The Deacon's Bench
Bishop David Ricken told four deacon candidates for ordination that there are great needs for their ministerial service. Before ordaining John Bundra, Ernesto Gonzalez, Jr., Mark LeGreve and Michael Zebroski to the diaconate May 10 at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Bishop Ricken encouraged the men to embrace the new evangelization and share the Gospel with others.
In his homily before the ordination rite, attended by several hundred people, Bishop Ricken explained that the church is faced “with many new challenges.”
“Not long ago, maybe 50, 60 years ago, most people went to church on Sunday almost all of the time,” he said. “The person who did not attend Sunday worship expressed a choice that was countercultural. Today the entire scene has flipped. Today it is countercultural to attend regular Sunday worship and to live a Christian life.”
This secular climate, he told the four deacon candidates, is what they face. “To choose a Christian life has become an expression of personal conviction” rather than a way of life, he said. “The whole church that many of us grew up with has changed. It’s a whole new scene out there and we bishops, priests, religious, deacons, lay faithful, we all have to change up the way we are doing things and that is called the new evangelization.”
Bishop Ricken explained that the new evangelization “is all about evangelizing Catholics.”
Read the rest and see more pictures here.
Congratulations and welcome! Ad multos annos!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In