DUNWOODIE, N.Y. — As a young boy in the Dominican Republic, David Rodriguez said he and his brother used to play Mass at home, with their father’s white shirt serving as vestments. His brother always got to be the priest. 

On Nov. 7, Rodriguez no longer had to pretend as he was ordained to the transitional diaconate alongside five other men at St. Joseph’s Seminary, bringing him one step closer to the priesthood.  

“Coming in (to the ordination), I thought I was going to be very nervous,” Deacon Rodriguez said. “As I came in, I didn’t become too nervous, but more I started crying, which is a different feeling.” 

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Deacon Rodriguez was ordained by Bishop John Barres of Rockville Centre and will serve at Resurrection Ascension-Our Lady of the Angelus Parish in Rego Park. 

Three other men ordained will serve Diocese of Brooklyn parishes — Stephen Jankowski, John Ngo and Louis de Rohan Chabot. Kevin Rueda was ordained for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, while Brother Andrew Richards was ordained for the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a community of priests and brothers under the Diocese of Brooklyn who live and minister together in the tradition of St. Philip Neri. 

The ordination Mass was concelebrated by Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop James Massa, Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros, Archbishop Emeritus Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa-Cornwall in Canada, members of the seminary faculty, and diocesan priests. 

During the ordination rite, the six men publicly declared their commitment to the ministry before lying prostrate as the congregation prayed the Litany of the Saints. 

For Deacon John Ngo, who was born in Vietnam and is now preparing to serve Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in Bayside, that moment was particularly powerful. 

“I feel like all the saints in Heaven are praying for me,” Deacon Ngo said. 

The men then knelt before Bishop Barres, who laid his hands on each of their heads in the central act of ordination. 

Deacon Ngo said that as the bishop’s hands rested upon him, he felt “the grace of the Holy Spirit pour upon my head and through my soul.” 

The newly ordained deacons were then vested with the stole and dalmatic and presented with the Book of the Gospels, signs of the ministry they had just received. 

In his homily, Bishop Barres encouraged the newly ordained deacons to reflect on the experiences and moments of faith that shaped their journeys to the altar. 

“Each of the men before us who have experienced diaconate ordination today are called uniquely and individually,” Bishop Barres said, while emphasizing that their individual vocations are part of the broader mission of their parishes, dioceses, religious communities, and the universal Church. 

For Deacon Louis de Rohan Chabot, that journey began in his hometown of Rennes, France, where he first experienced what he described as subtle calls to the priesthood throughout his childhood and teenage years. He studied business and worked for several years before realizing that discernment would require him to make a decision of his own. 

“I was expecting a certainty, which was not coming,” Deacon de Rohan Chabot said. “I realized that was probably not God’s method to give me a certainty, but he was expecting me to make a leap of freedom.” 

After a missionary experience following college gave him a sense of joy and peace, Deacon de Rohan Chabot discerned that if he was called to the priesthood, he wanted to give himself fully to that vocation. He will begin his diaconal ministry at St. Mary’s of Winfield in Woodside. 

“I had to be given fully to try to experience the Gospel in a radical way, to leave my land and to go to a new country,” he said. 

For Deacon Stephen Jankowski, the first signs of a vocation came much closer to home, and much earlier — while serving as an altar server at St. Saviour Church in Park Slope. 

“I think I felt the call when I was young… but I kept on fighting it,” Deacon Jankowski said. “It wasn’t until I was in high school that I really got the sense that this was the direction God was calling me for.” 

Deacon Jankowski will serve St. Barbara Church in Bushwick. 

His mother, Gloria Jankowski, remembers hearing about that calling even earlier. 

“It was not something that I was pushing,” she said. “He just came to me with a vocation when he was six years old.” 

Watching her son reach the transitional diaconate after years of formation was “a very spiritual moment,” she said. 

“It’s a long journey, but I’m very, very proud and grateful to all of the guidance and the support he’s had during this journey,” Gloria said. 

Now ordained, the men will spend the coming months serving their respective parishes as they prepare for priestly ordination in June 2027.