The deacon who made the bishop’s crozier

A few people yesterday might have noticed the impressive crozier that Bishop Mark Brennan used as he became the new bishop of Wheeling-Charleston.

The Crozier, or Pastoral Staff, represents the bishop’s ministry as a shepherd to God’s people. Bishop Brennan’s is unique in that it is a simple wooden crozier with no adornments. It was designed and made by Deacon Cahoon, who also made the chair for Pope Francis in the canonization Mass for Junipero Serra and the altar for Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 Mass in Washington, DC.

I’ve posted about Deacon David Cahoon in the past:

David Cahoon does what Jesus did, and Jesus’ earthly father before Him.

He’s a carpenter, and like the Christian figure whose life he has sought to emulate, Cahoon embraces the task of transforming mundane pieces of wood into works of religious glory.

His latest project calls for building a semi-permanent altar for Pope Francis’s visit to the United States next month. The altar — whose design was chosen in a competition between 18 teams of Catholic University students — will be used when the pontiff celebrates a large outdoor Mass on Sept. 23 on the east portico of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington. Then, the altar will be installed inside the basilica.

Cahoon, 58, also built an altar for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Washington in 2008.

Clearly, he has a gift. And he pops up sometimes in unexpected places, as I discovered.

He’s also a very nice guy.

I had the privilege of meeting him in 2017, when I spoke at the diaconate convocation in the Archdiocese of Washington.