The Deacon's Bench
The ordination of 10 men as permanent deacons in the Diocese of Salina includes a man whose son is studying for the priesthood.
That will be a first in the diocese and an event that both Ron Lehman and his son Brent of Manhattan are eagerly awaiting.
“I’m excited to see it happen. It’s a really exciting time,” Brent Lehman said of his father’s ordination.
“I thought it was really cool,” he said when he father began formation for the permanent diaconate. “A couple of guys here at seminary have dads who are permanent deacons. I thought, ‘How cool is that, to have my Dad process up there with me and kiss the altar with me?’ ”
Brent Lehman has four more years of seminary before he is ordained to the priesthood, whereas Ron Lehman will begin his new duties shortly after the June 22 ordination.
“I’m looking forward to it: Brent and me together. That will be great, but it will be a few years down the road,” he said.
He actually began discerning a vocation as a permanent deacon well before his son entered seminary.
“I was in the first class seven or eight years ago,” he said. “I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do. … I was big into choir and lectoring and cantoring, and I was afraid being a deacon would distract from what I loved to do, so I backed out.
“Later I thought, ‘Boy, you dummy.’ So when the second class was formed, I jumped in with both feet,” he said.
Ron Lehman’s call to the diaconate grew out of his expanding service to the Church.
He converted to Catholicism when he and his wife, Reyne, married, and later, after they started a family, Sister Janice Wagner encouraged him to become more active in St. Patrick Parish in Ogden.
“She got me into cantoring and lectoring and the parish council — I was president about 20 years at Ogden. Once I had a little push, it just started snowballing. Every year it seemed there was something else, and I thought, ‘Why not me?’ ”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In