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Deacon Lucas Folan
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Lucas Folan, 27, was born on Jan. 13, 1999, in Denville, N.J., to Ken and Cristina Folan. He belongs to Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish in the Cedar Knolls neighborhood of Hanover Township.
Deacon Folan graduated from Parsippany Hills High School in 2017. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a minor in philosophy from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., in 2020. In 2023, he completed his philosophy studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. He completed his theological studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 2026.
Last year, Deacon Folan was ordained a transitional deacon. He was ordained with his classmates from the Pontifical North American College in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
“Experiences of service, especially trips to Guatemala, Georgia, the Dominican Republic, and West Virginia as a teenager and college student, opened my heart to the poor and the desire to serve,” Deacon Folan said. “I discovered my vocation to the priesthood through my friends and experiences in the Newman Club at Hofstra University,” he said.
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Deacon Jender Medina
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Deacon Jender Arley Medina Palencia, 37, was born on Jan. 31, 1989, in San José de Cúcuta, Colombia, to Carlos Ariel Medina Pérez and Ligia Rosa Palencia Camacho.
Originally from Colombia, Deacon Medina belonged to Holy Apostles Parish (Santos Apóstoles). For the past four years in the U.S., he has been a member of St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Clifton, and he is currently assigned as a deacon at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Morristown, N.J.
Deacon Medina graduated from high school from INEM José Eusebio Caro in 2005. He also completed eight semesters of Public Accounting at Francisco de Paula Santander University and Uniremington University.
“As a child, I was an altar boy. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say, ‘a priest,’” said Deacon Medina. He worked as an accounting assistant, a retail salesperson, and a sales representative at Samsung Electronics. “I was an atheist for about 12 years until I had a profound encounter with God through the Virgin Mary,” he said.
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