(Vatican Radio) This weekend here in Rome, the Church is marking the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in a special way with the Jubilee of Deacons. As their very title suggests – taken as it is from the Greek word for “servant”, diakonos – Deacons are ordained to a ministry of service in the Church: they proclaim the Good News liturgically, they assist priests at the Altar, and they preach to the faithful on matters pertaining to authentic Christian living. Deacons also bring the Blessed Sacrament to the sick in hospital and to the housebound: they visit prisoners, offering them both companionship and counsel; they baptize, receive the marriage vows of couples entering Holy Matrimony, and they pray for the dead.
Two Deacons from the United States, the Rev. Messrs. Doug Breckenridge and Greg Kandra, visited Vatican Radio during the course of their pilgrimage to celebrate the Jubilee of Deacons, and spoke with us about the joys and challenges of their vocation, especially in the present generation of the Church in the West, which recovered the Permanent Diaconate as a distinct ministry during and after the II Vatican Ecumenical Council.
Click below to hear our extended conversation Deacon Greg Kandra and Deacon Doug Breckenridge
“I think – and I think many people would agree with this – it is one of the great success stories of Vatican II,” said Deacon Kandra (of the Diocese of Brooklyn , NY, who, in “civilian” life, was a producer for CBS News , and who now works closely with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and blogs at Aleteia ). “In my diocese in particular,” added Deacon Breckenridge (of the Diocese of Dallas , Tx., who made his career in the banking and finance industry, and who has been committed for several years to working with the Children’s Medical Center ), “there are three [Diaconate formation] classes going at once: so, every two years, they start a new class of thirty to forty men,” who undertake the roughly six-year program of formation for the Diaconate, which often takes place on nights and weekends over that six-year period.
Both Deacon Kandra and Deacon Breckenridge are married – and while there is no requirement that men in the Permanent Diaconate be married, the vast majority of men who pursue their studies to the end and accept Ordination are married when they do. “My wife was very supportive,” explained Deacon Kandra, “she and I prayed together when I was discerning this – in early 2002 – and she said, ‘I just feel this is something you are supposed to do,’ and I said, ‘I do too.’.”
Deacon Breckenridge explained that Deacons’ wives do not only play a central role in discernment, but also in ministry. “A wife can choose to have her husband taken out of formation at any time, without him knowing that his wife has asked,” said Deacon Breckenridge. He went on to say that his ministry has informed his married life. “It has deepened our relationship,” he said, “we both are more active in the Church,” since he was ordained, and Mrs. Breckenridge also contributes to her husband’s service specifically as a Deacon. “She is my best editor for my homilies,” he explained.
“We also help in all areas of marriage ministry,” Deacon Breckenridge continued, “I think it is one thing that, as a married couple, we bring,” i.e. their experience of married life, which they are happy to share with couples seeking the Sacrament of Matrimony from the Church.
“Being the wife of a Deacon is almost a vocation unto itself,” offered Deacon Kandra. “My wife is a great collaborator – a great prayer warrior,” he continued, “she makes it possible for me to do what I do.”
Deacon Kandra concluded the conversation with high praise for the Diaconate as a calling of service that is one of constant surprise and discovery. “I always say it was the second-best decision I ever made: the first one being to marry my wife,” he said. “It is such an adventure, and it is such a joy: I wake up some days and I can’t believe I get to do what I do.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received some four hundred children of different ethnicities, cultures and religions – many of them migrants and refugees – who had traveled to Rome from Calabria in southern Italy aboard the “Children’s Train” – the Treno dei Bambini – an annual initiative of the Pontifical Council for Culture, which this year has as its theme, “Carried by waves”: a theme that is designed at once to invoke the often deadly danger of migration, and the hope in the promise of a better future that drives people – along with the threat of torture, slavery and death – to flee their homelands and seek a better life on strange and distant shores.
Click below to hear our full report
The children arrived Saturday at St. Peter’s railway station in the Vatican: their conveyance brining also the pain of the experience of its young passengers – their undeniable suffering, weaved together with the care and affection offered the children by the John XXIII Association, and the work of the “Quattrocanti” Children’s Orchestra of Palermo (in which boys and girls of eight different ethnicities are involved), as well as the initiative of Mary Salvia, principal of a school in Vibo Marina, who brought to Pope Francis the money from her school’s collection for the children of Lesbos and a letter signed by her pupils, which Cardinal Ravasi read to the Pope. “We children promise that we will welcome anyone who arrives in our country: we shall never consider anyone who has a different skin color, or who speaks a different language, or who professes a different religion from ours, a dangerous enemy.”
