Men attend informational meetings about diaconate

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
July 29, 2004

The Office of the Diaconate recently sponsored two informational meetings for men of the Diocese of Sioux City to learn more about the permanent diaconate.

The meetings were held on July 12 at Blessed Sacrament Church in Sioux City and July 25 at the Corpus Christi Parish Center in Fort Dodge. The meetings were for men 31 to 61 who might feel a call to the diaconate.

"It is something that we do every once in a while," said Deacon Tim Murphy, co-director of the Office of the Diaconate. "We know that there are people out there thinking about it, but they may not be sure. There are also some guys that would make good deacons but they may never have considered it."

Pastors were contacted and asked to send out letters or to contact men that they thought would be interested in the diaconate.

Men were able to attend, ask questions and meet some deacons and their wives. Married men were encouraged to bring their wives, because of the importance of the wife and children in the decision as to whether the man should enter the course of study for the diaconate. At the meeting in Sioux City, 12 men attended and four men attended the meeting in Fort Dodge.

"We think it is really important that the wife be involved in deciding if this is the right thing to do," said Deacon Murphy. "The guy is going to become a deacon, but if they are married, it is going to affect her too."

The meetings presented what is a deacon, what is their role and what are the requirements to become a deacon. Some basic requirements are: they must be of sound moral character, mature faith and possess a sense of vocation to service and experiences in works of charity and justice. They must be able to communicate well and work as a part of a community of the faithful from the parish and the diocesan level.

"Some people aren't really sure what is all involved in being a deacon," said Deacon Murphy. "We talked about qualifications according to Canon Law, about who can and can't be a deacon and what kind of training and formation program they would be going through."

This fall, the process will begin with the first step, the foundations path. There will be four sessions held involving discernment to help the men look at themselves. They will continue to learn about what it means to be a deacon and go through the process of deciding if they are called to be a deacon.

"This is something new we are doing this year," said Deacon Murphy. "Then, if they do feel they want to go on, they can apply to the program."

In January, classes for aspirants to the diaconate will begin. That will get into more detail about what it means to be a deacon spiritually, on a human side and on an intellectual side. There will be different classes and a retreat.

The next step would be becoming a candidate, which would be in the fall of 2005. Candidates take the Church Ministries Program classes. These are held every other Saturday at Sacred Heart in Early, starting in September and running through May.

"I think the meetings went really well," noted Deacon Murphy. "We were pleasantly surprised when people started showing up."

Deacon Murphy also commented that even though there was a good turn out, it is hard to tell right now if they are going to go on to eventually become a deacon or not.

For more information about the permanent diaconate, contact Deacon Tim Murphy at (712) 792-0513 or tjmurph57@hotmail.com or Father Armand Bertrand, co-director, at (712) 225-4606. Information about the diaconate can also be found at www.scdiocese.org/Deacon/Deacon1.htm.