New Deacons

Last Saturday, Bishop Smith ordained three men to the diaconate. All three will be ordained priests next year, in May.

Bishop Smith ordained the three guys at nearby Our Lady, Star of the Sea parish in Long Branch. The church was filled with well-wishers and family members and many of the deacons of our diocese. I'm sure that the parishioners of Star of the Sea were honored to host an ordination ceremony in their beautiful building.

I've been floating an idea around for the past year or so. I have a dream of our diocese establishing an outstanding new program to train current deacons for future ministry as parish administrators. Given the dismal numbers of male celibates presenting themselves for presbyteral ministry, we will need to start training deacons to take real positions of leadership in parishes, and even in diocesan ministries.

We should be sending deacons for Masters-level training right now, to prepare for the priest-shortage that will hit our diocese very dramatically in the year 2010.

Good luck to the new deacons. My best advice to you is "Be prepared for a ministry that will look nothing like what the seminary is training you for, right now. Be open to the new and exciting ministries that will come at you in the very near future."