Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano

March 1, 2024 Announcement:

Dcn. Gaspar DeGaetano turned 75 on December 2, 2023. The Church requires all her ministers to submit letters of retirement at age 75. Archbishop Fabre has now granted Dcn. Gaspar’s request to retire. As Dcn. Gaspar is stepping back from his active ministry as a deacon, we thank him for all his charitable work, and especially for his contributions to the Cause of Fr. Patrick Ryan. We wish Gaspar well as he enjoys his retirement.
 

Deacon Gaspar was born in 1948 in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City on western Long Island. He grew up there and in the eastern suburbs on the Island. He feels that the short break from public school he had at St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church School in Brooklyn, where he also received his initiation sacraments, was a high point in his education. He studied electrical engineering in Boston and worked for the Long Island utility company. Married in 1971 to Barbara, they settled on Long Island.

In 1979, an offer from TVA to work in their solar energy program in Chattanooga brought them and their children Pam and Joe to Tennessee, where they settled in Hidden Harbor and became parishioners at St Jude Church. Deacon Gaspar has held an engineer's license in both NY and then TN. Already in deacon formation, he retired from TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 2004.

He was ordained Deacon by the now Archbishop Joseph Kurtz in 2007.

In 2005, Deacon Gaspar became RCIA coordinator at St Jude, until transferring to Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in 2015. Deacon Gaspar likes to preach, preside at holy hours, weddings, and baptisms. He is involved in pro-life, charity and home visitation program outreach activities for the Parish.

He particularly enjoys singing the deacon parts of the Mass at the Basilica.



He is very thankful that both Pam and Joe and their families have settled here. Especially since he lost Barbara in 2018, his beloved wife of 47 years, and someone who was so deeply involved in Church work way before him. Pam, Jesse, and their daughter Ellen also live in Hidden Harbor. Joe, Heather, and their daughter Lucie live in north Chattanooga. Deacon Gaspar and Barbara had traveled extensively, especially in Italy and organized parish pilgrimages. Since Barbara’s passing, Deacon Gaspar is staying involved in pilgrimage activities.

He has been honored to serve, since June 2016, as the Vice Postulator for the Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Father Patrick Ryan, former Pastor of the Parish of Sts. Peter and Paul from 1872-1878, when Fr. Ryan gave his life as a model of charity in action during the yellow fever epidemic. Deacon Gaspar is to be appointed to the newly named position of Diocesan Postulator for Father Ryan’s Cause in 2020.

At his home in Hidden Harbor, Deacon Gaspar enjoys cooking and growing many types of plants in his garden and sunroom.