20 Deacons Ordained for the Archdiocese of Atlanta

The picture to the right shows the 20 men who were recently ordained to the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

The Georgia Bulletin, the Archdiocese of Atlanta newspaper, has the complete story of their ordination HERE.

A diaconate of faithful men, truly called and well formed, can and will be a tremendous asset to the life of the Church. The infusion of the new members of the clergy have the potential be a great relief to many of our Priests on the frontlines!

Note: I have created a new sidebar section of suggested reading for the Permanent Diaconate. One read of particular interest might be the Motu Proprio "SACRUM DIACONATUS ORDINEM" which restored the Permanent Diaconate in 1967.

Correction on the time - Franciscan Friars and U2 on LIVE TV Tomorrow at 4:30pm EST

Thanks to Web for being persistent in correcting my mistake. I said in my previous post that the Friars would be on LIVE TV at 2:30am EST. That was incorrect. They should be on at 4:30pm EST, a much more reasonable time.

The Friars would be on a popular Irish late night show with the band U2. The Late Late Show airs this Friday, February 22nd, at 9:30pm in Ireland, which means 4:30pm (EST)here. You can watch it live on the internet by going to http://www.rte.ie/live/

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Picture is of the Friars at St. Patrick's Friary in Moyross, Limerick City, Ireland. Maybe you'll see some of them with Bono on live TV. Who would have thunk it?

UPDATE: Well, it wasn't meant to be. Those of you who tried to watch this on the internet, found out like me, that unless you have an Irish IP address you couldn't watch it. Had I more time I think I could have found away around it through an Irish Proxy server, but alas it wasn't meant to be. We can only hope that they will post the video from the show on the website. Check here to see if it is posted.

You Think It's Bad Here?

Church crisis in Ireland as number of priests to drop 66 percent in 20 years

By John Cooney
From Independent.ie
Thursday February 21 2008

'It is impossible to argue with these statistics, and the situation really is very grave'

The Catholic Church in Ireland faces a catastrophic drop in the numbers of priests over the next two decades, new figures reveal.

The Church's vocation problem is already reaching crisis levels, as statistics show that 160 priests died in the last year, while only nine men were ordained.

In 2007, 228 nuns died but only two took final vows for service in religious life.

If current trends continue, the number of priests is set to plummet to just one-third over the next 20 years. Unless there is a miraculous upswing in vocation, the number of priests will drop from 4,752 priests, to just over 1,500 by 2028.

The problem is exacerbated by the ageing profile of the clergy. The current average age of priests is 61, which means that in the next 15 years the majority will have retired.

The situation with female religious is even more stark, with more than 100 nuns dying every year for each new sister professed.

The National Director of Vocations, Fr Paddy Rushe, commenting on the statistics, published in the 'Irish Catholic' newspaper, said: "Obviously it is a stark statistic, and it communicates to me, as a vocations promoter, the urgency there is in addressing the number of vocations".

Fr Eamonn Bourke, Director of Vocations for Dublin, said that "the statistics bring the problems we are facing into sharp focus".

Decline

"It's impossible to argue with statistics, and the situation is very grave."

He said that "for a long time people have failed to realise how much the decline is, hopefully with statistics like this people will realise their responsibility to come forward and do something".

Fr Bourke said he was "concerned that some priests are reluctant to offer priesthood to people as a valuable way of life".

"It will take a long time to increase this confidence," he said.

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI, Roman Major Seminary, Rome

VISIT TO THE ROMAN MAJOR SEMINARY ON THE OCCASION OF THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF TRUST
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVIDURING THE CELEBRATION OF FIRST VESPERS
Roman Major Seminary, RomeFriday, 1st February 2008

Your Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Seminarians and Parents,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is always a great joy for the Bishop to be at his Seminary and this evening I thank the Lord who has renewed this joy for me on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Trust, your heavenly Patroness. I cordially greet you all: the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishops, the Rector and the other Superiors and you yourselves, dear seminarians, with special affection. I am also pleased to greet the parents and friends of the community of the Roman Seminary who are present. We are gathered together for first solemn Vespers of this Marian Feast which is so dear to you. We have listened to some verses from St Paul's Letter to the Galatians in which he uses the expression "fullness of time" (cf. 4: 4). God alone can "fill the time" and make us experience the full meaning of our existence. God filled time with himself by sending his Only-Begotten Son, and in him he has made us his adoptive sons: sons in the Son. In Jesus and with Jesus, "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (Jn 14: 6), we are now able to find exhaustive answers to the heart's deepest expectations. Once fear has been dispelled, trust in God, whom we even dare to call "Abba! Father!" (cf. Gal 4: 6), grows within us.

Dear seminarians, it is precisely because the gift of being adoptive sons of God had illuminated your lives that you were stirred by the desire to make others share in it too. This is why you are here, to develop your filial vocation and prepare yourselves for your future mission as apostles of Christ. It concerns a unified growth, that, while permitting you to savour the joy of life with God the Father, it makes you feel so much more the urgent need to become messengers of the Gospel of his Son Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes you attentive to this profound reality and makes you love it. All this cannot fail to kindle immense trust in you, for the gift you have received is amazing, it fills you with wonder and profound joy. You can therefore understand the role that Mary also has in your lives, invoked in your Seminary by the beautiful title: "Our Lady of Trust". Like the "Son, born of woman" (cf. Gal 4: 4), of Mary, Mother of God, so your being sons of God means that you have her as Mother, as a true Mother.

Dear parents, you are probably the most surprised of all at what is happening in your sons. You probably imagined a different career for them than the mission for which they are now preparing.

Who knows how often you find yourselves thinking about them: you think back to when they were children, then boys; to the times when they showed the first signs of their vocation or, in some cases on the contrary, to the years in which your son's life seemed remote from the Church. What happened? What meetings influenced their decisions? What inner enlightenment guided their footsteps? How could they then give up even promising prospects of life in order to choose to enter the Seminary? Let us look to Mary! The Gospel gives us to understand that she also asked herself many questions about her Son Jesus and pondered on him at length (cf. Lk 2: 19, 51).

It is inevitable that in a certain manner, the vocations of children become the vocations of their parents too. In seeking to understand your children and following them on their way, you too, dear fathers and dear mothers, very often find yourselves involved in a journey in which your faith is strengthened and renewed. You find yourselves sharing in the marvellous adventure of your sons.

Indeed, even though it may seem that the priest's life does not attract most people's interest, it is in fact the most interesting and necessary adventure for the world, the adventure of showing, of making present, the fullness of life to which we all aspire. It is a very demanding adventure; and it could not be otherwise since the priest is called to imitate Jesus, who "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20: 28).

Dear seminarians, these years of formation constitute an important time in which to prepare yourselves for the exalting mission to which the Lord calls you. Allow me to underline two aspects that mark your current experience. First of all, your seminary years involve a certain detachment from ordinary life, a certain "wilderness", so that the Lord can speak to your heart (cf. Hos 2: 14). Indeed, his voice is not loud but rather subdued, it is "a still small voice" (I Kgs 19: 12). Thus, if the Lord's voice is to be heard, an atmosphere of silence is essential. For this reason the Seminary offers space and times for daily prayer; it takes great care of the liturgy, meditation on the Word of God and Eucharistic adoration. At the same time, it demands that you devote long hours to study: in praying and studying you can build within yourselves the man of God whom you must be and whom people expect a priest to be.

Then there is a second aspect of your life: during your seminary years, you live together; your formation for the priesthood also involves this community aspect which is of great importance. In following Jesus, the Apostles were formed together. Your communion is not limited to the present time but also concerns the future: the pastoral action that awaits you must see you joining forces, as though in one body, in one ordo, that of priests who, together with the Bishop, care for the Christian community. May you love this "family life" which is an anticipation for you of that "sacramental brotherhood" (Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 8) which must characterize every diocesan priest.

All this reminds you that God calls you to be holy, that holiness is the secret of the true success of your priestly ministry. From this moment holiness must be the goal of your every choice and decision. Entrust this desire and this daily commitment to Mary, Mother of Trust! This most pacifying title corresponds to the invitation, repeated in the Gospel and addressed to the Virgin by the Angel and then so many other times by Jesus to his disciples: "Do not be afraid" (cf. Lk 1: 30). "Do not be afraid, for I am with you", says the Lord. In the icon of Our Lady of Trust, in which the Child points to the Mother, it seems that Jesus is adding, "Look at your Mother and do not fear". Dear seminarians, follow the Seminary curriculum with your minds open to truth, transparency and dialogue with those who guide you. This will enable you to respond in a very simple and humble way to the One who calls you, freeing yourselves from the risk of creating a strictly personal project. Dear parents and friends, accompany the seminarians with prayer and with your constant material and spiritual support. I also assure you all of my remembrance in prayer, as I joyfully impart the Apostolic Blessing to you.

