Jody DiMaggio's path took him from catering to the priesthood

Five men will be ordained to the transtional diaconate May 22 at St. Louis Cathedral by Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Today, we profile Jody DiMaggio.

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

► Age: 48
► Home parish: St. Francis Xavier, Metairie; grew up at St. Benilde, Metairie
► Diaconate internship: St. Rita, Harahan

Jody DiMaggio said attending Catholic school and having been taught by the Sisters of Loreto laid a solid foundation for the priesthood, as did being an altar boy.

“You get the seed planted early,” said DiMaggio, who will be ordained as a transitional deacon May 22 by Archbishop Gregory Aymond. “My family always encouraged me in my faith life and my vocation walk.”

DiMaggio graduated from St. Benilde School and Brother Martin High School. He earned an accounting degree at Tulane University and an MBA from Penn State. He worked in public accounting and then his family’s catering business before entering the seminary.

DiMaggio said when he was about 20, a visiting priest at St. Benilde delivered a homily in which he could feel God tugging at his heart to be a priest. He said he grappled with this decision for several decades.

“I was daydreaming about being a priest and giving a homily, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is what God was calling me to do,” DiMaggio said. “I was really scared, so I hid out in the family business, but that pull was there.”

DiMaggio has appreciated how open the Archdiocese of New Orleans has been to later vocations – four of his seminary classmates are older than he.

Getting back to academics – especially the initial pre-theology studies that focused a lot on philosophy – was the most challenging part of the seminary for him.

He has enjoyed the theology curriculum over the last three years and said the atmosphere at the seminary and the energy and enthusiasm of the faculty and his fellow seminarians, who are discerning God’s call, made him more comfortable and confident “that God is calling me to this at this point.”

DiMaggio said spirituality is important at the seminary. Morning and evening prayer time, Mass, eucharistic adoration and many prayer opportunities are afforded seminarians.

“I really love the liturgy we do here,” he said, relishing his holy hour and daily eucharistic adoration – something he was doing daily in the years before he entered seminary.

“And, I really enjoyed the homiletics curriculum here, and I am looking forward to writing and preaching homilies and developing my skills in that area,” he said.

DiMaggio chose retired Msgr. Lanaux Rareshide, his seminarian spiritual director, to vest him with the deacon’s dalmatic.

“I appreciate Father Rareshide’s experience,” DiMaggio said. “He helps me focus on the right things. ... There is deep soul-searching that goes on in seminary. It’s been great forming my relationship with him.”

As a transitional deacon, DiMaggio will be completing his internship from June 1 through mid-October at St. Rita in Harahan with Father Steve Bruno, pastor. DiMaggio said he’s looking forward to presiding at baptisms in the parish.

“Father Steve Bruno is a phenomenal homilist, so I’m hoping to get a lot of direction from him in terms of homilies,” he said.