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Deacon Steve Guckin<\/p>\n
By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted July 22, 2026 <\/p>\n
The role of parish life director at St. Martha Parish in Northeast Philadelphia is a new one, both for the parish and for Deacon Steve Guckin.<\/p>\n
But the parish certainly won\u2019t be new for the retired Philadelphia Police lieutenant and permanent deacon for the past 19 years.<\/p>\n
The husband, father and grandfather has served in the diaconate at the parish of about 4,000 members for the last 12 years, all before Archbishop Nelson J. P\u00e9rez offered him this new role that is part of the Trust and Hope initiative across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the experiences that I\u2019ve had as a deacon, in law enforcement and in the community, all the things I\u2019ve done have prepared me to take on this awesome responsibility that I\u2019m humbled that the archbishop has asked me to take on,\u201d Deacon Guckin said.<\/p>\n
Parish life directors are a new position of leadership in parishes of the archdiocese that empowers a person other than a priest to lead overall management of a local parish and grow the parish\u2019s ministries in the absence of a full-time pastor.<\/p>\n
It allows priests, typically from a nearby parish, to focus on sacramental ministry.<\/p>\n
Deacon Guckin will be taking on many of the administrative leadership duties of Father Jonathan Dalin, who was reassigned in May from St. Martha to St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Levittown.<\/p>\n
He said that Jesus did not accomplish His ministry by Himself, as 12 apostles and countless other disciples assisted in His ministry. He believes that his role as parish life director will empower the five priests who currently offer their time at St. Martha to focus on sacraments, liturgy, confessions, and ministry to the sick and dying.<\/p>\n
Deacon Guckin said he will focus on not only maintaining and revitalizing what\u2019s already in place at St. Martha\u2019s, such as the parish\u2019s CYO and Knights of Columbus, but expanding the concept of parish family to Catholics among the 83 percent within the archdiocese who haven\u2019t actively been practicing the faith, including Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I\u2019m hoping to work on initially is to make sure that people know that we\u2019re still alive and a vibrant community in Northeast Philly and to welcome people home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where I\u2019ve been, all the parishes that we\u2019ve lived in and participated in, I\u2019ve always thought of that as a second family, especially in the role of a deacon.\u201d<\/p>\n
His resume of ministry and service to the Church and its people has spanned ministry and teaching roles at Lansdale Catholic, Cardinal Dougherty, Father Judge, Archbishop Ryan, and Archbishop Wood high schools. He also worked in campus safety roles at Drexel University.<\/p>\n
Deacon Guckin came close to not taking the position at St. Martha Parish because of a move he was discerning to return to the work of law enforcement with the opening of new police academies.<\/p>\n
\u201cBucks County Community College was starting a municipal police academy. I ended up accepting that position thinking that was going to be my final career move, not realizing again that God had other ideas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He believed that becoming parish life director would take him away from St. Martha, but he discovered instead that the role would involve him becoming its new organizational leader, the kind of service-oriented role he has always had.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis, which I hope is my final move in my career unless God has other plans, I\u2019m ready for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As he began his new role July 1 he will focus on a lot of listening, particularly about the nature of worship at St. Martha Parish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to meet with as many of the parishioners as possible who want to talk and offer their suggestions on how we can make St. Martha a more vibrant worshiping space,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s really what I\u2019m looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deacon Guckin believes that this calling to stay home, even as he ventures into a new position, will help open St. Martha\u2019s doors to so many who have stepped away from the faith, and to be a home that meets the needs of Northeast Philadelphia\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that our parish become a community hub for all the people in the area, not just those practicing, not just those Catholics, but all the people that have moved into the Northeast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no less a calling from our Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deacon Steve Guckin By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted July 22, 2026 The role of parish life director at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[106681,8364,106678,69,71,70,824],"class_list":["post-249407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-deacon-steve-guckin","tag-jay-sorgi","tag-parish-life-director","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-st-martha-parish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}