By Michael Gresham
The Texas Catholic

When the Pastoral Services Ministry was first established in the Diocese of Dallas in 1999, Deacon Charlie Stump was named its director. At the time, the diocese had one hospital chaplain and one prison chaplain.

Twenty-four years later, that ministry has evolved into the Office of Catholic Social Ministry, fielding a team that includes four priests and two deacons working full-time in hospitals, one religious and one layperson working as hospital chaplains, numerous layperson and clergy volunteers, a prison ministry coordinator, an associate director for human dignity and respect for life, an associate director of disability and deaf and mental health, and more.

“To see all this come about, I am thankful that God has given me this opportunity,” said Deacon Stump, 76, who officially retired from his work at the Pastoral Center on July 1. “We have really become a resource for our parishes and the people of this diocese.”

Born at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas in December 1946, Deacon Stump moved around a lot as a child as his father was in the Army Air Corps, living in Texas, Panama, London and Tennessee. After graduating from high school in Pottsboro, Texas in 1965, he joined the U.S. Air Force, where he trained as an air traffic controller. He met his wife, Linda, a cradle Catholic from Ennis, while stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. In civilian life, he’s had an array of jobs, ranging from being a cemetery groundskeeper and digging ditches to air traffic controller and automobile and boat sales. At one point, he even refurbished and sold airplanes — a job that offered some unexpected thrills, including landing a stalled airplane on a highway in the middle of the night in Alton, Illinois.

A conversation with Deacon Bob Light at Our Lady of the Lake parish in Rockwall helped lead Deacon Stump to discern the diaconate.

“As part of our Sunday routine, Linda and I would sit on our back porch, drink coffee and visit. One morning, I told her I was going to ask the deacon at church what it means to be a deacon,” he recalled. “After Mass, I went downstairs for coffee and doughnuts and the deacon walks over and asks me, ‘Have you ever thought about being a deacon?’ And I said, ‘As it so happens, I was just going to talk to you about that.’”

Deacon Stump was ordained a permanent deacon in 1992.

“I just kind of felt that it was something that I was supposed to be doing,” Deacon Stump said. “There was just something calling me to become a deacon. I grew up with a different attitude, and God changed me. It changed my heart, and I wanted to be able to express God’s love to people.”

Entering the Air Force after high school, Deacon Stump never attended college, saying that he struggled in school due to dyslexia. All that changed after his ordination. He graduated Dallas Baptist University in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and aviation management. He then earned a master’s degree in counseling from Texas A&M-Commerce University. He also received a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from the University of Dallas in Irving.

In 1999, Deacon Stump was named the director of Pastoral Services.

“At the time, Msgr. Duffy Gardener oversaw the hospital and prison ministries while Catholic Charities managed ministries concerned with grief and addictions,” Deacon Stump recalled. “The diocese wanted to combine all of that into one ministry, which they did and called Pastoral Services.”

Around this same time, dioceses throughout Texas came together to provide aid to Honduras, which was still recovering from the devastation when Hurrican Mitch struck in October 1998.

More than 20,000 people lost their lives. Homes and communities were washed away. And the number of people who were migrating out of the country was creating issues. In January 2001, Deacon Stump made his first trip to Honduras, determining that the effort would be three-fold: providing catechesis, providing medical help, and assisting with education.

“In the first meeting I had with Msgr. Virgilio Lopez, bishop of Trujillo, he said, ‘If you want to do social ministry, go home and send us money. If you want to build a pastoral relationship, you’re welcome to come,” Deacon Stump recalled. “So that said to me that they wanted to see us face to face. From there, we started developing a medical mission trip.”

The first one occurred in 2005, and those medical mission trips continue today. Deacon Stump has also helped lead numerous mission trips for local Catholic high schools, including one to Costa Rica in June 2023.

Over the years, Deacon Stump has served under several bishops, including Bishop Charles Grahmann, now-Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, Auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly and Bishop Edward J. Burns.

“To look back and see this journey God has led me on in my life,” Deacon Stump said. “I’m grateful that He has given me opportunities to help others.”