Hat tip to Fr. Zehnle for finding this complete homily.

Bring Back Men in Black

By Father Damian J. Ference
Posted in U.S. Catholic Magazine

Religious clothing allows Catholics to make a fashion statement about their faith, says a young priest who dons the wardrobe that the previous generation put away.

Like it or not, religious garb and clerical dress are making a comeback. This phenomenon can be hard to swallow for a generation of priests, religious, and laity.

It may seem that younger Catholics are attempting to undo all their hard work and are intentionally heading backward into a church that placed a greater emphasis on distinctions between the clergy and the laity, rather than celebrating the common priesthood of the baptized. Some have even accused wearers of religious garb of being insecure, out-of-touch, and intellectually second-rate. But today I find the youngest, brightest, healthiest, and most joyful consecrated religious and clergy seem perfectly at home in religious garb. What happened?

When asked how she reconciled her Catholicism with using violent, grotesque imagery, the great fiction writer Flannery O'Connor, herself a young Catholic who was often misunderstood, said: "To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large startling figures." It seems that the same philosophy is at work in the minds of young Catholics who are drawn to religious garb; they desire to communicate the gospel through sign and symbol to a world whose senses have been dulled. And if their clothing can help people to hear and see Christ, then it's a no-brainer.

The history of religious garb directs our attention to two important elements: identity and simplicity. Some religious orders pattern their habit on the garb of St. Anthony of Egypt (251-356), who most often prayed and worked in the desert and wore a simple robe with a thick leather belt. St. Francis of Assisi's garb looked like the cross when a friar stretched out his arms, and he added sandals and a cord with knots symbolizing the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Mother Teresa adopted the traditional dress of Indian women for the Missionaries of Charity. These three prominent examples were easily identifiable by their dress, which also pointed to the simplicity and poverty of Jesus.

Clerics, too, could be identified by what they wore. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the cassock and collar were responses to clerical extravagance. In the 13th century many priests were dressing like knights, with bright colors and ornate embroidery, so a mandate was issued that the cope of a cleric would be simple, ankle length, and buttoned closed in front. Thus the cassock was born. In the 17th century clerics would cover beautifully decorated collars with a white band to prevent wear and tear. The ornate collars caused scandal and were eventually forbidden, but the white protective band remained and became the Roman collar. Religious garb marked a person as a disciple of Christ.

The pastor at my first parish assignment was ordained in 1968, and he used to tell me stories over dinner of life before, during, and after the Second Vatican Council. In his seminary years the cassock was the dress code, and with the exception of recreation, the seminarian was expected to be in it. He often reminded me that he resented the fact that he had to put his cassock on to use the restroom in the middle of the night. I don't think he's worn a cassock since his seminary days, and I understand why.

Friends in religious communities also have told me about their orders' task of renewal after Vatican II. In terms of religious garb, the council stated that the religious habit was an outward mark of consecration to God and it should be simple, modest, and poor. The habit was to meet the requirements suited to the time and place and to the needs of the ministry involved, and, moreover, habits that did not conform to these norms were to be changed. For women's orders, some needed no changes, others simplified their garb, many modernized by sporting a simple veil, blouse, and skirt, and others opted to dress like the laity, as was the practice of their founder. Many of those orders that did away with religious garb thought it to be a good move since it was following the gospel mandate of not bringing attention to oneself. It was also thought that abandoning the habit would lead to greater approachability and help the religious focus on the internal life rather than being distracted by externals.

The years immediately following a church council tend to be disorienting. The post-Vatican II years were no exception. In the '60s even Father Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was wearing a tie, if that gives any indication.

In a U.S. Catholic interview last year, Father Ronald Rolheiser said, "I don't think wearing a collar in public converts anybody. A lot of people in my generation don't feel that public witness should be in anyone's face." Reflecting on all that Rolheiser's generation has gone through, such a reaction is predictable. However, it has been more than 40 years since Vatican II. Now is the time for memories to be healed, purified, and reconciled, to move into the new millennium with a fresh perspective. As Benedict XVI stated in his first homily as pope, "The church is alive and the church is young!"

Generation X and millennial Catholics have never experienced a pre-Vatican II church and don't carry around the baggage of the previous generation when dealing with the issue of religious garb. Habits and collars are not oppressive or clerical, but courageous, especially in the post-scandal era. As a matter of fact, the first time I ever wore my cassock at a youth gathering at my first parish, the young people thought I looked like Neo from The Matrix. Rigid seminary formation was the last thing on their minds.

A great blessing of Vatican II was a greater awareness of the importance of sign and symbol. Miniature baptistries have been replaced by large baptismal pools, the holy oils have been given a more prominent place in glass ambries, paschal candles are to fit the size of the church, and even the principal host consecrated at Mass is to be big enough so that all can see it.

If being a visible, sacramental, and incarnational church is so important, doesn't it follow that religious garb has an important contribution to make as well? Young people think so. (And so do the folks who create the annual poster promoting the religious retirement fund, which consistently depicts elderly sisters in religious garb.) Unfortunately, many religious communities miss this crucial point, and they are going extinct in part because of it.

Today's youth live in a culture that forces them to say something about who they are and what they believe. The tattoo and body-piercing craze gives perfect witness to this condition. It's even hard to find a young person wearing a T-shirt that doesn't have words, numbers, or images on it. This is why more Catholic youth are wearing crosses, medals, and devotional bracelets. It should come as no surprise that younger Catholics would rather see priests in clerics than clothes from J. Crew and would rather see sisters in a habit than a pantsuit with a lapel pin. They want priests and religious to be recognizable, just as police officers and firefighters are recognizable by their uniforms.

Now I'm not suggesting that every priest and religious must live in their religious garb, although I have great respect for those who do. I dress down when I am in the rectory, on my day away, as well as when I exercise, but I have never seen the need to change out of my clerics when I am engaged in activity that isn't strictly pastoral. I have never been embarrassed to be recognized as a Roman Catholic priest. Sure, I have been persecuted at times because of my clothing, but the gospel tells us that such is to be expected. I can't begin to count the number of times I have heard Confessions, anointed the sick, or simply reminded someone that God is not dead precisely because I was wearing my clerics.

The John Paul II and Benedict XVI generations have been accused of wanting to wear religious garb in order to bring attention to themselves. I am sure that in a few situations this is true. Unfortunately, in every way of life there are folks who love attention, honor, and power. For the majority of young Catholics, however, this simply isn't the case.

They desire to bring attention to Christ with their whole lives, including their wardrobe. These young people want to be part of something greater than themselves. And they are willing to give up their lives to do so. They want to imitate saints like Anthony, Francis, and Teresa in their love of Jesus and service of the community. And yes, even in their dress. They want their habits to manifest their being.

So, in the spirit of the late Flannery O'Connor, the next time you see a young priest dressed in his Roman collar and you feel that he is shouting at you, or you judge a religious in her medieval habit to be a large startling figure, well, maybe that's the point. A thank you may be in order.

By Father Damian J. Ference, a young priest from the Diocese of Cleveland. He is currently a graduate student in the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES: REDISCOVER THE ORIGINAL CHARISM

VATICAN CITY, 19 FEB 2008 (VIS) - Made public today was the address Benedict XVI delivered yesterday to members of the executive committee of the International Union of Superiors General, who were meeting in the Vatican to reflect on "some particularly relevant and important aspects of consecrated life".

"We are all aware how, in modern globalised society, it is becoming ever more difficult to announce and bear witness to the Gospel", said the Pope. "The process of secularisation which is advancing in contemporary culture does not, unfortunately, spare even religious communities.

"Nonetheless", he added, "we must not be discouraged, because if (as has been said) many clouds are gathering on the horizon of religious life today, there also exist (indeed they are constantly growing) signs of a providential reawakening which gives rise to consolation and hope.

"The Holy Spirit blows powerfully throughout the Church, creating a new commitment to faithfulness, both in the historical institutes and, at the same time, in new forms of religious consecration that reflect the needs of the times. ... What characterises these new forms of consecrated life is a shared desire ... for a radical form of evangelical poverty, for faithful love of the Church, and for generous dedication to the needy with particular attention to that spiritual poverty which so markedly characterises the modern age".

