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Fond du Lac Reporter - Loud and clear: Deaf priest hears God's calling
When Carmelo Giuffre told his mother he was going to become a priest later in life she answered, "What were you waiting for?"
Milwaukee-born and raised in a Sicilian family, the Rev. Giuffre joins Holy Family Parish in Fond du Lac as its fifth Catholic priest.
He will serve St. Joseph's Church located on the corner of South Marr and East Second Streets.
Profoundly deaf, Giuffre said he has seen God's hand working through his life to bring him to this point. His parents, who didn't know he was deaf until age 5, when he entered kindergarten, told him he could do anything despite his differences.
"I try to break open the word (of God) using stories in a way people can understand," Giuffre said. "There's a lot of loneliness in the world right now and people deal with it using destructive behavior. The answer is to approach it with faith."
Giuffre graduated in 1984 from Milwaukee School of Engineering with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in the field for 13 years. His love of sports lead him to a job refereeing basketball, football and softball games for public and private schools in the Milwaukee area.
He played organ for his parish church, Corpus Christi, located on Milwaukee's northwest side and for a while attended Milwaukee Area Technical College with the thought of becoming an architect.
"My father had an idea that I could design houses and then he would build them," Giuffre said.
But all the while he couldn't stop thinking about what he describes as "the calling."
"The thoughts of becoming a priest never leave you, even though you are working and living. It's something that's' difficult to explain," Giuffre said.
After his brother became a priest Giuffre made the same decision himself and attended Cardinal Stritch College in Milwaukee where he studied religion and philosophy.
He was ordained on May 18 at St. John the Evangelist Church in St. Francis. Fond du Lac is his first assignment.
Father "Carmelo" as he calls himself, said it was a spiritual director that told him he could use his deafness to help others communicate.
"He convinced me it wouldn't be a hindrance but a blessing, that God created it as a sensitivity I can use to reach a lot of people," he said.
Father Pat Heppe, priest moderator at Holy Family, believes Giuffre brings with him a keen sense of teamwork from his years in the business world as well as a kindness and compassion that stems from living with a disability.
"We have a number of parishioners who are hearing impaired. I think Father Carmelo can offer to them a ministry of understanding," Heppe said.
Giuffre's role as a priest is aided by the use of a telephone with captions and enhanced technology that wasn't available two years ago.
"A lot of people have a hesitancy when they learn I am deaf, but I'm a proficient lip-reader. And with my hearing aid, I have 15-20 percent hearing," Giuffre said.
The new priest said he likes to laugh a lot, ride his bike, watch professional football and — with a touch of self-effacing humor — eat Italian food.
He plays classical music and is drawn to the works of Bach.
"I don't hear what I'm playing but I feel the vibrations, that's one of the gifts God has given me," he said.
When Carmelo Giuffre told his mother he was going to become a priest later in life she answered, "What were you waiting for?"
Milwaukee-born and raised in a Sicilian family, the Rev. Giuffre joins Holy Family Parish in Fond du Lac as its fifth Catholic priest.
He will serve St. Joseph's Church located on the corner of South Marr and East Second Streets.
Profoundly deaf, Giuffre said he has seen God's hand working through his life to bring him to this point. His parents, who didn't know he was deaf until age 5, when he entered kindergarten, told him he could do anything despite his differences.
"I try to break open the word (of God) using stories in a way people can understand," Giuffre said. "There's a lot of loneliness in the world right now and people deal with it using destructive behavior. The answer is to approach it with faith."
Giuffre graduated in 1984 from Milwaukee School of Engineering with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in the field for 13 years. His love of sports lead him to a job refereeing basketball, football and softball games for public and private schools in the Milwaukee area.
He played organ for his parish church, Corpus Christi, located on Milwaukee's northwest side and for a while attended Milwaukee Area Technical College with the thought of becoming an architect.
"My father had an idea that I could design houses and then he would build them," Giuffre said.
But all the while he couldn't stop thinking about what he describes as "the calling."
"The thoughts of becoming a priest never leave you, even though you are working and living. It's something that's' difficult to explain," Giuffre said.
After his brother became a priest Giuffre made the same decision himself and attended Cardinal Stritch College in Milwaukee where he studied religion and philosophy.
He was ordained on May 18 at St. John the Evangelist Church in St. Francis. Fond du Lac is his first assignment.
Father "Carmelo" as he calls himself, said it was a spiritual director that told him he could use his deafness to help others communicate.
"He convinced me it wouldn't be a hindrance but a blessing, that God created it as a sensitivity I can use to reach a lot of people," he said.
Father Pat Heppe, priest moderator at Holy Family, believes Giuffre brings with him a keen sense of teamwork from his years in the business world as well as a kindness and compassion that stems from living with a disability.
"We have a number of parishioners who are hearing impaired. I think Father Carmelo can offer to them a ministry of understanding," Heppe said.
Giuffre's role as a priest is aided by the use of a telephone with captions and enhanced technology that wasn't available two years ago.
"A lot of people have a hesitancy when they learn I am deaf, but I'm a proficient lip-reader. And with my hearing aid, I have 15-20 percent hearing," Giuffre said.
The new priest said he likes to laugh a lot, ride his bike, watch professional football and — with a touch of self-effacing humor — eat Italian food.
He plays classical music and is drawn to the works of Bach.
"I don't hear what I'm playing but I feel the vibrations, that's one of the gifts God has given me," he said.