Moral of Story: Don’t Mess With Deacons

The story:

A man walked onto the Trappist Abbey property and punched a deacon on Monday, the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deacon Jose Montoya of the Archdiocese of Portland tells KATU News that the man who hit him is a stranger to the abbey, but is well-known to law enforcement.

“I suddenly see him and he punched me in the face,” Deacon Montoya said. “It’s not that bad, I just was down on the ground [with] the guy fighting and then on this side.”

Jose says that sometime during the fight the man actually got out and tried to run away. He says he tackled the man again and then with the help of another man on campus, he called 911.

“I was asking him ‘why did you do this? Why did you do this to me?’ He says ‘because the devil told me to.’ It’s like – come on, that’s ridiculous,” said Montoya.

Read it all. Check out the video at the link, too. And a grateful diaconal bow to Bishop Peter Smith from the Archdiocese of Portland who sent this my way.

He writes: “[The deacon] is assigned at St Peter in Newberg, Oregon but works during the week at the Trappist Monastery in Lafayette, Oregon. I guess the theme is don’t mess with Deacons.”