The Pope subsequently went on to refer to "the orders and congregations with a long tradition in the Church", noting how they have suffered a "difficult crisis due to the ageing of members, a more or less accentuated fall in vocations and, sometimes, a spiritual and charismatic 'weariness'".

Although describing this crisis as "worrying", Benedict XVI highlighted certain positive signs, "especially when communities have chosen to return to the origins and live in a way more in keeping with the spirit of the founder. In almost all recent general chapters of religious institutes the recurring theme has been precisely that of rediscovering the original charism, to then incarnate it and renew it in the present".

Such rediscovery "has helped give institutes a promising new ascetic, apostolic and missionary impulse", said the Pope and he concluded: "It is along this road that we must continue, praying to the Lord to bring to full fruition the work He began".

The Catholic Deacon

By Deacon Keith Fournier
2/13/2008

From Catholic Online

A Deacon is ordained to the first rank of sacred orders, not to the priesthood or the episcopacy. He is no longer a layman, but a member of the clergy.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The role of what is called the "permanent” diaconate is all too often misunderstood.

The Catholic Church restored this sacred order as a permanent way of serving the Church (and not just a transitional order for men on the way to priesthood) in the Latin Rite well over 40 years ago.

This was accomplished by an act of Pope Paul VI who decided in 1967 to restore the diaconate as a permanent rank of clergy for the Church in the West.The Diaconate as an order of Clergy has been a part of the Eastern Church from apostolic times without interruprion.

In October 1968, the Holy See approved the organization of the Diaconate in America for the Roman catholic Church. In 1998, the Vatican released two important documents to dispel some of the persistent misunderstandings and confusion and to open up an understanding of deacons as both “sacred ministers” and “members of the hierarchy.”

These documents were issued on 22 February, 1998; the Feast of the Chair of Peter. This feast has long been an occasion to honor all the Church's clergy since the first century. It was an appropriate occasion to issue statements regarding the formation and work of permanent deacons, since they are such an important part of the clergy; participating in its missionary and pastoral service.

The extensive documents, "The Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons" and "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons," were ordered and approved by Pope John Paul II. They are a part of the Church's magisterial teaching.

They were generally well received by deacons, priests, bishops and the lay faithful and have helped to promote a better understanding of the role of permanent deacons in the Church in this Third Millennium of Christianity. They also led to a growing standardization of diaconal training and increasing clarifification of the role of deacons in the liturgical, pastoral, and ministerial life of the Church.

The diaconate has a rich history.

During the Church's first five centuries, this ministry flourished everywhere. But for various reasons, the order declined in the West as a distinct rank of clerical service, and eventually disappeared. It was relegated to a "transitional" order given to candidates on their way to priestly ordination.

Today, we still distinguish between transitional and those called “permanent” deacons. However, this distinction does not create two ranks of deacons, but clarifies the direction in which the deacon is headed. The "transitional" deacon is simply on his way to priestly ordination.

In the Eastern Catholic Church, however, the diaconate remained a part of the permanent rank of sacred orders without interruption from the time of the Apostles until now.It has a clearly defined place in the life of the Eastern catholic Churches.

Many Eastern Rite Catholics refer to their deacons as "Father Deacon," and they have important liturgical, charitable and pastoral roles. We can learn much from our Eastern Catholic brethren as we develop the life and ministry of deacons in the Western Church as an order of Clergy ordained not “unto the priesthood” but unto service.

The Council of Trent (1545-63) called for the restoration of the permanent diaconate for the entire Church. But it was not until the Second Vatican Council, four centuries later, that this direction was implemented.

The Council Fathers explicitly stated their purpose as threefold: to enhance the Church, to strengthen with sacred orders those men already engaged in diaconal functions, and to provide assistance to areas suffering clerical shortages.

Among those calling for the restoration were the survivors of "The Deacons Circle," priests who suffered at the Dachau death camp during World War II. While suffering, they prayed for the renewal of the Church.

They believed the Holy Spirit was inspiring them to call for a re-institution of a permanent diaconate that could serve sacramentally and vocationally as an order of clergy in the midst of the world.

The priests who survived Dachau continued to meet and pray, and eventually they presented their discernment to the Holy Father and the leaders of the Vatican Council.

On 18 June 1967, Pope Paul VI implemented the Council's decision to re-institute a permanent diaconate for the universal Church with the apostolic letter “Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem”. He also established revised norms for the ordination of all clergy, including deacons, priests and bishops. These norms passed into the Code of Canon Law.

According to "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons," issued jointly by the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Congregation for the Clergy, the deacon is "a sacred minister and member of the hierarchy."

He is ordained to the first rank of sacred orders, not to the priesthood or the episcopacy. He is no longer a layman, but a member of the clergy. Like other clerics, the deacon participates in the threefold ministry of Jesus Christ; the "diaconia of the liturgy, the word, and of charity.” He represents “Christ the Servant” in his vocation.

The deacon teaches the Word of God, sanctifies through the sacraments, and helps lead the community in its religious life. He assists at the altar, distributes the Eucharist as an ordinary minister, blesses marriages, presides over funerals, proclaims the Gospel and preaches, administers viaticum to the sick, and leads Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest.

"The deacon does not celebrate the mystery; rather, he effectively represents on the one hand, the people of God, and specifically, helps them to unite their lives to the offering of Christ; while on the other, in the name of Christ himself, he helps the church to participate in the fruits of that sacrifice," according to the declaration.

Because they receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders, deacons are sent by Christ to serve God's people. They are called to do so out of the depths of an interior life centered in the Eucharist, and fueled by a life of prayer, which proceeds into action. Like other clerics, they recite the Divine Office and cultivate the habit of penance.

They also are called in these documents to link their love for the Lord and His Church to a special love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who in her “Fiat” represents the full surrender of love to the invitation of God.

Since most deacons are married and have children, they are called to demonstrate the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage and the holiness of a consecrated family life. They are called to “give clear witness to the sanctity of marriage and family."

The wives of permanent deacons are called to support the ordained ministry of their husbands. As "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons" states, "The more they [deacon and wife] grow in mutual love, the greater their dedication to their children and the more significant their example for the Christian community"

The married deacon makes a unique contribution to the renewal of Christian marriage and family life. At a time when the Church has so strongly emphasized the role of the "Christian Family in the Modern World," of one of John Paul’s wonderful encyclicals.

The married deacon also serves as an example of married clergy in the Western Church.In the Eastern Churches, the ancient practice of calling married men, even to the order of priest, remains in tact, in most places.

The married deacon is challenged to a life of faith, fidelity and example in the married state. His example of clerical service in the married state does not detract from the prophetic and wonderful witness of consecrated celibacy; it is complementary.It is also a way of sanctification for him and witness for those whom he serves.

It is important to note that although the “permanent” diaconate has been opened to married men of mature age; it is also open to and encouraged as a permanent rank of orders for celibate men.

The decision for marriage or celibacy is to be made before ordination to the order of deacon.This is the ancient practice.If a married deacon loses his wife, he pledges to remain celibate. In fact, he could then consider a further call to priesthood if the Lord so moved him and the Church invited him. This has already been demonstrated in the lived experience of the renewed diaconate in the western Church.

The married deacon and his wife are to "show how the obligations of family life, work and ministry can be harmonized in the Church's mission”. Deacons and their wives and children can be "a great encouragement to others who are working to promote family life," according to these Vatican documents.

In addition to this important witness, the deacon is distinct in his secular vocation. Often engaged in works of social justice or charity, he is a clergyman in the midst of the secular world. He goes from the altar to the world in a prophetic way, bringing Christ to those for whom He gave His life- and continues to reach out to -through Hid Body on earth, the Church.

The deacon also engages in the "New Evangelization" which the late Servant of God Pope John Paul II emphasized as an essential task for all members of the Church at this critical point in human history. Deacons do so in a unique way. They are an order of clergy in the midst of the world. They go from the altar and the ambo into the streets.

I found that my work as a lawyer and public policy advocate took on a new depth and meaning after my ordination.However, my service as a Deacon also had a profound effect on me. It has led, here in my second decade of diaconal work, to major life changes including the pursuit of a PhD in Moral Theology in my fifties. When a man says "Yes", the Lord takes it seriously.

