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2008 ordination class takes next step
Transitional deacons prepare to live out priestly vocation
By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
November 1, 2007
The road to the priesthood is long and arduous, filled with years of study and discernment.
But for three local men, the goal is in sight.
José Lopez, Arthur Nave and Matt Lowry were all recently ordained transitional deacons at their respective seminaries, allowing them to baptize the faithful, witness weddings and funerals, and preach at Mass.
It is also the last step before their ordination to the priesthood next June.
Fr. Don Kline, diocesan director of vocations, has worked with and helped form these three men from their first days in seminary and said they are well-prepared for the priesthood.
“They’re all very prayerful, and I don’t say that lightly,” Fr. Kline said. “These guys really seek out time with the Lord, especially in adoration.”
He has witnessed this first hand. Whenever Fr. Kline visits a seminary, the first thing he does is enter the adoration chapel after his long flight.
“Several times I’ve walked in and these are the guys that are in there,” he said. “They’re just prayerful men, and as a result, they’re very peaceful.”
But maintaining a prayerful and peaceful posture can be difficult when a man is outside the seminary and thrown into the hectic life of a parish, Fr. Kline said. That will be the challenge for the new deacons, who will spend the next seven or so months assisting at churches near their seminaries.
Deacon Lopez, who was ordained a deacon in April, has already seen the full gamut of parish life. He spent the past summer assisting at his home parish of St. Daniel the Prophet in Scottsdale.
He preached three times a week, baptized, witnessed marriages and presided over the burial of the dead.
“One time, in a period of about two hours, I baptized 13 children and witnessed one marriage,” Deacon Lopez said. “For me, that was a moment of great joy to welcome new believers into Christ’s Church and to participate in the joy of the parents and families.”
He said that through serving the Church as a deacon, “I continue to become more familiar with the sacramental rites of the Church, to deepen my relationship with Jesus through Mary and to grow in mind, body and soul for the extraordinary moment of priestly ordination.”
According to Fr. Kilian McCaffrey, who became a priest last June, that’s the right attitude to have. Many times, he said, transitional deacons can succumb to a disease described at seminary as “deaconitis.”
“After being in seminary for six, seven or eight years, the last-year seminarians just want to be done with the place,” he said. “They’re just sick of it.”
When Fr. McCaffrey was ordained a deacon last October, he asked Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for advice on how to avoid “deaconitis.”
“He gave me some really good advice,” Fr. McCaffrey remembered. “He said, ‘Don’t get caught up in that. Enjoy this time, because you need to be present to those younger seminarians who look up to the deacon class.’ I really took that simple advice to heart.”
But for Fr. McCaffrey, the fondest memory of his time as a transitional deacon was having the ability to preach during Mass.
“It really makes you look at the Scriptures, it makes you take a hard look,” he said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge.”
Both Deacons Nave and Lowry, who were ordained Oct. 27, look forward to preaching, but Deacon Lowry also said, “I’m especially curious and excited about how God will use me to serve the poor, the widowed, the imprisoned, the orphaned and the forgotten.”
He noted “these terms don’t just classify certain people, but pretty much everyone, because most people in our world today struggle with feeling forgotten and unloved. I feel God’s call to love them as God loves me.”
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