Remembering those who served: Deacon retreat to include memorial service
By RENEE WEBB
Globe associate editor
Posted May 23, 2002

Each year the Office of the Permanent Diaconate sponsors a retreat for deacons of the diocese to provide them with spiritual enrichment.

Deacon Ron Forrest, co-director of the office, explained that every ordained deacon is required by canon law to spend some time in retreat every year.

Currently there are 22 active deacons and 14 retired deacons. He anticipates that two deacons will retire by the end of the year. There are 11 men who completed their first year of formation and five men are in a period of discernment.

This year's deacon retreat will be held June 7-9 at Trinity Heights in Sioux City.

"We will start the retreat off a little different this year," said Forrest. "We are going to have a memorial service for all of the deceased deacons and deacon wives of the diocese. Six deacons and three deacons wives died in service to the diocese."

Bishop Lawrence D. Soens will ask the congregation to call to mind all of the people who have died in the service of the Diocese Of Sioux City. The six deceased deacons and three wives of deacons are Charles Bensman, Glenn Heisterkamp, Joseph Maher, Mark McGuire, Dr. George Spellman, Joseph Thompson, Isabel Hart, Ann Sands and Florence Westendorf.

During the ceremony a surviving spouse, family member or friend of the family will be called forward to light a candle in memory of their loved one. The retired bishop will then give them a remembrance pin.

The memorial service will be held at 7 p.m., June 7, in the chapel at Trinity Heights. It is open to anyone who wants to honor these individuals.

This year's retreat leader is Bill Ditewig, a deacon of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill. who was just voted the new president of the National Association of Diaconate Directors at the group's annual convention held April 24-27 in Orlando.

"I spoke with him at the convention," noted Forrest. "The subject matter of the retreat this year is an interesting one. It will focus on Blessed John XXIII."

He was the pope who called the Second Vatican Council, out of which came the restoration of the diaconate. Deacons had been an important part of the early church. Many of the early ones were powerful, wealthy individuals.

Ditewig recently completed his dissertation on the Second Vatican Council for his doctorate in ecclesiology.

"The restoration of the diaconate was not something that was planned, rather it occurred," said Forrest.

To help define the role of the deacon and their wives, seven or eight years ago the U.S. bishops set out on a fact-finding mission. From there a committee formed a deacon directory that is currently in its final stages of revision.

Ditewig was one of three deacons that helped to draft the directory, National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States. The directory also addresses formation guidelines. The guest speaker may address the directory in his presentations.

Forrest expects, as a result of the new directory, deacon candidates in the Diocese of Sioux City will have an extra year of discernment at the beginning of the formation process. In the end, bishops have total control of diaconate programs in their dioceses.

Ditewig has facilitated this same retreat centered on Pope John XXIII in several dioceses.

"I have talked to 25 or 30 deacons and deacon directors who have experienced this retreat," noted Forrest. "They say, for a deacon it is probably their most spiritually rewarding retreat of their lives because they realize their origin."

Five presentations will be offered by Ditewig in the Marian Center at Trinity Heights. These sessions are restricted to deacons and their wives.

Bishop Daniel N. DiNardo plans to meet with the deacons on June 8. He will preside and offer the homily for the liturgy that evening.

Later that night, Ditewig will lead a spiritual exercise.

"Those from out of town will spend the night with a deacon who lives in the city," said Forrest. "This will help build community between those out in the diocese and the deacons that live in Sioux City."