Customs have developed which reflect the deacon's role as distinct from both priest and lay minister. For instance, proper liturgical dress for a deacon is an alb, a cincture, a diaconal stole and a dalmatic. He is authorized to wear a cope at baptisms, weddings or while presiding over the exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

However, since he usually pursues secular work, he is not "obliged” to wear clerical garb as are transitional deacons or priests. The custom pertaining to the wearing of a clerical collar differs according to local practice when the deacon is engaged in sacramental, pastoral, or liturgical service.

Similarly, formal and popular titles help distinguish the deacon. Such titles of course, are not badges of honor, but rather "crosses" given to the one who holds any clerical office. They preserve the order of service in the Body of Christ.

Just as we call a priest "Father," and should not presume to call him by his first name, a permanent deacon, like a transitional deacon, should be called "Deacon." In formal writing a deacon, according to custom, often uses the title “Reverend Mr.” reflecting in a unique way both his clerical and “secular” role.

Because of the long lack of a real witness of a diaconate in the western Church, the reaction to this ministry by other clergy and lay faithful is sometimes hesitant or confused. Yet, as time unfolds more and more members of the Church have come to understand the role of this expression of Holy Orders as a gift to both the Church and the world.

The role of the deacon does not detract from the vital role of an empowered lay faithful. In fact, it should enrich it. And the deacon also should not be seen as a "threat" to the irreplaceable ministry of the priest.


A vibrant diaconate will enhance and expand the ministry of the priesthood.

Bishops, too, should encourage the diaconate, because it is for them that deacons are particularly ordained. Other than the deacon, only the Bishop is authorized to wear the dalmatic. This custom symbolizes the deep relationship between a Bishop and his deacons.

I have served with love, honor, and humility both as a lay leader and as a deacon. To serve the Lord and His Church is the greatest privilege of my life. My wife and children have been a source of great strength to me on this journey, and I hope our family has been a strong witness to our deep love for the Catholic Church.

When I was called forth to holy orders, my Bishop thought that in my ministry as a layman I was already engaged in "diaconal functions" and that the grace of orders was a part of my ongoing call. He referred to my pro-life work and pro-family apostolate as an example of an "anonymous diaconate."

He thought that this was precisely what the Council Fathers had in mind when they restored this ancient order. I am grateful for his insight and his invitation. I also think it is a helpful insight into how the process of discernment for this vocation should be structured.

I knew the grace of a call to ordained ministry. My ordination was a profound experience. It did indeed create a "mark" on my soul as the teaching of the catholic Church on the sacrament of Orders so clearly states. My ministry as a deacon is not "better” than my ministry as a lay leader, but it is profoundly different. I now serve as a member of the Catholic clergy in everything I do: evangelization, apologetics, and ecumenism, as well as in my professional life.

I do not believe that it is accidental that the same Church Council that called for a renewed emphasis on the role of the lay faithful also re-instituted this rank of clerical service in the Western Church.

All of us, whether bishops, priests, deacons, lay faithful, or consecrated religious are a part of the one mission of the one Church. Each of us, though all equal in the sight of God, play vitally important, but different, roles in the Body of Christ.

Let us pray for each other that we may all remain faithful to our individual vocations. Let us pray that all deacons - this order of clergy-set aside for Word, service and Sacrament-will flourish in this New Millennium of the Church.

For our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to give such a clear affirmation of the role of deacons during this first week of lent is a great gift for all of us who are called to this vocation.

May deacons take up their role as "Sacred Minister and Member of the Hierarchy." May they go forth from the altar to the world and manifest the presence of Christ the Deacon, who continues to serve all those whom He loves!

Pictures from Firmun Est

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal live on Irish Late Night with U2

Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR, (Vocations Director for the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal) sent an email saying that the Friars would be on a popular Irish late night show with the band U2.

The Late Late Show airs this Friday, February 22nd, at 9:30pm in Ireland, which means 4:30pm (EST)here.

You can watch it live on the internet by going to http://www.rte.ie/live/

Priests becoming too worldly, Vatican prelate says

From Catholic World News:

Rome, Feb. 15, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The prefect of the Congregation for Religious has lamented that many Catholic priests are neglecting their duties under the pressure of conforming to secular culture.

In a February 14 interview with the Italian ANSA news agency, Cardinal Franc Rode said that priests today tend to be less obedient to the Church and more responsive to the world. He cited reluctance to wear clerical dress as a symptom of this trend.

“A drift towards bourgeois values and moral relativism are the two great dangers that weaken religious life," said the Slovenian cardinal. "The biggest problem today is the climate of secularization-- present not only in Western society but also within the Church itself.”

Cardinal Rode said that young people continue to hear God's call to a vocation in the priesthood or religious life. But he suggested that a lax model of priestly or religious life is not likely to encourage vocations. As evidence the cardinal pointed to the young Catholics who are attracted to contemplative life in highly disciplined religious orders. "They are attracted because it is a radical life choice," he said.

__________________________

The picture below is of the Jesuits at their "conclave" as they recently came together to elect their new minister general. Look hard. Not a clerical collar in sight. Why I wonder? Do the Cardinals come "dressed down" like this to elect the Holy Father (rhetorical question)?

Contrast that picture with the one below of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal...

Or this one of a group of Priests from the FSSP...

Or this one of the Holy Father with Cistercians of Heiligenkreuz in Austria...

You tell me which picture(s) more readily says "radical life choice"? This is not to say that the Jesuits have not made a radical life choice, or that other orders and even diocesan Priests that choose not wear clerics have not made a radical life choice, but the outward visible sign is simply not the same.

I can certainly attest to the fact that most young men, that I speak with any way, are not attracted to a model of the priesthood or religious life (at least not in the United States) wherein it appears to be a life of relativism, comfort and worldliness. From the outside looking in, many young men see priests and religious that seem to be doing "whatever they want". In their dress, in their lifestyles, in the Mass, in their homilies, in their teachings, etc. - they see moral relativism and they are not attracted to it. A young man that is attracted to a counter cultural life of orthodoxy, deep spirituality, poverty and simplicity finds it hard to reconcile with some of the Priests and Religious he sees today.

Catholic Blog Awards

It's that time of year - the annual Catholic Blog Awards. Roman Catholic Vocations(RCV) began just under a year ago (February 22, 2007) and was too new to even be considered for any kind of award at the time. Actually at that point I had no idea how this whole thing would go. A year later and RCV has gained a humble following. My hope has always been that this blog would be a resource for information about vocations. A sort of online reference library of articles and stories about vocations in the Roman Catholic Church.

In an effort to make this blog more widely none, I wonder if some of you might be willing to consider casting a few votes? I don't know that this blog fits in to many categories besides "Best New Catholic Blog" or "Best Individual Catholic Blog", but that's up to the voters.

It's easy to register, and then you can also nominate some of the many outstanding Catholic Blogs out there in other categories (or for the categories I mentioned above). To register and nominate go to Catholic Blog Awards.

Thank you for your consideration!

US Papal Visit Image

Seize the ‘new moment’

From the Florida Catholic

A recent workshop places emphasis on engaging and supporting youths in a positive manner in order to nurture potential religious vocations.

CHRIS VIVIAN FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 02.01.08

CHRIS VIVIAN FC

LUTZ Pope John Paul II’s legacy of an energized youth movement in the church and other factors have come together to create a “new moment” in vocations awareness that must be seized.

Members of parish vocations teams throughout the Diocese of St. Petersburg heard that message Jan. 26 from Father Michael Muhr, spiritual director at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

“What is the best way to fertilize this ground?” Father Muhr asked. “Honor the possibility that people in our midst are being called. They are in our families and parishes, and we need to encourage and respond positively to their searching and discernment.”

Father Muhr gave the keynote speech at a workshop at Bethany Center titled “Vocations: A Response to Stewardship,” hosted by the diocesan Vocations Enrichment Team. More than 20 parishes were represented.

Citing a recent survey, Father Muhr noted three things that define youths’ attitudes about serving the church:

• a strong feeling of connection with Pope John Paul II as an example of authenticity;

• vibrant youth movements, such as Life Teen, that focus on the Eucharist;

• desire to build a better church in response to the sexual abuse crisis.

Families play a crucial role in vocations as they are often the first forum in which a young person will mention an interest in religious life, he said.

“How do we react when our children want to be a priest?” he said. “It can be subtly negative: ‘It’s a lonely life,’ or ‘It’s a sacrifice, but we support you.’ If families’ reaction were, ‘Wow, that would be a great thing to do with your life,’ then that puts a whole different spin on the idea and transfers positive messages. Kids pick up on our attitudes about religious life, so it’s something we need to reflect on.”

