2024 marks the 50th Jubilee of the Permanent Diaconate here in the Archdiocese of Denver. Through preaching, service, worship and prayer, deacons serve the people of God in unique ways through their various ministries and lives. This article is one of a series of articles the Denver Catholic will publish in 2024 which will feature local deacons and/or a diaconal ministry. There are many Deacon Saints who were martyred for their faith. In this year of Jubilee, the deacons of the Archdiocese of Denver are asking for prayers through the intercession of Saint Euplius of Cantania, deacon and martyr. Learn more about this Deacon Saint here.
Deacon Clarence McDavid didn’t see his vocation coming. A regular, involved parishioner at Cure d’Ars Parish in Denver, he loved his community, his parish and his family.
“I really didn’t have a thought of being a deacon. I was happy being a member of the parish,” he shared. “I was happy singing in the choir, participating, but really being able to sit in the pew with my family, then, like most, go home.”
That all changed when the parish’s beloved deacon, Deacon Charlie Bright, passed away at the young age of 54. The first African American deacon in the archdiocese, Deacon Bright was a beacon of service in the community.
“When I received the phone call, I thought, ‘Somebody has to replace him,’ Deacon McDavid recalled. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe I should.’ And I dismissed that as quickly as it came into my mind.”
Later, at Deacon Bright’s funeral, the Lord surprised Deacon McDavid with a series of parishioners asking him if he would consider becoming a deacon. It was a daunting discernment, considering the big shoes he would have to fill.
“In my interview, when I was saying, ‘I can’t be like Charlie Bright,’ Father Marcin O’Meara [the director of the diaconate at the time] said, ‘Maybe they want you to be like Clarence McDavid,” he said.
With such encouragement from Father O’Meara and others in the archdiocese, as well as his wife and family, Deacon McDavid was ordained to the permanent diaconate in May of 1987.
Years later, he is currently assigned to Cure d’Ars Parish in Denver, as well as serving on the Archdiocesan Committee for Racial Equality and Justice and the Black Catholic Advisory Committee. In his capacity on the archdiocesan committees, Deacon McDavid works closely with Bishop Jorge Rodríguez, auxiliary bishop of Denver, and Kateri Joda Williams, director of Black Catholic Ministry, “so that we might be able to address the issues of racism that might exist here in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as the community itself.
“The issue of racism is alive and well. Unfortunately, it is a reality that exists within our world, within our country, and within our community. We would like to say that it doesn’t exist, but it does,” Deacon McDavid said. “And so we need to be a people who can say, ‘This is something that needs to change.’ There needs to be a voice. St. John the Baptist said he was the voice of one crying out in the desert, and he was announcing that Jesus Christ was coming. We’re kind of that voice of one to say that racial injustice and racial discrimination is not appropriate in any place within our society or within our church.”
As a deacon in his 37th year of ordained ministry, Deacon McDavid can’t help but look back and smile at his journey of generous service to the community, which has led him to meet two saints-to-be in St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta, to serve countless individuals over the decades, and to work tirelessly for the betterment of the archdiocesan community.
In short, he concluded, “It is the greatest experience I could have ever had.”
