Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 81, No. 24
The
Sou
Diocese of
Savannah
hern
(Cross
Thursday, June 21, 2001
$.50 per issue
Back-to back ordinations add 3 priests, 16 deacons to diocese
Left: Candidates Jacek Szuster, Adam Kasela and Richard Hart stand as they are called to priesthood at their ordination June 9 in the
Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. Right: Deacon Dewain E. Smith, Bishop J. Kevin Boland and Deacon George Foster (front row)
stand with 16 new permanent deacons and their wives. The men were ordained for the Diocese of Savannah on June 2.
Photos by Jonas N. Jonas.
By Father Douglas K. Clark
Savannah
rr^he organ pealed, trumpets sounded and voices
X rang out as Bishop J. Kevin Boland ordained
16 men to the permanent diaconate on June 2. One
week later, on June 9, he ordained three men to the
priesthood for service in the Diocese of Savannah
in equally splendid ceremonies.
The two ceremonies brought hundreds of family
members, friends and parishioners to the Cathedral
of Saint John the Baptist. They followed on the
heels of the ordination of two seminarians to the
permanent diaconate on May 26 at Saint Mary on
the Hill Church, Augusta.
The 16 new permanent deacons are: Elmore J.
Butler, Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Augusta;
John C. Dallas, Saint Teresa Parish, Albany; Edgar
L. Ensley, Jr., Saint Anne Parish, Columbus;
Richard F. Fetterman, Immaculate Conception
Parish, Moultrie; Brian Goodman, Saint Mary on
the Hill Parish, Augusta; Lawrence A. Guyer, Saint
William Parish, Saint Simons Island; Robert
Herrmann, Saint Anne Parish, Columbus; James A.
Hunt, Sacred Heart Parish, Warner Robins; Ronnie
F. Joiner, Saint Mark Parish, Eastman; Robert D.
Lasseter, Saint John the Evangelist Parish,
Valdosta; Cedric T. Leslie, Saint Peter Claver
Parish, Macon; Michael V. Marchek, Saint
Michael’s Parish, Fort Gordon; John R. Quillen,
Christ the King Parish, Hamilton; Gary Templin,
Saint Stephen’s Parish, Hinesville; William H.
Wilson, Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Folkston;
Stephen Wulf, Saint John the Evangelist Parish,
Valdosta.They had undertaken a four-year forma
tion program, which also involved their wives.
They entered the Cathedral for the ordination
Mass vested in simple albs. Their wives or mothers
entered with them, bearing the stoles and dalmatics
proper to deacons. Following the Liturgy of the
Word, the two single candidates, Edgar L. Ensley,
Jr., and Robert Herrmann, made the promise of
celibacy. While married men may be ordained to
the permanent diaconate, once ordained, they can
not marry or remarry. All the candidates promised
to devote themselves to the service of God’s peo
ple through the Word, the sacraments and especial
ly through works of charity.
They then knelt before the bishop and promised
him and his successors respect and obedience.
During the singing of the Litany of the Saints, the
candidates prostrated themselves as the help of
God’s holy ones was invoked on them. The bishop
laid his hands on their heads and intoned the
solemn prayer of consecration. The new deacons
were then vested with their stoles and dalmatics
and were presented with the Book of the Gospels,
for one of the deacon’s duties at Mass is to pro
claim the Gospel.
Theirs was the third class of permanent deacons
ordained for the diocese. The first class was
ordained in 1978 and the second in 1985. Deacon
Dallas’ son, Ben, a seminarian for the diocese,
flew in from Italy to serve the Mass.
On June 9, transitional deacons Richard Hart,
Adam Kasela and Jacek Szuster were ordained to
the priesthood with similar rites. Father Hart, of
Augusta, had completed his seminary training at
Blessed Pope John XXIII National Seminary in
Weston, Massachusetts. His closest relative, a
brother living in Colorado, attended the ordination.
Fathers Kasela and Szuster, natives of Poland,
drew a large number of family members and
friends from Poland, Canada and Australia as well
as faculty members and classmates from Saint
Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia,
where they had completed their studies for the
priesthood. Fathers Kasela and Szuster are the first
natives of their country to become priests of the
Diocese of Savannah. Some 50 priests joined the
bishop in the imposition of hands and in the cele
bration of the Mass.
The Savannah Deanery Choir, under the direc
tion of Mrs. Joseph C. Schreck, sang at both ordi
nations.
Diaconal ordination photos
Priestly ordination photos
Deafness no impediment
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JB9| —page 7
~ JUk
idi.
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