When asked about their answer to the call, 80 percent of newly ordained priests said they had seriously considered the choice because their pastors had asked, he said. However, only 30 percent of pastors are asking youths to become involved, he said. And the crucial task can’t be left solely to pastors, he and other presenters said.

“You don’t have to make the call,” said Elaine Thelen, chairwoman of the diocesan team. “God already did that. But you may suspect that someone is considering and anyone can invite them.”

Thelen coordinated the event and was pleased with the passion for the topic and the turnout — about 75 people attended. She estimated 20 percent of diocesan parishes have a formal team to address vocations.

“Vocations come out of stewardship,” she said. “We need to have that generosity of spirit to allow youths to explore vocations. Our response to their inquiries should always be, ‘What do you need?’ ”

Engaging youths in parish activities and discussion of vocations is key to getting them involved, including consideration of vocations and religious life, according to Lou Turcotte, the diocesan team’s youth representative and a senior at Clearwater Central Catholic High School.

“Get to know us,” Lou said. “We want to be included.”

Breakout sessions included discussion about how to promote vocations, keys to reaching the millennial generation (those born between 1980 and 2000), sharing of ideas between established vocations teams and those just starting up, and tools and information that can be found on the diocesan Web site.

Father Mario Marzocchi, Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Holiday, led a breakout session on the spiritual dimension of the Eucharist in vocations, tying the subject to the Living Eucharist initiative, a three-year, diocese-wide renewal and evangelization process.

“Eucharist is a verb, an action,” he said. “Faith is a verb, an action. We often wonder whether our youths will ‘show up.’ Don’t underestimate them.”

The workshop will be followed up with a day of prayer for priests March 5, when all diocesan priests will gather for the Fishers of Men Priestly Life and Vocations Summit. They will be asked to reflect on their own unique calling and how they can share with others, especially those who may be considering a call to church service.

On the Importance of the Permanent Diaconate

Pope's Q-and-A Session With Roman Clergy, Part 1

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Following a Lenten tradition, Benedict XVI met Thursday with parish priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome. During the meeting, the participants asked the Pope questions. Here is a translation of the first question and the Holy Father's answer.

* * *

[Deacon Giuseppe Corona:]

Holy Father, I would like first of all to express my gratitude and that of my brother deacons for the ministry that the Church so providentially has taken up again with the [Second Vatican] Council, a ministry that allows us to fully express our vocation. We are committed in a great variety of works that we carry out in vastly different environments: family, work, parish, society, also the missions of Africa and Latin America -- areas that you indicated for us in the audience you granted us on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the diaconate of the Diocese of Rome.

Now our numbers have grown -- there are 108 of us. And we would like for you to indicate a pastoral initiative that could become a sign of a more incisive presence of the permanent diaconate in the city of Rome, as it happened in the first centuries of the Roman Church. In fact, sharing a significant, common objective, on one hand increases the cohesion of diaconal fraternity and on the other, would give greater visibility to our service in this city. We present you, Holy Father, the desire that you indicate to us an initiative that we can share in the way and the manner that you wish to specify. In the name of all the deacons, I greet you, Holy Father, with filial affection.

[Benedict XVI:]

Thank you for this testimony as one of the more than 100 deacons of Rome. I would like to also express my joy and my gratitude for the Council, because it revived this important ministry in the universal Church. I should say that when I was archbishop of Munich, I didn't find perhaps more than three or four deacons, and I very much favored this ministry because it seemed to me to belong to the richness of the sacramental ministry in the Church. At the same time, it can equally be the link between the lay world, the professional world, and the world of the priestly ministry -- given that many deacons continue carrying out their professions and maintain their positions -- important or those of a simple life -- while on Saturday and Sunday they work in the Church. In this way, you give witness in the world of today, as well as in the working world, of the presence of faith, of the sacramental ministry and the diaconal dimension of the sacrament of Orders. This seems very important to me: the visibility of the diaconal dimension.

Naturally as well, every priest continues being a deacon, and should always think of this dimension, because the Lord himself made himself our minister, our deacon. We can think of the gesture of the washing of the feet, with which he explicitly shows that the master, the Lord, acts as a deacon and wants those who follow him to be deacons, that they fulfill this role for humanity, to the point that they also help to wash the dirtied feet of the men entrusted to us. This dimension seems very important to me.

On this occasion, I bring to mind -- though it is perhaps not immediately inherent to the theme -- a simple experience that Paul VI noted. Each day of the Council, the Gospel was enthroned. And the Pontiff told those in charge of the ceremony that he would like one time to be the one who enthrones the Gospel. They told him no, this is the job of the deacons, not of the Pope. He wrote in his diary: But I am also a deacon, I continue being a deacon, and I would like to also exercise this ministry of the diaconate placing the word of God on its throne. Thus, this concerns all of us. Priests continue being deacons, and the deacons make explicit in the Church and in the world this diaconal dimension of our ministry. This liturgical enthroning of the word of God each day during the Council was always for us a gesture of great importance: It told us who was the true Lord of that assembly; it told us that the word of God was on the throne and that we exercise our ministry to listen and to interpret, to offer to the others this word. It is broadly significant for all that we do: enthroning in the world the word of God, the living word, Christ. May it really be him who governs our personal life and our life in the parishes.

Now, you have asked me a question that, I must say, goes a bit beyond my strengths: What would be the tasks proper to the deacons of Rome. I know that the cardinal vicar knows much better than I the real situations of the city and the diocesan community of Rome. I think that one characteristic of the ministry of the deacons is precisely the multiplicity of the diaconate's applications. In the International Theological Commission, a few years ago, we studied at length the diaconate in the history and also the present of the Church. And we discovered just that: There is not just one profile. What they should do varies, depending on the preparation of the persons and the situations in which they find themselves. There can be applications and activities that are very different, always in communion with the bishop and with the parish, naturally. In the various situations, various possibilities arise, also depending on the professional preparation that these deacons could have. They could be committed in the cultural sector, which is so important today, or they could have a voice and an important post in the educational realm. We are thinking this year precisely of the problem of education as central to our future, and the future of humanity.

Certainly the sector of charity was in Rome the original sector, because those called presbyters and deacons were centers of Christian charity. This was from the beginning in the city of Rome a fundamental area. In my encyclical "Deus Caritas Est," I showed that not just preaching and the liturgy are essential for the Church and for the ministry of the Church, but rather equally important is the service of caritas -- in its multiple dimensions -- for the poor, the needy. Thus, I hope that all the time, in the whole diocese, even if in distinct situations, this continues being a fundamental dimension, and also a priority for the commitment of the deacons, even if not the only one, as is also shown in the early Church, where the seven deacons were chosen precisely to permit the apostles to dedicate themselves to prayer, liturgy and preaching. Also afterward, Stephen found himself in the situation of having to preach to the Greeks, to the Jews who spoke Greek, and thus the field of preaching was amplified. He is conditioned, we could say, by the cultural situation, where he has a voice to make present in that sector the word of God. In that way, he makes more possible the universality of the Christian testimony, opening the doors to St. Paul who witnessed his stoning, and later, in a certain sense, was his successor in the universalization of the word of God. I don't know if the cardinal vicar would like to add something; I'm not as close to the concrete situations.

[Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome:]

Holy Father, I can just confirm, as you said, that also concretely in Rome, the deacons work in many sectors, for the most part, in parishes, where they concern themselves with the ministry of charity; but, for example, many are also involved in ministry to the family. Since almost all of the deacons are married, they offer marriage preparation, give follow-up to young couples, and things like that. They also offer a significant contribution to the ministry of health care; they help also in the vicariate -- where some of them work -- and as you heard, in missions. There is a certain missionary presence of deacons. I think that, naturally, in the numerical plane, the greatest commitment is in the parishes, but there also exist other sectors that are also opening, and precisely because of this, we now have more than a hundred permanent deacons.

[Translation by Kathleen Naab]

Young Nuns

This is an EXCELLENT post about women's vocations! It is also a great post for everyone discerning a religous vocation. You can read the post (which is transcript of the video) about the Nashville Dominican's and the fact that young women are called to habited religious orders below, or you can watch the video at these links below (one of the novices at the end of the video praying the rosary in front of the statue of Mary taught with me at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh):

View the video here. (This is a Windows Media file and seems to have some breaks in the video)

Watch the Quicktime video here. (This file plays without problems)

This post is from PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

February 8, 2008 Episode no. 1123

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The Vatican reported this week that the number of Catholics in religious orders around the world continued to decline. In the latest figures for 2006, there were just over 945,000 monks and nuns, down about 7,000 from the year before. The overwhelming majority, 753,000, about 80 percent, were women. Around the U.S. the number of nuns has also been going down, and their average age rising. But there are a few places where the reverse is true. Betty Rollin found a Dominican teaching order in Nashville fairly bursting with dedicated young nuns.

