Deacon Lawrence and Denise Duffy

Deacon Lawrence Joseph Duffy presently exercises his ministry at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bernardsville NJ and St. Joseph Health System, Paterson NJ.

    Deacon Larry worked in the Financial Service Industry for 40 years in Municipal Bond trading, sales and retirement financial planning. In 1968, Deacon Larry
graduated from St. John’s University, Jamaica, N.Y. with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Economics. From 1968-1970, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He enrolled in a Master of Business Administration program at Fordham University. He completed this degree in 1974.

    In 1974, he and Denise Errico were married and began to raise their family of 3 children who are now married and have given them 10 grandchildren.

   Denise is a graduate of Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia and has Graduate Credits from the University of Madrid, Montessori International and is a Licensed
Learning Specialist. She was an active volunteer in the children’s schools and their parishes before and after Larry’s ordination. Thanks to her father’s traveling
occupation, she is fluent in other languages and has used that in her work with immigrants. She has 49 years of teaching experiences in various positions yet has always found time to volunteer as a Eucharistic Minister.

    Larry was ordained to the Order of Deacon on June 13, 1998, by the late Bishop Vincent de Paul Breen at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Metuchen, NJ. He earned a Certificate of Pastoral Ministry at the College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown NJ., in 1998. In 2003, he returned to the College of St. Elizabeth to study Theology. He graduated in 2007 with a Master of Arts degree in Theology and received the Service Leadership Award. He has completed 10 units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Atlantic Health’s Morristown Hospital. He is presently employed at St. Joseph’s Health, Paterson, as the Director of Pastoral Care and is responsible for all 3 campuses. In October of 2022, the monks of St. Mary’s Abbey nominated this couple to receive the Vivere Christus Award (Diocese of Paterson) for Denise’s Volunteer Work, at the Abbey, Morristown Hospital and St. John’s Soup Kitchen, Newark, NJ. They hope to celebrate their 50 th Anniversary in December 2024.