The Deacon's Bench
Details from The Catholic Key:
Call them the Lucky Thirteen, but it is the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph that benefits.
The largest single class of permanent deacons ever ordained at one time in the Diocese took their vows and received the Sacrament of Holy Orders June 7 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
They are:
Rev. Mr. Richard Boyle, assigned to Church of the Good Shepherd, Smithville.
Rev. Mr. Daniel Brink, assigned to St. Gabriel Parish, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. Marcelino Canchola, assigned to St. Patrick Parish, St. Joseph.
Rev. Mr. James Dougherty, assigned to St. Louis Parish, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. Richard Gross, assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. Tyrone Gutierrez, assigned to St. Thomas More Parish, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. Keith Hoffman, assigned to Our Lady of the Presentation, Lee’s Summit.
Rev. Mr. John Nash, assigned to St. Patrick Parish, St. Joseph.
Rev. Mr. Dien Nguyen, assigned to Church of the Holy Martyrs, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. James Olshefski, assigned to St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Kansas City.
Rev. Mr. John Purk, assigned to serve as president of St. Michael the Archangel High School, Lee’s Summit.
Rev. Mr. Douglas Warrens, assigned to St. Therese Parish, Parkville.
Rev. Mr. John Wichmann, assigned to Church of the Good Shepherd, Smithville.
“These men have been chosen to be servants of God’s people,” Bishop Robert W. Finn said at their ordination Mass.
“They have sought to answer God’s call with the offering and oblation of their lives. The church confirms this call and I will invoke upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders so that the new deacons may have the benefit of supernatural assistance,” the bishop said.
The rank of permanent deacon dates to the earliest days of the church when the apostles ordained men to serve the widows, the poor and the sick.
It was revived shortly after the Second Vatican Council, and revived again in 1998 in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph by the late Bishop Raymond J. Boland, who three years later ordained the diocese’s first eight men to the permanent diaconate since 1984.
It is a unique call to service, Bishop Finn told the congregation that packed the Cathedral.
“The deacon serves in the name of Christ and in the place of Jesus Christ,” he said, recalling the words of the Gospel reading for the ordination liturgy: “Whoever serves me must follow me; Where I am, there also my servant will be.”
“This identification of the disciple with Christ, which many rightfully associate with the ministry of the ordained deacon, extends also to the great self-sacrifice by which Christ gave his life,” Bishop Finn said.
Congratulations, brothers, and welcome. Ad multos annos!
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