Sunshine and Light

A good weekend

My brother got ordained a transitional deacon in the Roman Catholic Church this weekend. This follows a few months of stress, so as a family we're totally, completely relieved. And, as mentioned in an earlier post, he'll probably get to be a Deacon at a local hometown parish, with a priest our whole family knows and likes. So Saturday was a truly joyous day for my family and for Bill's friends.

A friend was asking the progression towards being a priest. Hmm, well it actually works a little differently for different orders. For diocesan priests - the ones who stay in a specific geographic area and primarily tend to parishes - there's no brother step. And timelines vary, with the Jesuits taking up to 14 years to complete training. (Bill will have 7) I believe the Diocesan priest training is 4 or 5 years. But essentially the progression is:

Postulancy - gives the man a chance to decide whether he wants to do this or not. For Bill this was approx 2 months.

Novice - "formation", introduces them to the life they're going to lead. For Bill, this was one year.

Brother - a full member of the order with specific duties and responsibilities under Canon Law. To make things more confusing, with certain groups you can stop here and be a Brother for the rest of your life if you so choose. Essentially a full member of the order, but the duties usually tend to be less sacramental and more day to day heavy lifting. For Bill this was a 5 year period, at the end of which he took "permanent vows" which means that he has committed to stay with the order for the rest of his life.

Deacon - more responsibilities, can preach at Mass, duties are more sacramental. These are also proscribed under Canon Law. This is another one where you can be a permanent Deacon. You can be a permanent Deacon without going through the steps required to be a priest. For a transitional deacon (one who wants to be a priest) this is generally 1 year.

So Bill became a deacon this weekend, and then he'll spend the summer at a parish helping the priest out. Sort of like residency for a doctor, for a transitional deacon this is when they learn the ropes of parish life with a mentor to make sure they don't get crazy. We're pretty excited because the parish Bill will probably be at has a priest that our family knows and likes. So we're happy that he'll have a good one!

Priest

Labels: Travel

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 2:24 PM