BETTY ROLLIN: They are the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee, a traditional order that began in 1860. Their day begins at 5 a.m. with meditation followed by a Mass. Meals are held in silence. Their vocation is to teach. The sisters here have come from different states and different backgrounds, most of them raised Catholic, some not. In 1965, there were about 180,000 nuns in America. By 2007, that number dropped to 63,000 with an average age of 70. The average age of the Dominican sisters is 36. Their numbers have increased so steadily in the past 15 years that they have had to build a 100,000 square-foot addition to the property. The sisters here -- the first year postulants, the second year novices, and those who, after seven years, have taken their final vows all say they have been called by God and that they are in love.

Sister KATHERINE WILEY: When you're a little girl, you're planning your wedding, you're playing bride. But just to allow the Lord to transform my heart to see that I would still be a bride, but I would be his bride.

Sister CHRISTIANA MICKWEE, O.P.: When you have fallen in love with God, everything doesn't seem quite so important anymore because God, the creator of the world, has asked you to be his bride. No, I will not be having sex. No, I will not be having children. No, I will not be marrying a spouse. But my very body and blood is united to God in a way that isn't offered to everyone in the world.

Sister CHRISTIANA MICKWEE, O.P.
Sister AMELIA HUELLER: A woman wants to give herself so totally to one man, to hold nothing back, to be so intimate with him and to bring forth life with him. It took me awhile to understand -- well, "understand" is the wrong word -- but to see that God will fulfill all of that, that he was asking me in a total way to give myself totally to him.

ROLLIN (to Sr. Hueller): How do you know that this God that you've given everything to is really there?

Sr. HUELLER: Because it's whom I am in love with, and when you fall in love with someone, it has to be a someone. You can like something a lot. You can say I love this or that. But when you are falling in love, and a woman knows when she is in love, it has to be a person.

ROLLIN: Sister Amelia Hueller was brought up in a non-religious home and converted to Catholicism.

Sr. HUELLER: I finished high school, I went to college in Washington, DC for four years, and I came up against relativism: the idea that we can't -- people said that we couldn't know what was good, what was bad, what was true. So I really began questioning where truth comes from. Where does goodness come from? I know I have values. Who gives them to me? And so between that moment and here, it was a process of, "This is scary, I don't understand this. I don't see why I would be called. How can I be called? I am so normal."

Nuns at worship.
ROLLIN: After seven years of study and contemplation, Sister Christiana Mickwee took her final vows last summer. She teaches fifth grade at a parochial elementary school.

Sr. MICKWEE: For me, it wasn't so much a voice per se but through prayer -- just in the silence, just letting him be there and finding out, really asking him, "What do you want from me, God?" I mean, I really had everything I could have wanted in the world, and there wasn't anything that I was trying to get away from.

ROLLIN: Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, who has been a Dominican nun for 23 years, helps direct the order's educational program.

Sister CATHERINE MARIE HOPKINS, O.P.: Very rarely do people come and say, "I've always wanted to be a sister." You know, I always found that very suspect. You know, usually it was, "I was going through life very happily and suddenly this strange idea came and I tried really hard to eliminate it." In my own life, that was the case.

ROLLIN: This life is not for everyone who comes here. Who is most likely to remain?

Sr. HOPKINS: I would say those who are most comfortable with themselves -- the young person who would have made a good wife and mother, who would have made a good career person. They're not the loner. They're not the introvert, necessarily, although we have all personality types in the religious life.

Sister CATHERINE MARIE HOPKINS, O.P.
ROLLIN: Colleen Carroll Campbell, who is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote THE NEW FAITHFUL: WHY YOUNG ADULTS ARE EMBRACING CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY. Ms. Campbell found that the conservative orders, like the Nashville Dominicans, are the ones that are attracting young people.

COLLEEN CARROLL CAMPBELL (Author, THE NEW FAITHFUL): These are orders where the sisters still wear their full-length habits, where they still gather to pray seven times a day, where they still live what is really a very traditional religious life.

ROLLIN: The new nuns say they were hugely affected by Pope John Paul II, who reached out to young people in his World Youth Days and rallies, entreating them to remain faithful to the traditional teachings of the church.

Ms. CAMPBELL: Young adults really saw in Pope John Paul II someone who was calling them to something the world never dared called them to, and that is sacrifice, self-denial, laying down their lives at the feet of Christ and asking him, "What do you want me to do with my life?" And for a lot of these young women when they ask that question, following John Paul's example, what they heard is that I want you to give up everything and follow me as a consecrated woman.

Sister AMELIA HUELLER
The younger sisters we're seeing tend to be very firmly in support of the pope in terms of Catholic teaching, including on the non-ordination of women. So this is kind of an interesting reversal here, and often it is referred to by some of the older Catholics as, you know, the "young fogies" because they're in many ways more traditional than their elders. There's an element of reaction there. After Vatican II, there were many good changes. There were a lot of things that got tossed out prematurely: the devotional life -- almost completely obliterated; liturgical music and the liturgy itself just became very entertainment-oriented.

ROLLIN: Regimentation, rules, sacrifice -- all part of convent life. But those who are here speak mainly of their joy.

Sister HUELLER: With sacrifice can come great joy. We know that sacrificing is not opposed to being happy. In fact, it can be our path to happiness. So sadness, no; sacrifice, yes.

Sr. MICKWEE: The joy I see in my sisters is far greater than the joy I see in many of the people that I grew up with.

ROLLIN: Colleen Carroll Campbell thinks that their initial passion may fade, but that the joy these young women feel will sustain them and encourage others to a more religious life.

Revitalize Your Marriage Vows

Picture above is of my parents renewing there vows at a 50th wedding anniversary Mass in the Diocese of Raleigh. Bishop Burbidge's homily on the gift of married love is well worth watching. See it here.


Hat tip to Eric for sending me this post...

From the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal daily letters...

Revitalize Your Marriage Vows

by Br. Louis Leonelli, CFR

Marriage is an amazing gift from God, a source of enduring joy for man and woman, the sanctuary of new human life, a school of holiness and laboratory of love. And yet this wonderful mystery, which reflects the love of the Trinity and the spousal love of Jesus for the Church, is under fierce attack and is sorely tried by forces at work in the culture. Too often marriages and families become casualties rather than conquerors in this battle.

What can be done to help marriages and families flourish, reach their full stature in Christ, and offer to the world a radiant testimony of abundant life, sacrificial love and authentic holiness even in the midst of struggle and difficulty?

One simple but effective step is for married couples to imitate the practice of many religious communities, and regularly renew the vows they made to God and one another. Our custom as Franciscan Friars of the Renewal is to do this every Friday at the beginning of our evening meal. The renewed strength and commitment that I receive from this practice inspired me to write something similar for married couples. I would like to encourage you as a couple to prayerfully recite this renewal of vows weekly at the dinner table in the presence of your children and any guests who may be present. Could I ask you to please also share this practice and our website with other families and couples you know?

This is one concrete way, in the midst of the onslaught of anti-marriage and anti-family forces, to put into practice the virtue of hope and the words of Jesus of which our Holy Father Pope Benedict reminded us in his recent encyclical, Spe Salvi (In Hope We Are Saved): "You will have difficulty in the world. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!" (Jn 16:33).

Thank you for helping to renew and protect marriages and families through your personal witness and by your prayers. Be assured of my prayers for you and all your loved ones, for it is through prayer that we unite in spirit to support one other. And may the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ help you to grow in peace, joy and love in your lives and in your marriages through the prayers of the most perfect of spouses, our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph.

Br. Louis Leonelli, CFR
St. Leopold Friary, Yonkers, NY

20 Men Will Be Ordained Permanent Deacons

From The Georgia Bulletin

ANDREW NELSON, Staff Writer

Published: February 7, 2008

ATLANTA—There will soon be more permanent deacons serving Catholics in the Archdiocese of Atlanta than there are priests.

Twenty men will join the ranks of ministers of charity, as deacons are called, on Friday, Feb. 8, at the Cathedral of Christ the King. The ordination Mass begins at 7 p.m.

