Ordination update: 13 new deacons for Trenton

Photo: Joe Moore

Details from The Trenton Monitor: 

St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, was filled with relatives, friends and clergy who were on hand to witness the ordination of 13 permanent deacons by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., May 10.

“We come for a holy purpose: to ordain these 13 men – your husbands, your fathers, your relatives and friends – to the order of deacon,” said Bishop O’Connell.

“They have prayed and listened and learned what that order means and what it requires of them…The story of the Church’s deacons over the centuries is a rich and profound one but a theme ties that story together over these many, many years. The deacon enables the successors to the apostles to offer their apostolic ministry to the people of God in the proclamation of the Word, the liturgy of the Church and its works of charity. They stand close by the bishop and his collaborators, the priests – not as bishops, not as priests, but as deacons – to serve and not to be served.”

The new deacons and the parishes to which they are assigned are: Christopher H. Chandonnet, St. Joseph, Millstone Township; Timothy R. Collins, St. Mary of the Lakes, Medford; Richard D. Coscarelli, Ascension, Bradley Beach; Gregory J. Costa, St. Raphael-Holy Angels, Hamilton; Philip T. Craft, St. Pius X, Forked River; Peter F. Downing, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Whiting; Joseph F. Gili, St. Pius X, Forked River; Richard J. Hobson, St. James, Pennington; John R. Isaac, St. Gregory the Great, Hamilton Square; Christian Knoebel, St. Monica, Jackson; Sean McMahon, St. Mary of the Lakes, Medford; Daniel C. Sakowski, St. Catherine of Siena, Farmingdale; Steven A. Wagner, St. Mary, Barnegat.

Read more and see a photo gallery at this link.  And you can learn more about the new deacons here. 

Congratulations and welcome, brothers! Ad multos annos!