{"id":2765,"date":"2008-09-29T13:26:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/new-deacons-in-indiana-the-journey-is-just-starting.html"},"modified":"2008-09-29T13:26:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-29T13:26:00","slug":"new-deacons-in-indiana-the-journey-is-just-starting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/new-deacons-in-indiana-the-journey-is-just-starting.html","title":{"rendered":"New deacons in Indiana: “The journey is just starting”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newly ordained deacon sent along this news: Indiana has five new deacons (he’s one of them), and there’s a full write up (and lots of pictures) in the Catholic Moment<\/a> newspaper: <\/p>\n

<\/a> In a celebration that blended prayer, music, pageantry and soul-stirring symbolism, five men were ordained as permanent deacons on Sept. 20 and committed themselves to Christ\u2019s call of service.<\/p>\n

The ordination was witnessed by many clergy, more than a dozen women religious and hundreds of family and friends. <\/p>\n

A high point came during the Litany of Supplication. The candidates lay face-down on the polished marble floor of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception as the Litany of the Saints was sung and Bishop William L. Higi knelt in prayer before the altar.(<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the most moving moment. I felt it through my whole body,\u201d said Joe VanSchepen, 62, one of the new deacons. \u201cI was trembling the whole time; it was the Holy Spirit entering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rite included the calling forth of each candidate; the promise of the elect; and the laying on of hands by the bishop. After the prayer of consecration, the five men were vested in ivory and gold-colored stoles and dalmatics, presented copies of the Book of the Gospels, and welcomed by priests and fellow deacons with embraces and the kiss of peace.<\/p>\n

The newly ordained are: Deacon VanSchepen, of St. Cecilia, DeMotte; Deacon Michael Gray, 54, and Deacon Jose Munoz, 57, both of St. Boniface, Lafayette; Deacon John Jezierski, 60, of St. Thomas Aquinas, West Lafayette, and Deacon William Reid, 60, of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Carmel.<\/p>\n

It was the second class of permanent deacons ordained for the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana. The first was ordained in September 2005.<\/p>\n

The ordination was the capstone of four years of academic, spiritual, pastoral and human formation. Permanent deacons are servant-leaders, and form a distinct order within the ordained ministry of the Church. They are empowered to assist the bishop and priests at the altar, preside at weddings and burials, baptize, bless, and perform other liturgical duties. They do not celebrate Mass, hear confessions or anoint the sick.<\/p>\n

There are approximately 17,000 permanent deacons in the United States. Deacons receive no pay for assigned service, though some may work for the Church in other capacities.<\/p>\n

All of the new deacons are married, with families. Each will have a parish and diocesan assignment. Deacon VanSchepen, for instance, will work in nursing home ministry and develop a program for the Fowler Deanery to serve the spiritual needs of shut-ins and their caregivers. He also will continue work in prison ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe journey is just starting,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read on<\/a> for more. Welcome, brothers! (And those dalmatics are sharp!)<\/p>\n

Photo:by Kevin Cullen<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newly ordained deacon sent along this news: Indiana has five new deacons (he’s one of them), and there’s a full write up (and lots of pictures) in the Catholic Moment newspaper: In a celebration that blended prayer, music, pageantry and soul-stirring symbolism, five men were ordained as permanent deacons on Sept. 20 and committed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deacons"],"yoast_head":"\nNew deacons in Indiana: "The journey is just starting" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/new-deacons-in-indiana-the-journey-is-just-starting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New deacons in Indiana: "The journey is just starting" - 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}