August 12, 2009

Deacons’ regional conference draws record crowd

By Anna Maria Basquez

San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, former auxiliary bishop of Denver, recently encouraged deacons to stand by their bishops using a story from Tarragona, Spain, that dates back many centuries.

In the story, Bishop St. Fructuosus, and his two deacons, Sts. Augurius and Eulogius, were arrested under the Roman Emperor Valerian in the year 259 because  they would not worship Roman idols. After being in prison for six days the bishop and his deacons were all burned to death.

“As they were going to their deaths,” Archbishop Gomez related, “the bishop said to his deacons: ‘Stand firm with me! The bloody serpent calls the servants of God to cruel sufferings, be dauntless in death. The palm of victory awaits you.’”

He recalled the story to emphasize the special relationship the deacon has to his bishop.  His comments were part of the July 19 final address at the Region XIII Deacon Conference, which drew a record-breaking turnout of more than 330 deacons and their wives from states including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, North Dakota and Arizona to the annual event held at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center Hotel.

Archbishop Gomez’s message to remember to stand firm comes on the heels of a much more current situation where faith is being tested.

The prelate told the crowd that he had noticed an article on the front page of the New York Times more than a week prior to his visit. It was about President Barack Obama’s nomination of Dr. Francis Collins as head of National Institutes of Health.  The headline read “Pick to Lead Health Agency Draws Praise and Some Concern.”
“Guess what the ‘some concern’ against him is?” Archbishop Gomez said. “Critics are worried about what the article called his ‘very public embrace of religion’. Let me translate that for you: They’re alarmed because Dr. Collins is a Christian and he often talks about his faith in speeches and interviews.”

“It is sad but true that more and more of our brothers and sisters today are living without any awareness of Christ or their need for God in their lives,” he said. “And this is because we live in a culture where it is getting harder and harder for people to practice their Christian faith—or even to talk about it in public.

“When I read this article, it shows how important the diakonia (Greek for “servant”) of preaching is,” Archbishop Gomez said. “You must be able to defend the teaching of your bishop and the Church on the controversial issues of today. …Stand firm with your bishop!”

The prelate emphasized, “The deacon is not a glorified layman or a junior priest; he is clergy.”

Archbishop Gomez said that the role of the deacon for some is not clearly defined, leading some parishes to mistakenly either not allow deacons to do anything or to have them doing everything.

Standing firm as deacons, he said, calls for listening to the words of St. Paul about the deacon’s role, which calls for bishops and deacons to remember speaking for the Church means working together. It also calls for remembrance that, by ordination, deacons are not called to be served but to serve and they are to serve in the hierarchy of service that Jesus Christ intended, Archbishop Gomez said.

According to many of the attendees, the weekend conference drew the largest crowd for a regional deacon meeting because four scheduled bishops spoke, which is an unusually large number for the occasion.

Denver Auxiliary Bishop James Conley opened the event on July 17 and discussed how images, symbols and icons point to conforming oneself into the image of Christ and how those images are related to the diakonia. Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., spoke July 18 about the bishop’s ministries of governing, teaching and sanctifying, and how these ministries are extended through the deacon’s relationship with the faithful. Bishop Samuel Aquila of the Diocese of Fargo spoke the same day about the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian community and how a deacon can foster a more interior relationship with Christ and the bishop.

Deacon Lou Cornille, of St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church in Scottsdale, Ariz., said he always goes to the deacon conference to get a global perspective of how Christ is working on the deacon’s role.

“This is the first time I’ve heard the role of the bishop and deacon defined both theologically and strategically,” Deacon Cornille said of the conference. The conference itself, he said, is “the best interchange of ideas” among deacons.

“The deacons go away with a renewed commitment toward the relationship of the bishop to the deacon,” said Deacon Joseph Donohoe, director of deacon personnel for the Archdiocese of Denver.

“The connection we have with the bishop needs to be renewed over and over again,” said Deacon Dennis Morales of St. James Church in Denver. “To have that embodiment here was a great way to refresh that connection.”

Podcasts

The bishops’ talks from the regional meeting can be found at www.archden.org by going to Vocations then Diaconate and clicking the link for the conference.