don’t have their attention. I got to use my theater skills and had to be ‘on’ all the time, which is intense, but it was so special to bring them the Lord.”
The summer of 2019 was spent at St. Paul in Valparaiso, “the first time I spent quality time in a parish other than my own,” the deacon noted. “It was great to watch Father Doug Mayer ministering as he took me to meetings and showed me the administrative and pastoral aspects. He is good interacting with kids and I saw his joy in being a priest.”
Far from being a ‘lost summer,’ 2020 offered Deacon Caraher and his classmate, Deacon Zach Glick, about six months during the COVID-19 pandemic working together at the St. Thomas More rectory setting up livestreaming for Masses and creating a podcast for quarantined parishioners. “I appreciated the community life that we developed with Father Mike Yadron, pastor, and then-seminarian Robert Ross, too,” Deacon Caraher noted.
Literally ‘back on the streets’ in 2021, Deacon Caraher spent a 30-day silent retreat in South Dakota before heading to Michigan City “to see the Lord’s grace at work” as a volunteer with Christ in the City ministers interacting with the homeless. “I saw the humanity of the poor, who are not that different from the rest of us. We are all broken in different ways,” he said. “We were meeting their physical needs and the needs of just being a friend. They have dignity even if they are living on the streets, suffering from drug use or mental illness.”
Deacon Caraher was evaluated for his interactions with parish life during an internship at St. John the Evangelist in 2022. “I worked with Connect groups – couples and families that get together to share fellowship, testimonials, food and faith,” noted the deacon, who added, “I will probably steal a bunch of good ideas I found at St. John.”
Last summer he “got my feet under me as a minister,” performing two baptisms and a funeral as a deacon at Queen of All Saints and St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan City, also accompanying pastor Father David Kime on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. “We chatted about my ministry in the diocese and what it will look like,” he said. “Father Dave is such a joyful priest.”
Proud to be “the first son of St. Thomas More to become a priest for the diocese,” Deacon Caraher remembers “feeling awkward and stiff” when he first approached preaching, but believes his opportunities at Sunday Masses during the past year have found him “getting stronger, with homilies coming together quicker, deeper and richer. It is amazing how clearly the Lord speaks.”
Caption: Transitional deacon Steven Caraher carries the Book of Gospels during Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary on May 19. Caraher, a native of Munster and St. Thomas More parish, completed seminary studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detoit and awaits ordination to the priesthood, set for June 1 at the cathedral. (Anthony D. Alonzo photo)