In an unscripted exchange with the young travelers, Pope Francis focused on the human cost of indifference to the plight of migrants, recounting the story and sharing the words of a rescue worker who brought the Holy Father the life vest of a young migrant who drowned at sea. “He brought me this jacket,” said Pope Francis, “and with tears in his eyes he said to me, ‘Father, I couldn’t do it – there was a little girl on the waves, and I did all I could, but I couldn’t save her: only her life vest was left.’” Then, indicating the Jacket, the Holy Father said, “I do not [tell you this because I] want you to be sad, but [because] you are brave and you [should] know the truth: they are in danger – many boys and girls, small children, men, women – they are in danger,” he said. “Let us think of this little girl: what was her name? I do not know: a little girl with no name. Each of you give her the name you would like, each in his heart. She is in heaven, she is looking on us.”
A teachable moment among many afforded by the occasion, as was the moment in which one of the Pope’s young visitors asked him what it means “to be Pope”: The Holy Father replied, “[to do] the good that I can do.” He went on to say, “I feel that Jesus called me to this: Jesus wanted me to be a Christian, and a Christian must do [the good he can]; and Jesus also wanted me to be a priest, and a bishop – and a priest and a bishop must do [the good they can]; I feel that Jesus is calling me to do this – that’s what I feel,” he said.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday met with Mr. Tony Tan Keng Yam, the President of the Republic of Singapore, who subsequently met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States.
A statement issued by the Holy See Press Office said the meeting was “cordial” and the parties spoke about “the good relations between the Holy See and Singapore, as well as the collaboration between Church and State, especially in the educational and social fields.”
The statement also said they also spoke about certain international issues and the regional political situation, with particular reference to the importance of interreligious and intercultural dialogue for the promotion of human rights, stability, justice and peace in Southeast Asia.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday met with Hebe de Bonafini, 87, the founder and president of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo). The Association was formed by the mothers of those dissidents who “disappeared” ( los desaparecidos ) during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina. During this period, Hebe de Bonafini lost two sons and her daughter-in-law.
She spoke after her meeting with the Holy Father, and told journalists the two had embraced and that apologized for earlier criticisms she had made of the Pope.
She also said they discussed the current situation in Argentina, especially the large number of people out of work, and struggling to survive.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Deacons and their families from around the world are convening in Rome this weekend to participate in a Jubilee for Deacons as part of the year-long celebrations for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
The Diaconate is a ministry rooted in mercy, founded originally so that the Church has specialists to engage in certain works while priests can focus on celebrating the sacraments.
Listen to Alexander MacDonald’s report:
Reverend David Howell is a deacon studying in Rome and a seminarian at the Venerable English College. He told us a bit about the origins of this ministry in the Church.
“It began with an argument in the early Church over two groups, those who had come from the Jews and those who had come from the Greeks, and they were arguing about the distribution between their two groups. So they needed men full of faith in the Holy Spirit who could sort out these domestic problems, while the Apostles were preaching, spreading the Good News. And they ordained seven men, who they knew were full of faith and the Holy Spirit, who could sort out these problems. It’s very interesting because as soon as they do that the Bible tells us ‘the Word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly.”
He also says the role of the deacon is rooted in mercy, foremost because of its connection to the sacraments.
“Well, I think the two moments of mercy that come to my mind when I think of being a deacon are the two sacraments that the Deacon administers: the Sacrament of Baptism. There is probably no greater act of mercy than that.”
And as thousands of deacons descend on Rome, it’s appropriate to celebrate the diaconate in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy with the Holy Father.
“Mercy is a message that we need to hear again and again because it’s almost too good to be true. And I think the Deacon is one who can really give that message. The Deacon, one of his roles is to proclaim the Gospel and to preach and so I think that’s really where the diaconate comes into the Year of Mercy.”
The program of events for the weekend includes making a pilgrimage through one of the Holy Doors in Rome, sessions focusing on the ways Deacons make God’s mercy known to the faithful and culminates in a Mass with Pope Francis on Sunday.
(from Vatican Radio)…