The increasing number of deacons helps the growing church in the Atlanta Archdiocese that is expanding to new corners of North Georgia as priests are stretched to reach out to the faithful. The new permanent deacons will be serving in at least 18 different parishes and missions.

“There are many areas that a single priest can’t deal with. The deacons are serving a vital role,” said Deacon Loris Sinanian, the director of diaconate formation.

The number of permanent deacons in the archdiocese in the past six years has jumped 30 percent. In 2001, there were 137 deacons serving in parishes and other ministries. In 2007, the number was 181. Next year is expected to be another strong year with 16 men scheduled to be ordained.

In 2007, priests numbered 185, according to the Official Catholic Directory. Eight new priests are scheduled to be ordained in the archdiocese in May.

Men are recognizing there is a serious need for the work that deacons can do so priests can focus on the sacraments of the church, said Deacon Sinanian, a deacon for 18 years. He serves at St. Anthony Church, Blue Ridge.

A deacon is ordained by the archbishop to minister in the Catholic Church. A deacon serves by proclaiming Scripture, preaching and performing charity for others. Deacons also assist at marriages, preside at funerals and burial rites and lead Communion and prayer services.

A deacon is to be “a servant in a servant-Church,” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

It takes five years of formation in this archdiocese to become a deacon. The program prepares men with academic, spiritual and pastoral experiences to serve the church. Men are either single or married. If single, they take a vow of celibacy. Most deacons hold full-time jobs in addition to serving the church in ministry. Some become deacons after retiring from the work force.

In 1967, the Catholic Church restored the diaconate as a permanent order of ministry, returning to the practice of the early church. Prior to the order of Pope Paul VI, the diaconate was a transitional stage as men prepared to be priests.

There are more than 14,000 permanent deacons in the United States, according to the bishops’ conference.

Deacon Dennis Dorner, chancellor of the archdiocese, said priests and deacons have complementary gifts. He said the two ordained church ministries do not compete but build on each other’s skills.

Deacon Dorner said the response to a vocational call is more important than numbers.

“They are called to service. We are not there for awards and platitudes,” he said.

The life experiences of a deacon are valuable to Catholics who are comfortable talking with married clergy who face the same issues, he said.

“I do know I get an awful lot of calls from men who want to talk to me about juggling responsibilities as a husband, father and their career,” he said.

Deacon Dorner said the visibility of deacons around the archdiocese could be encouraging more men to consider the vocation.

“People are becoming a bit more serious about their faith, their walk with Christ,” he said.

What are You Complaining About?

Catholics in India's Orissa state recall Christmas nightmare


by Anto Akkara
Catholic News Service
(emphases mine)

POBINGIA, India (CNS) -- As the vicar of St. Peter's Church in Pobingia was supervising his parishioners making decorations Christmas Eve, he got an urgent call from the parish priest less than 15 miles away in Phulbani, warning him that Hindu mobs were attacking churches.

Father Prasanna Singh, the vicar, contemplated what to do next. Police, ordered by the government to guard the church, fled when they heard 600 Hindus approaching and shouting anti-Christian slogans. Other police officers stood by and watched.

As the priest fled through the backyard, the mob -- armed with swords, axes, crowbars and spears -- broke the gates and destroyed the church.

"See, this is not the result of an earthquake," Father Singh told Catholic News Service Jan. 5, pointing to the destruction around the church. The tall trees in front of the church were cut down, a 20-foot concrete cross on top of the church was torn down, and everything inside the church, rectory and student hostel was reduced to ashes.

The days of violence in India's Orissa state began with Hindus destroying Christmas decorations at the local market. In retaliation, Christians burned Hindu shops and houses, followed by widespread violence over 600 square miles and four days.

Five Catholic churches, 48 village chapels, two seminaries, half a dozen hostels and four convents were destroyed. Dozens of Hindu homes and hundreds of Christian homes were burned and looted in the Kandhamal district.

Several Catholics have gone into hiding to evade arrest after 90 Christians were charged with setting fire to Hindu houses. Government officials have refused to distribute relief to Christians whose houses were burned down by Hindus and have urged Christians to give up the hiding men.

Many Christian families also fled deep into the jungle for safety.

"All of us are still scared," said Sadananda Digal, a Catholic layman. Many of the 130 Catholic families of Pobingia, Digal said, were "still sleeping in the jungles in the night."

Father Laxmikant Pradhan, parish vicar of St. Paul's Church in Phulbani, explained that a dozen Hindu youths barged into the church and destroyed their Christmas decorations. Then a mob of 400 people broke in and burned everything inside the church and his residence.
"All this happened with the police watching from outside," Father Pradhan said angrily.

The mob headed to the adjacent St. Paul's minor seminary, where almost all rooms were reduced to black chimneys. Some members of the mob left riding the seminarians' bicycles while other bikes were dumped in a well.

Meanwhile, in Balliguda's Carmelite convent, a statue of Mary, now headless and burned, scares those entering its destroyed premise.

"We do not have even a glass here to drink water," said Sister Sujata, superior of the order.

When the heavily armed mobs broke in, the nuns hid under the staircase.

"When they spotted us, they wanted to drag the younger ones into the room and molest them," said Sister Sujata. In addition to the four nuns, four young women -- including two novices -- were in the convent, which has a hostel for 120 poor girls.

"We prayed and held our hands together and resisted," Sister Sujata recalled. Fortunately, the assailants let them go, and the nuns jumped over the back walls and fled into the pitch-black darkness of the jungle. After a week, the nuns returned once federal security forces were deployed there.

At the Capuchin seminary in Barakhama, less than 10 miles from Balliguda, Father Chinnappa Payarda and 32 seminarians kept vigil in the bitter cold. They thought the danger was over, but a Hindu helper came running around noon on Christmas, shouting, "They are coming."

"We fled for our lives and could not take out any important document," said the rector, who is worried about losing all the documents, including the original school certificates of a new batch of seminarians.

As they fled in different directions, two seminarians were caught by the Hindu mob that spared them for being "too young."

"We want to kill the priests only," one of the mob leaders told the others, ordering them "not to harm" the teenage seminarians.

Father Robi Subhashsunder, parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish about 75 miles from Barakhama, said that while he was on the phone briefing Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar about the trouble, the priest saw mobs breaking down his locked gates. He escaped safely.

Over the next few days, he stayed in the jungle with the other Catholic families, surviving on stream water and wild fruit. He recalled seeing a 3-year-old Catholic child dying during the jungle sojourn.

"I do not know what to do now," Father Subhashsunder told CNS Jan. 6 after returning to his parish.

The Church’s Religious Life

From First Things
Posted by Ryan T. Anderson on February 5, 2008
(Emphases mine)

The Drudge Report is highlighting this BBC article on the decline of religious life in the Catholic Church. Here’s the basic gist:

Newly published statistics showed that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006.

During the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II, the number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by a quarter.

The downward trend accelerated despite a steady increase in the membership of the Catholic Church to more than 1.1bn.

However, correspondents say even this failed to keep pace with the overall increase in world population.

I’ve often wondered what the decline in religious life has meant for the average Catholic. Personally, I can count the number of religious sisters and brothers that I know on one hand–and this includes people I met growing up in Baltimore, attending college and then working in Princeton, and now living and working in Manhattan. If I include diocesan priests (technically “secular”), the number jumps up, but even then it’s fair to say that I don’t really “know” most of the priests who have administered the sacraments to me. If push came to shove, there would probably be a couple priests from college and New York who, in a time of trouble, I’d feel comfortable going to see. My parents experienced something different. They, of course, went to Catholic schools all their life, were taught by religious brothers and sisters, and still have vivid memories of the relationships that were forged–relationships that secured them in the faith. One wonders what the loss of religious witness and a ministry of presence has meant to the Church simply on a person-to-person level.

Of course times change. Renewal movements in the Church have opened new possibilities for Christian vocation and holiness in ordinary life. People who might have joined religious communities in times past now find themselves involved with groups like Communion and Liberation, Opus Dei, Regnum Christi, Focolare, and the Neo-Catechumenal Way–all providing lay people with models, organizational supports, and what certainly seem to some like lay vocations. The members of these groups say that a rising tide lifts all ships and a general increase in holiness in the Church will–and, according to their experience, already has–led to priestly and religious vocations. If they’re right, and they likely are, one shudders to think how much more drastic the decline in religious life would be if the renewal movements didn’t exist.

