Our Deacon

     The seven fields of study include: Biblical Studies (5 semesters), Liturgy or the study of the worship and sacramental rites of the church (5), Theology (4), Ministry (4), Spirituality (2), Church History (2) and Homiletics or the study of public reading and preaching (2).  Those courses and many practica (work in the field for putting into practice what is learned) equip and enable a Deacon to fulfill a fivefold ministry in the Church.  Thus he is well-prepared to carry out with confidence a sacramental, liturgical, caring and teaching ministry as well as some administrative functions at the pleasure of the Diocesan Bishop.  Altogether there are 35 functions that a Deacon may perform in the Church.

     Deacon Masulli’s first assignment from Bishop Gnat is to assist now Bishop Anthony D. Kopka, the Pastor of St. Joseph’s of Stratford.  His primary functions for the time being are to conduct the PNCC Service of Worship with Holy Communion and preach whenever the bishop is out of town or not available to offer Holy Mass; to visit and bring the Eucharist to the sick and the homebound; to assist in the teaching of the PNCC Catechism.  He will also continue assisting at Holy Mass, but will now be able to help with the distribution of Holy Communion.  Bishop Gnat is also permitting Deacon Masulli to preach one weekend each month at St. Joseph’s.

     Being the first candidate in the Diocesan Deacon Program was like being a pioneer for Deacon Masulli.  Although there are six semesters of six months each planned for the diaconal curriculum (three years of study, praying and training), it took much longer because of the difficulty of having enough instructors ready to teach the 26 courses and six practica within the prescribed time.

     Deacon Michael J. Masulli Sr. married Beth Ann Ciotti in May 1985.  The following year they joined St. Joseph’s when the church was located in the East Side of Bridgeport, Conn.  It was at that time the future deacon became very close to the Lord and began meeting with the future Bishop on a regular basis for spiritual conversation and religious discussions.

     The Masulli family includes one child, Michael Jr., who was the first baby baptized at St. Joseph’s present church after it was constructed in 1989.  He graduated in 2006 from the Agriscience and Biotechnology Center at Trumbull High School  and is attending Naugatuck Valley Community College for horticulture.

     Deacon Masulli was born in Connecticut in 1957, grew up in the Town of Monroe and graduated from Masuk High School.  He and his family reside in Stratford.  It was Beth Ann who first came to the PNCC and Mike soon followed.  They are both School of Christian Living teachers and Beth Ann regularly plans arts and crafts projects for the parish youth as well as seasonal religious programs.

     Deacon Mike served for several years as a Director on the Parish Committee and he belongs to the Young Men’s Society of Resurrection.  As a young man he served for a short time in the US Navy and in more recent times as an adult Scout leader and as a union steward.  He is employed at United Aluminum in North Haven, Conn., and previously at Feroleto Steel in Bridgeport.  Mike is an avid outdoorsman, who hunts and fishes and trains dogs for bird hunting.  The deacon is now anxious to hunt and fish for people for the Lord and His Church.

     What a blessing it has been for St. Joseph's and its pastor that Michael Masulli is a deacon serving the parish.  There was no deacon program in the Eastern Diocese when then-Father Anthony Kopka was assigned as pastor of St. Joseph's Parish in June 1982.  There was no talk at that time to recruit, teach and train men for the Order of Deacon in the Eastern Diocese, which consists of parishes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.  He has always valued what help Deacons could provide with Communion calls to the sick and the homebound, preaching and teaching, the leading of a wide variety of religious services throughout the year, and the blessing of homes after Christmas.

     In 1995 with the permission of Bishop Gnat, then-Father Kopka recruited the help of Father Robert M. Nemkovich Jr. of Fall River, Mass., to propose a program to the Eastern Diocese for the training and instruction of candidates to be ordained as Deacons.

     In 1996 at the Eastern Diocese Synod—a quadrennial convention of all clergy and lay delegates of each parish in the diocese (one delegate per 50 adult parish members)—Fathers Kopka and Nemkovich presented the framework for a program to recruit, educate and ordain qualified men to the Order of Deacon.  Their resolution received overwhelming support and a Deacon Development Committee was named with Fathers Kopka and Nemkovich as Co-Chairmen.  Working with the Bishop and the clergy of the Eastern Diocese, a comprehensive program was developed and presented at the next Diocesan Synod in 2000.  The clergy and lay delegates approved the program and it was immediately implemented with the call for candidates to apply.  Father Nemkovich was appointed by Bishop Gnat as Admissions Board Chairman and Father Kopka was named the Faculty Board Chairman.

     Other dioceses in the Polish National Catholic Church have had Diaconate Programs much longer than the Eastern Diocese.  In 2002 the Prime Bishop of the PNCC, the Most Rev. Robert M. Nemkovich Sr., established a National Diaconate Commission to standardize the program for the church.  The future Bishop Kopka was named to the five-member commission.  In June 2006 the standardization was completed for the recruitment, training and education of candidates for the Order of Deacon in the five dioceses of the PNCC.  The Eastern Diocese Deacon Program was the model for the church-wide program with almost all of its components being adopted.