Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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 —page 6 JB9| —page 7 ~ JUk idi. —page 11 | • •!