The Seminary Admissions Board for the Diocese of La Crosse is a consultative body that assists the Bishop in his responsibility of discerning the call to the Priesthood among men desiring to study for the Priesthood for the Diocese.  Seven members comprise the Board: the Director of Vocations for the Diocese, three Priests (including myself), a consecrated religious (sister), a medical doctor, and a married lay woman.  In preparation for our semiannual meetings, we review the extensive application materials on each man including results from numerous psychological tests and medical examination along with his academic record, letters of reference, autobiography, and answers to essay questions covering aspects of his family life, faith journey and knowledge, friendships, talents and skills, work history, and weaknesses.  Before a man is scheduled for an interview with the Board, the Director of Vocations personally meets with him and his family.  Normally, the Director of Vocations has already had extensive contact with the man through personal meetings and phone calls as well as email and through various programs in the Diocese that promote vocations to the Priesthood.  When the Director of Vocations deems that there are sufficient signs of a potential vocation and the man has completed the extensive application materials, he schedules a meeting with the Admissions Board during its Spring or Winter session.  The Board interviews each man for 30 minutes after which he meets privately with the Bishop.  Once all the interviews of the day are completed, the Board meets with the Bishop to discuss each candidate.  The Board formulates recommendations to the Bishop regarding acceptance or rejection or deferral and to which seminary the man should be sent.  In light of this consultation the Bishop makes the final decision regarding each man.  The process is humane but incredibly extensive and rather grueling, as it should be.  After last week’s interviews, our Diocese now has 19 men in the college seminary, 9 men in theology (including Deacon Billy Dodge), 3 men who have finished theology but are completing other requirements, and 3 men on a pastoral year to gain parish experience and do further discernment in a parish setting with a mentor priest.  Pray for all these men who have answered the Lord’s invitation to serve as a Priest.

Our parishes are happy to welcome Deacon Billy Dodge who this week begins his full-time summer internship with us.  Deacon Dodge will be living with me in the Pastor’s residence in Elmwood.  He will be assisting Deacon Kevin Ray and me in the pastoral care of our parishioners.  Until the arrival of Deacon Kevin Ray in early 2013, our parishes have never experienced that particular aspect of the rich variety and diversity that is the Church.  Because this is a new to our three parishes, the presence of one – much less two! – has caused confusion and indeed consternation among some parishioners.  The life and ministry of deacons is not new to the Church however!  Indeed, the service of Deacons is attested to since the time of the Apostles.  The institution of the “seven” mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (6:1-6) is seen as the origin of the diaconate.  Saint Paul refers to Deacons in the salutation of his Letter to the Philippians (1:1) and lists the qualities and virtues which they should possess in his First Letter to Timothy (3:8-13).  Up to the fifth century the life and ministry of Deacons flourished in the western Church.  Subsequent to this, however, there began a slow and steady decline with the result that in the Latin West ordination to the diaconate was conferred only as a transition to ordination to the Priesthood.  In contrast, the Churches of the East have always maintained the diaconate as a stable ministry.  The fathers of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) expressed the desire to reactivate for the West the permanence of the diaconate as “a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy” ( Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 29) – in other words, a stable state of life and ministry that does not terminate in Priestly ordination.  With 1967 Blessed Paul VI established the general norms for restoring the so-called “permanent” diaconate in the Latin Church.  The following year the Holy Father granted permission to the Bishops of the United States to reestablish the permanent diaconate in our nation.  The first class of permanent Deacons was ordained for service in the Diocese of La Crosse in 1983.  So there are many parishes and areas of our Diocese (and throughout the world!) where parishioners have extensive experience of the life and ministry of Deacons and all that entails.  Our parishes now have the joy of experiencing what others have known for decades!  Because our parishes have previously not been blessed with diaconal ministry we have had to do some catching up!  Through homilies, the bulletin, and the parish website we are growing in our understanding (or learning for the first time!) regarding the Church and the life and ministry of Deacons.  Jesus exhorts us that “the laborer is worth his wages” (Luke 10:7 and Matthew 10:10) and so our parishes provide our Deacons with room and board as well as reimburse them for gasoline.  Before the Bishop assigns Deacons to parishes, the parishes agree not only to provide these basic necessities of food and lodging and reimbursement for expenses incurred in ministry, but also to provide all that is necessary for them to fulfill their duties.  So, for example when assisting at Mass the Deacon is to wear the vestments proper to his office (see General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 171), namely, the dalmatic or outermost vestment and the diaconal stole which is worn underneath.  Since our parishes never had a Deacon – much less two Deacons! – we had no vestments for them to exercise their most important ministry among us, that is, assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  So our parishes have had to “play catch up” by purchasing the required vestments.  The vestments of the priest (chasuble) and the deacon (dalmatic) are literally sewn from the same cloth as a physical manifestation of the reality that they are one in the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  However, the vestments are different in shape as a physical manifestation of the reality that one is ordained unto the Priesthood and the other is ordained unto service (in Greek, diaconia, from which we get the word “Deacon”).

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!  Saint Luke, pray for us!
Father Kevin C. Louis, STL