Some will argue that the Church doesn’t need robust religious communities, especially not the ones in monasteries and convents. It’s no longer the Middle Ages, and the Catholic Church doesn’t need to sustain Western culture behind the walls of the Carmel. So much for contemplative life–and the prayers that sustain the Church. The active religious communities? Well, they’re fine and good, but can’t we leave this social work to professional social workers? And in light of the feminist movement, can’t women aspire to something more than soothing bed sores in Calcutta? Somehow the personal witness of a life radically devoted to Christ in loving service to others seems radically discounted.

Yet the institutional loss has been no less severe. And here my mind immediately jumps to some of the most pressing needs daunting contemporary society: decent education for those who can’t afford it; food, drink, shelter and assistance to independence for the homeless; health care for those whose salaries can just meet their bare necessities like rent, heating and electricity, and groceries. One wonders if the state will ever be able to meet these needs–let alone the need for personal care and human love. Maybe the charitable activities of the Church alone will suffice. What would happen to our inner cities if Catholic schools, hospitals, soup kitchens and shelters shut down? But the sad reality is that many of them depend on governmental moneys. When the Church had a ready supply of celibate religious–without the need to earn a wage to provide for a family, with the freedom to give themselves completely to their ministry, and expecting (even vowing) a life of poverty–staffing Catholic schools and Catholic hospitals was much easier.

The situation isn’t entirely bleak. One is forced to think about communities like the Nashville Dominican sisters, or the Sisters of Life, or the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal–youthful, vibrate, orthodox, flourishing communities. Maybe they’re the future of religious life.

I’m just thinking out loud, and I’m rambling, so I’ll stop here. But maybe this Lent a prayer intention should be for an increase in vocations to religious life.

What Vocation Shortage?

By Russell Shaw
March 29, 2004

Despite all the talk about a vocation shortage, there is in fact no such thing in the Catholic Church. The real shortage is that of vocational discernment, and that is a very different problem. The shortfall in the number of candidates for the priesthood, the consecrated life and other forms of Christian witness and service would quickly disappear if many more Catholics, and ideally all, made it a practice to discern, accept and live out their unique, irreplaceable callings from God—their personal vocations.

The idea of personal vocation and the practice of discernment are also the key to removing clericalism from Catholic life once and for all and replacing it with a healthy understanding of clergy-lay relationships. Personal vocation and vocational discernment also are crucial to helping the laity, along with everyone else, understand and embrace their proper roles in carrying out the church’s mission.

These are large claims, of course. In weighing them, it is useful to begin with the three distinct but related senses that the word “vocation” has in religious talk.

The first of these is the common Christian vocation received in baptism and strengthened by confirmation. In very general terms, the common vocation consists in what follows from the commitment of faith: loving and serving God above all else and loving and serving one’s neighbor as oneself, and so collaborating in the redemptive work of Christ that is the mission of the church. In 1964 the Second Vatican Council offered a succinct but clear statement of the idea when it said the baptized are “appointed by their baptismal character to Christian religious worship” and have an obligation to “profess before people the faith they have received” (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” No. 11).

The second meaning of the word refers to what traditionally is called “state in life.” The clerical state, the consecrated life, Christian marriage, the life of the single lay person in the world—these are states in life. They are specifications of the common Christian vocation, chosen by overarching commitments that set us on long-term paths that shape our lives by the countless specific choices and actions needed to see them through to the end. Christian states in life are meant to complement and reinforce one another, not to compete.

The third sense in which “vocation” is used is that of personal vocation. It is the unique combination of commitments, relationships, obligations, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses through which the common Christian vocation and a state in life are concretely expressed in the case of someone trying to discern, accept and live out God’s will; it is the particular role intended by God for each of us in his redemptive plan. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Or, as Pope John Paul II said in a message for World Vocations Day in 2001, “Every life is a vocation.”

When Catholics speak of vocation, they usually mean state in life. In fact, they usually mean priesthood or religious life. A “vocations director” is someone in a diocese or religious institute responsible for recruiting and screening those who think they may be called to be priests or religious; a “vocations program” is a program with this purpose. From one point of view, there is nothing wrong with speaking of vocation in this way. Priesthood and religious life really are states of life and, for some people, central parts of their callings from God. From another point of view, however, exclusive emphasis on vocation as state of life—and, practically speaking, as a call to be a priest or religious—can do much harm.

The most obvious harm is in communicating to those not called to be priests or religious the message, “You don’t have a vocation.” That may be disappointing for some and welcome news for others; but in either case it is a disincentive to continuing discernment, acceptance and living out of God’s will for oneself. Here is one of the root causes of the clericalist mentality still so widespread among Catholics.

The idea of personal vocation is the antidote. Everybody has one—God calls every member of the church by name. Seen in this light, the challenge is not to find out whether you have a vocation but to identify the vocation you unquestionably have.

The idea of personal vocation is unfamiliar to most Catholics today, but it is hardly new. It is rooted in the Pauline doctrine of charisms and of the church as the body of Christ. Other classic sources of Christian wisdom have developed the insight further. St. Francis de Sales, for instance, spoke of personal vocation in his Treatise on the Love of God, though he did not use the term. It is not God’s will that everyone live the evangelical counsels, he points out, “but only such counsels as are suitable according to differences in persons, times, occasions, and abilities.” Writers like St. Ignatius Loyola and Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J., suggest the same.

Cardinal John Henry Newman offered a particularly insightful exposition of personal vocation in one of the sermons he gave while still an Anglican, “Divine Calls.” Newman emphasized the here-and-now, ongoing character of this uniquely personal call: “For in truth we are not called once only, but many times; all through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in baptism; but afterwards also.... He works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in all essential respects what His voice was to those whom He addressed when on earth.”

Given the existence of this powerful and persuasive testimony, why have Catholics been slow to grasp the idea of personal vocation? One probable reason is that Martin Luther was an enthusiastic exponent of this truth. “Everyone must tend his own vocation and work,” he wrote. But Luther also rejected the idea of mediation in the spiritual realm and, with it, priesthood and religious life. The reaction this provoked among Catholics helped make the idea of personal vocation suspect in Catholic circles for centuries.

In modern times, nevertheless, the concept can be found in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and in many postconciliar documents of the magisterium. No one has analyzed the idea more carefully or promoted it more vigorously than Pope John Paul II, who wrote about personal vocation long before becoming pope (in Love and Responsibility, which appeared in Poland in 1960) and has returned to it time and again during his pontificate. In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, published in 1979, he said:

For the whole of the community of the People of God and for each member of it what is in question is not just a specific social membership; rather, for each and every one what is essential is a particular “vocation.” Indeed, the church as the People of God is also “Christ’s Mystical Body.” Membership in that body has for its source a particular call, united with the saving action of grace. Therefore, if we wish to keep in mind this community of the People of God...we must see first and foremost Christ saying in a way to each member of the community: “Follow me.” (No. 21)

The idea of personal vocation is an important complement to Vatican II’s teaching about the universal call to holiness. All members of the faithful, not just a select few, are called “to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love,” the council declares (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” No. 39). But there is not much guidance for living this out, and even less incentive to do so, in telling people that if God has not called them to be clerics or religious, they do not have a vocation in any meaningful sense.

Personal vocation puts this matter in a radically different light. Everyone has a personal vocation, an unrepeatable call from God to play a particular role in his redemptive plan and the mission of the church. The task of each is to discern God’s will, accept it and live it out. That is responding to the universal call to be holy.

Contrary to an elitist view of vocational discernment, which tends to treat it as an exercise for a select few, discernment is for everybody. “The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one’s vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it out,” Pope John Paul II says in his post-synod document on the laity, Christifideles Laici (1989).

To carry out this mandate, parishes need to become schools of vocational discernment—places where liturgy, catechesis and spiritual direction encourage parishioners to engage in continuing, prayerful reflection on what God is asking of them. The effort should start with children (in an age-appropriate manner) and continue with adolescents, young adults and adults at every stage of their life journey. Special opportunities—retreats, days of recollection—should be provided for those who have major vocational choices to make. The aim is discernment, not recruitment.

But, someone might object, won’t emphasizing personal vocation distract people from heeding calls to the priesthood and consecrated life? Won’t it make the real-life vocation shortage worse?
The answer is no. If many more Catholics practiced ongoing discernment regarding their personal vocations, many more would discover that they are called to the priesthood or consecrated life. The best solution to the dearth of new candidates—and to many other problems in contemporary Catholic life as well—is personal vocation. Indeed, it may be the only one.

Hat tip to Intentional Disciples for posting this article.