Matt’s faith journey began at Little Flower Catholic Church in Toledo, Ohio, where he received his Sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Communion and Confirmation). Attending the parish school, Matt started to learn about his faith at a young age and quickly developed a love for the Mass and served as often as he could, especially for funerals during the school day…ok so maybe that was more about getting out of class, then a love for the Mass, but it was in serving all of those funerals, weekend Masses and holy Days, that caused Matt to start to feel God calling him to serve the Church. One of his childhood pastors, Fr. Steve, unfortunately suffered a stroke when Matt was in grade school and never fully recovered. Matt became his personal server, assisting him whenever he could, to the point that the director of music/liturgy often joked that Matt was like a mini parish deacon.
During high school, Matt was active in the spiritual commission at Toledo Central Catholic High School, eventually becoming president and helped Fr. Mike plan all of the school masses. Matt felt God calling him to serve his Church, so Matt applied to be a seminarian for the Diocese of Toledo, was accepted and spent his freshman year of college at St. Joseph’s College Seminary discerning a potential call to the priesthood. During that year, Matt’s father, Thomas Bensman, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away 6 short weeks later. Matt decided to take a break from the seminary and spend his sophomore year close to home, attending Lourdes College in Sylvania OH. After that year, he knew God was still calling him to serve in the Church, but wasn’t sure exactly how yet. Instead of returning to the seminary, Matt attended Franciscan University in Steubenville where he continued his discernment and studies in Philosophy and Theology. During those two years at Franciscan, Matt discerned that the priesthood wasn’t the vocation God was calling him to, but rather, God was calling him to serve the Church as a lay leader, and maybe, one day as a husband, father and deacon.
Fast forward a few years and Matt was living in Massachusetts working at St. Mary’s Parish in Mansfield as their Director of Youth Faith Formation. It was there that he met his future wife, KellyAnn Brown. In fact, on their first date, Matt shared with KellyAnn that at some point he hoped to become a deacon. KellyAnn thought that was cool, but honestly, probably didn’t know what all that would entail (and neither did Matt!). A year and a half later, Matt proposed and they were married on August 22, 2014.
Faith was always an important part of their lives, whether they were down in the Caribbean for KellyAnn’s Vet School, Ohio for her clinical year or back out here in MA. Soon their family started to grow and they welcomed their first child, Graham Thomas on August 31, 2016 and their second child, Caroline Grace, on December 27, 2017.
One day while at work during COVID in 2020 Matt saw an announcement in the weekly email blast to parishes from the Archdiocese of Boston, that there were going to be inquiry sessions soon for men and their wives who were interested in becoming a deacon. To be able to become a married deacon, you must be married for at least 10 years and be at least 35 years old. Doing the math, Matt realized he was finally eligible, and talked to KellyAnn about attending an inquirer session. KellyAnn was supportive and said yes. Matt anticipated being the youngest one there by a large margin, but was pleasantly surprised to see some other “young” families present. After going through the inquiry year, Matt was accepted to the permanent diaconate formation program for the Archdiocese of Boston as an aspirant in 2021. Over the first year of studies, Matt and KellyAnn attended all of the classes together and began to realize the call and commitment of the diaconate. Even after realizing how much of a time commitment it would be, KellyAnn never stopped supporting Matt on his journey.
That year, 3 of the young families in class all announced that they were pregnant and our class had 3 babies from June-Sept between year 1 and 2 (It was quite the adventure going through that together). The last of those three babies, was Matt and KellyAnn’s third child, Theodore Peter. Theo was born with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) and a severe heart defect. Theo spent most of Matt’s second year of formation in the hospital, which meant Matt attended most of his classes that year from Theo’s hospital room. The prayers and support from his class, and the director of the program, Deacon Chris Connelly, is what allowed Matt to continue in formation through such a challenging time in their family’s life. That year, Matt was accepted as a Candidate for the Permanent diaconate by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston. The following year, Matt was installed as a Lector and will be installed as an Acolyte this summer prior to his Ordination in September.
The seeds to Matt’s vocation were planted and nurtured at Little Flower and Central Catholic by so many people, but especially his mom Jackie, his family and his friends. Those seeds didn’t truly begin to flourish though until his life with KellyAnn began. Through their 13 years together Matt has learned how to be a man of God, a husband, a father and now a deacon. None of those things would be possible without the love, support, patience and strength of KellyAnn.
A special thank you to all of the priests and deacons who have influenced Matt's life: his former pastors - Fr. Pat, Fr. Steve, Fr. Joe, Fr. Nuss and Fr. Jason (Little Flower Pastors), Fr. Steve (St. Mary's Mansfield) and Fr. Bob (Holy Family), his close priest friends growing while in high school and college (and beyond) Fr. Eric and Fr. Mike; and the deacons who have shown Matt what the diakonia truly means - Deacon Chris, Deacon Doug, Deacon Joe, Deacon Dan, Deacon Paul, Deacon David, Deacon Don and Deacon Art.
Thank you all for being a part of Matt and KellyAnn’s journey in life and towards the Diaconate. They are both so very excited to celebrate Matt’s Ordination with you on September 13th at Holy Cross Cathedral or at one of the Masses of Thanksgiving at Holy Family Parish in Duxbury, MA on Sept 14th or back where it all began at Little Flower Parish in Toledo, on Nov 9th.
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