VATICAN CITY - Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J.,
ordained 33 men from the Pontifical North American College to
the diaconate Oct. 4 in St. Peter's Basilica.
Hundreds of family members, friends and students filled the
pews at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's as they watched
the joy-filled liturgy rich in symbolic tradition.
Those attending the Mass included U.S. Cardinal Edwin F.
O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulcher of Jerusalem and a former rector of the U.S.
seminary in Rome; a number of U.S. bishops; and John
McCarthy, who has been named Australia's ambassador to the
Vatican.
Two of the new deacons studying at the college are
Australians and were ordained for the Archdiocese of Sydney.
The 31 Americans were ordained for 29 different dioceses
across the United States, including Nicholas Barnes and
Brendan Bartlett from the Arlington Diocese.
The men processed into the basilica to the sounds of the
"Laudate Dominum" ("Praise the Lord").
Archbishop Myers, a former student at the college and
chairman of its board of governors, delivered the homily.
He recalled being in Rome during the last sessions of the
Second Vatican Council, which, he said, put renewed emphasis
on the Word of God, which the new deacons will be called upon
to preach and explain.
"We Catholics did not always value the Word of God as we
should have. The Second Vatican Council and the authentic
renewal to which the Holy Spirit called the church changed
that," he said.
Those who are called to serve the church as ordained
ministers are part of "a great office" whose limits are set
"by our failure to love as Jesus loved," he said.
"Who we are and what we have become is like a 'sounding
board' against which the word of God reverberates. We must
always remember that it is God's word and not our own," he
said.
The reality of being human means being "limited, weak and
sinful," and therefore, the church's ministers must remember
they are dependent on God's help for fulfilling their
mission. They must stay "in contact with the living and
public proclamation of the church," he said.
That kind of contact with the living presence of the Lord,
with the church's living faith and traditions, "purifies and
corrects" the minister's experience, he said. As God's
servants are personally transformed, so too will those they
serve.
During the ceremony, the deacon candidates made the promises
of celibacy, prayer, and obedience. All the new deacons are
preparing for ordination to the priesthood.
Several family members in the pews wiped tears from their
eyes when the candidates went one by one to the bishop, knelt
before him and placed their hands between the hands of the
archbishop during their promise of obedience.
The men then prostrated themselves on the floor, in a sign of
humility and prayer, as the congregation knelt and sang the
litany of the saints.
After the men were ordained deacons, they put on a deacon's
stole and vestment called the dalmatic.
The ordination Mass was held on the feast of St. Francis of
Assisi, the patron saint of the college's deacon class of
2012. In his homily, Archbishop Myers said the way St.
Francis lived his life "helped the word come alive in
people's hearts and minds and lives."
He said what St. Francis said then is "timeless and
appropriate for each of us today: 'Preach the Gospel at all
times, and when necessary, use words.'"