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Deacon Jim Blanchette, an ordained deacon in the Archdiocese of Hartford and a former Hartford Police Department officer, has published I’ve Made My Peace, So Can You, a memoir tracing his return to the Catholic Church after nearly four decades away and his subsequent ordination to the diaconate. The book is released by Parker Publishers.

The memoir documents Blanchette’s upbringing in a household affected by alcoholism and abuse, his involvement in gang activity during high school, and his career in law enforcement and social work with the State of Connecticut. Blanchette walked away from the Church at age fourteen, shortly after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, and did not return in any sustained way for forty years.

The book identifies a 2006 trip to Texas, including an unplanned visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, as the turning point that led him back to active practice. He later made a three-hour confession with Father Greg T. Labus, an event he describes as the beginning of his formal return to the sacraments. He was ordained a deacon on June 4, 2016, and has been assigned to Annunciation Parish since his ordination.

“I did not write this book out of self-pity or to seek sympathy for my childhood,” Blanchette writes in the book’s introduction. “I wrote it for the young soul, and for the adults who once were those children, growing up amid alcoholism, substance abuse, or violence, so they may know they are seen, deeply loved, and never abandoned.”

The memoir covers childhood trauma, the author’s marriage to his wife Barbara, the role of the sacrament of confession in his return to faith, and his path to diaconal formation. It also includes reflection questions at the close of each section.

Blanchette will mark his tenth anniversary of ordination on June 4, 2026.

I’ve Made My Peace, So Can You is available through standard retail channels.

About the Author

Deacon Jim Blanchette serves at Annunciation Parish in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. He previously served as a Hartford Police Department officer and as a social worker with the State of Connecticut. He lives with his wife Barbara. I’ve Made My Peace, So Can You is his first book.