By Michael Gresham
The Texas Catholic
Everybody in the Church undertakes their own journey into the Catholic faith. Chadwick Dean’s just took 23 years.
At 52, Dean, who works security as an off-duty police officer during Masses at Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic Parish in Irving, was among the hundreds across the Diocese of Dallas who came fully into the Church on April 4 during the Easter Vigil.
“It’s kind of like finding that missing piece of a puzzle,” said Dean, a Dallas County Hospital District police officer at Parkland Hospital. “I feel more whole now.”
Dean’s journey into the faith began more than two decades ago at Parkland Hospital when his law enforcement role had him cross paths with Miriam Gomez-Wakeling, a manager in the hospital’s emergency department. She was a widow with twin pre-teen girls, Laurel and Lauren, at the time. She also was a devout Catholic who grew up in the Church in Canada.
The two began dating and were married in 2003.
Raised in a mix of non-denominational and Baptist traditions, Dean grew up familiar with Christianity but had little connection to Catholicism. That began to shift after the couple married.
“My wife is Catholic … I call her my uber Catholic,” Dean said, adding that his wife grew up attending a Catholic school connected to a convent. “If you want a mobile shout-out about Catholicism, call my wife. She knows it all.”
For years, Dean supported his family’s Catholic life from the outside, helping raise his stepdaughters, and later his grandchildren, in the faith. During that time, the family also endured more profound personal loss.
Laurel, 32 at the time, passed away unexpectedly. The stress of that trauma led to medical complications for her sister Lauren, who was pregnant with twins.
“She had the babies early,” Dean said, adding that one of those babies would die from complications a week later. “Within a month and a half, I lost my daughter, and then I lost a granddaughter.”
Through it all, Dean had not yet taken the step to enter the Church himself. Though the desire to become Catholic had been present for years, he said practical obstacles had delayed it.
“I’d always wanted to convert … but, you know, I worked nights for 27 years,” Dean said. “Trying to get to a class was hard.”
‘A genuine call from God’
That obstacle changed through an unexpected doorway at Holy Family of Nazareth, where his family attended, as Dean began working security at weekend Masses.
“It started out with just the English Masses on Sundays, and then it just kind of grew,” Dean said, noting that since last April he has only missed providing security twice: on Jan. 3 for his daughter’s wedding and this year’s Easter Vigil. “I now work all the Masses on Saturday and Sunday, including the Tamil and Kenyan Masses.”
Each week, as he provided security for those inside the sanctuary, something began to stir. Dean then reached out to Father Jacob Dankasa, the parish’s pastor.
“When he approached me last year and said he felt drawn to the faith, I was honestly in awe,” Father Dankasa said. “At first, I even wondered if he was joking; but very quickly I realized he was sincere. Something had been stirring in him.”
Dean said he found himself drawn not just to what he saw but to what he experienced.
“When you go into a Catholic church, you feel a presence. Regardless of if anything’s going on … you feel like you’re going in somebody’s house,” he explained. “You don’t feel that in the other churches … but when you walk into a Catholic church, you feel it.”
Father Dankasa said Dean’s role became a point of encounter, where “God had touched his heart, and he was ready to respond.”
“Week after week, as he stood in the narthex during Mass, he wasn’t just hearing noise, he was hearing the Word of God,” the pastor said. “He wasn’t just observing people; he was witnessing faith in action. Grace was quietly working on him.”
In the past, Dean’s work schedule had made it difficult for him to attend faith formation. When the parish made it possible for him to attend Order of Christian Initiation of Adults around his schedule, Dean committed himself fully, moving between his duties and formation.
“I’d cover the 8 o’clock to 9 o’clock Mass, and then after 9 o’clock they would start the class,” Dean said. “Afterwards, I’d go back and cover the 10 to 11 o’clock Mass.”
“For a full year, he would go to class, learn about the faith, and then return to his post to provide security,” Father Dankasa said. “That dedication showed me that this was not just curiosity; it was a genuine call from God.”
Supportive of his family’s devotion for years, Dean said he realized that standing alongside the faith was no longer enough. He wanted to join them in that celebration of faith.
“I’ve been around this for 20-something years, and I don’t even know how to pray the rosary,” he said. “I needed to get answers to my questions.”
At the Easter Vigil, Dean was baptized, confirmed, and received the Eucharist, entering fully into that faith he had long observed from the outside.
“When you’re not Catholic and everybody else is, you kind of feel like you’re running two or three steps behind,” Dean said. “I’ve gotten closer to God. Now, I feel like I’ve caught up with everybody in the family.”
His granddaughter, Savannah, a graduate of Holy Family Catholic Academy and a senior at Bishop Dunne Catholic School, was his sponsor.
“I watched her be baptized,” he said, “and, in turn, she supported me right back.”
Father Dankasa called Dean’s faith journey a “beautiful reminder that God often works in the most ordinary and unexpected ways.”
“We hired him to provide safety and protection for our parish, but God had a much deeper plan,” the priest said. “In truth, God simply used us as instruments to fulfill what he had already begun in Officer Dean’s heart.”
Father Dankasa said what stands out the most to him about Dean’s story is how he has embraced the community and how the community embraced him.
“If he had been treated with indifference or disrespect, he might have concluded that this was not the place for him,” he said. “Instead, he encountered love, welcome, and a sense of belonging.”
That belonging was visible even before Dean’s initiation into the Church, Father Dankasa said.
“He wasn’t just standing in the narthex watching people, he was participating,” the priest explained. “He prayed with us from the doorway. He even took it upon himself to open the door for the priest and servers as we processed in, something far beyond his job description.”
For Father Dankasa, Dean’s journey reflects the quiet work of grace.
“While we were thinking about securing our parish, God was thinking about securing a soul,” he said, adding that from providing security for the people of God, Dean has now found his own security in God. “His story feels like a perfect Easter story, a story of conversion, renewal, and new life. It is a powerful reminder that God works quietly, behind the scenes, drawing people to himself through the ordinary rhythms of life.”
Dean encourages others who may find themselves on the margins to remain open.
“If it’s really something you want to do, no matter how long it takes, you’ll get it done,” he said. “God is patient.”
Cutline for featured image: Chadwick Dean, an off-duty police officer who provides security during Masses at Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic Parish in Irving, entered the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil on April 4. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
