Diocese Welcomes
Two New Priests

Bishop George W. Coleman ordained two men to the priesthood for service in the Fall River Diocese at an 11 a.m. Mass on Saturday, June 13, in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River. They are Fathers David C. Deston Jr., a native of Fall River, and Peter J. Fournier of Attleboro.

“Now that everything seems to be falling into place, I still can’t relax, and I’m ready to be ordained…and it’s been a long road, a long time coming,” said Deacon Deston in an interview in the diocesan weekly, The Anchor prior to his ordination. “I also look forward to my first Mass and my family is excited too.”

Deacon Fournier described the excitement level as “very high…and growing for me and my family – and after at least a third of my life waiting for this it is difficult to remain calm.”

Father Deston, 32, is the son of David and Donna Deston of Fall River and brother to one sister. He is a 1994 graduate of B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River and a 1998 graduate of UMass-Dartmouth with a degree in history and a minor in political science. He worked for one year as a substitute teacher at the Henry Lord Middle School in Fall River before entering the seminary.

In August 1999, he began studies for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., from which he received in 2006 a master’s degree in Divinity and a master’s degree in Church history. He then completed a pastoral year at St. Michael Parish in Fall River and was ordained a transitional deacon in 2007.

He has since been serving as a deacon at St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth.

Deacon Fournier, who is 28, is the son of Permanent Deacon Paul F. Fournier and Florence Fornier of Attleboro. He grew up in that city’s Holy Ghost Parish and later became a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish. He has one brother and two sisters.

After his 1999 graduation from Attleboro High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. He studied theology at the North American College in Rome and at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, where he earned a master’s degree in Divinity.

While preparing for the priesthood he assisted at St. Stanislaus Parish, Fall River, St. Pius X Parish, South Yarmouth, where he served a pastoral year, and most recently at St. Jude the Apostle Parish, Taunton.

He was ordained a transition deacon in January of this year. In the context of that rite his father -a permanent deacon who serves at Attleboro’s St. Joseph Church- had the honor of vesting his son with the stole and dalmatic, the liturgical garb worn by a deacon during Mass.

At the June 13 ordination to priesthood, Father Deston received the priest’s vestments of stole and chasuble from Father George C. Bellenoit, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth. He celebrated his first Mass on Sunday, June 14 at 11 a.m. at St. Thomas More Church in Somerset, his home parish. The homilist was Father Edward Correia, pastor of St. Michael’s in Fall River, with whom Father Deston served as a seminarian.

Father Fournier received his vestments at the ordination from Father Stephen B. Salvador, pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Fall River. He celebrated his first Mass also on June 14, at 2 p.m. at St. Jude the Apostle Church in Taunton, where he has assisted for the past two years during breaks from the seminary. Homilist at the Mass was Father Michael Medas, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese and friend of Father Fournier.

Their first priestly assignments began on June 30. Father Deston is the parochial vicar at Saint Pius X Parish in South Yarmouth and Father Fournier is parochial vicar at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis.