Posted on 05/26/2013 3:30:33 PM PDT by NYer
Archbishop John Nienstedt ordained 10 men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on May 25 at the Cathedral of St. Paul. The men comprised the largest ordination class since 2005, when 15 men were ordained. From left, Deacons Leonard Andrie, John Drees, Spencer Howe, Luke Marquard, James Peterson, Andrew Brinkman, Joah Ellis, Andrew Jaspers, Brian Park and Andrew Stueve listen to Archbishop Nienstedt during his homily. (Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit)
Read Q&As with the 10 newly ordained priests.
Archbishop Nienstedt addresses the men during his homily. (Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit)
Newly-ordained Father Spencer Howe greets Sister Rose Vu, a member of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, after the ordination Mass. (Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit)
From left to right in the photo are: Robert Sweeney, Brian Slezak, Joseph Romand, Andrew Grebe, Richard DiCaprio, and James Davis. Slezak and Davis are the transitional deacons.
No priests, this year! In nearby Columbia County, 5 of their priests, will be retiring this year. Those parishes are now without any priest to consecrate the Eucharist and will have to rely upon visiting priests to consecrate the hosts for their weekend, priestless, services.
Compare this image with that in the above article. God help the Diocese of Albany!
Here in Oregon we will ordain eight priests. Praise the Lord!
May they all serve God and His Church well.
Wonderful pictures! God bless our new priests!
Let’s just say I’m not a fan of the permanent diaconate and leave it at that.
Seven for Bridgeport, NYer!
The Cathedral of St Paul is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the US. However, it was even better before they did the rehabilitation on the copper dome. (It was a beautiful green patina...now it is a dull copper color)
My older sister's husband is also a Permanent Deacon, and was also given many responsibilities by the Pastors at the Parishes where he lived. At the first Parish after his ordination, he preached at Mass sometimes, and also ran the Maritime Ministry, bringing the Eucharist to the men who worked on the boats that came in to the local port. Later,he worked at the Parish at which my brother-in-law (hubby's oldest brother) was Pastor, being the director of Religious Education, as well as preaching at Masses, and working with the Youth Group.
These Deacons can be very helpful to a Pastor in a large parish, doing many of the jobs that usually fall to the priest, but which keep him from doing the job for which HE was ordained, that is, celebrating Mass, ministering to the people of the Parish, and conferring the Sacraments upon them.
The diaconate is one of the steps of ordination. I’m puzzled by your statement.
The permanent deacons have been very valuable additions to the clergy in my diocese of St Cloud (MN).
I think they are assigned to good tasks. For instance one of our deacons is an elementary school teacher so he is at the local grade school teaching the second grade class. His lucky students get to learn their religion from hims as they prepare for the sdacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Cummunion.
In the parish I converted in, the deacon had educational responsibilities at the church and espoused outright heresy.
Another used the diocesan newspaper for his political rants.
A general (not universal) observation is that some (not all) of these men in these parts had contempt for church authority in general and magisterial teachings in particular.
Sounds like the Bishop didn’t have control over those Deacons, or maybe the Bishop was liberal enough that he didn’t care.
2 this year in the Grand Rapids Michigan diocese, however the numbers are way up in the seminary.
Aren’t you supposed to get a new bishop this year?
Bishop Hubbard reaches mandatory retirement age later this year. His good friend, and fellow seminarian, Rochester Bishop Matthew Clark, retired last year. The dioceses of Albany and Rochester are adjacent to each other. Like Hubbard, Clark was an ultra progressive, forcibly retiring priests and turning parishes over to lay ministers, preferably, women. Clark's letter of resignation was accepted and he was told to step down immediately, even though a replacement had not been named. The Rochester diocese was then temporarily entrusted to the Bishop of Syracuse. Do you know of any other similar situation? FWIU, the vatican has a thick dossier on Hubbard. Now we watch and wait to see how all of this plays out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.