On his road to being ordained as a permanent deacon next year, Rich Fedor is instituted as an acolyte in September with other members of his class at the Mary Mother of the Church Pastoral Center in St. Francis. (Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Milwaukee Diaconate Formation)

Rich Fedor trusts in God’s providence when it comes to the question of getting enough sleep.

In his career as a third-shift hospice nurse, he found it challenging.

But rest may be more elusive now because he’s balancing being a husband, a dad and the new director for the Office of Respect Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — all while in his final year of formation to become a permanent deacon just seven years after becoming Catholic.

“I was halfway through the RCIA program, and one of the people running the program at our parish made the comment, ‘Oh, you’d make a really good deacon,’” he said.

Fedor’s reaction? “‘Slow down. I’m not even Catholic yet.’ But it’s something that just kind of stuck in the back of my mind, and I couldn’t let it go.”

A vocation to serve in a pastoral role grew after he became Catholic at the Easter Vigil in April 2019. He had decided to become Catholic after attending Mass with his wife, Megan, and two children and gradually “realized I was being fed more than at any other religious service that I had attended in my life. When I heard a homily about not hesitating when you hear God calling you to something, I knew it was time.”

Fedor was similarly slowly drawn into considering a vocation as a deacon.

“It really started becoming even more of the Holy Spirit whispering a little louder. Maybe there was something to this, a mentality of service, regardless of whatever job I had in the past,” he said.

“One day, I said to my wife, ‘I think we need to look into this diaconate thing a little more. I think God might be calling me in this direction.’ We went to some of the discernment sessions. The way I had looked at service in my life of work, I had kind of come to the realization that anything I was doing wasn’t me. I’m just the vessel, and God was working through me. This deacon who was running the discernment session used that same language.”

At that point, Fedor said the ends of his mouth touched his ears.

“I was smiling so big, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is exactly where I need to be,’” he said.

As Fedor makes commitments in the coming year to the specific roles and amount of time he’ll devote to being a deacon, his wife, Megan, has to sign on to the commitment.

“They do drive home in the diaconate program that God called you to be a husband and a father before he called you to be a deacon,” he says. “That’s part of the reason why our wives are involved — because they’re assisting us in that process of discerning, ‘Is this going to work for our family?’ while you’re in formation.”

Fedor said he looks forward to utilizing his experience in his hospice nursing career and vocation in his new role as Respect Life director.

“Using those skills that God has given me to be comfortable walking into situations where I don’t know people and get out into our communities, to our parishes, and start building more relationships with the people who are doing Respect Life work at our parishes. I want to find out from them, ‘What are you seeing in your communities that are potential Respect Life issues that we can start working to address?’” he says.

The past archdiocese Respect Life director, Dcn. Jim Matthias, has also simultaneously held the role of directing the Jail Ministry. Moving forward, those roles will be separated and each will be full time.

Fedor said he wants to help with life issues in addition to the “bookends” of birth and natural death, particularly involving mental health issues in which someone loses touch with their dignity and value so much that they would want to end their life.

At the same time, he notes, “I’ve already told God, ‘Whatever you desire this ministry to be, that’s what it needs to be, and I trust in you to guide me as to where you want me to take this.’”

Fedor is taking that same faith and attitude toward the balancing act of his new job, his family and his eventual deacon role.

“You’ve just got to trust that God will provide and he’ll see you through. By his grace, you get to the end of the day, and you go, ‘How did I get all that done?’ Because you’ve suddenly gotten everything done that you were freaking out about, and it all works out.”

Rich Fedor
Parish: St. James the Less, Mukwonago
Anticipated Ordination to the Diaconate: September 2026
New role with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee: Director for the Office of Respect Life Ministry
Past career: Hospice nurse
Hometown: Kenosha
Favorite scripture: Mark 12:28-31, regarding Jesus’s reply to a question about which is the first of the commandments.