In these last four years, I have gained new brothers and sisters in my fellow candidates and their wives. We are a terribly close-knit group and already are making plans for regular get-togethers on a quarterly basis after ordination. God willing, this will be a habit we keep going for a long time.

Our group has lost 3 of the original 18 members from that first meeting so long ago. I still think about them sometimes and hope that they will come to the ordination if they can. We’ve also dealt with a lot of health issues, some life threatening. But so far, all have persevered and are with us still. I have no doubt that it is through the power of prayer to a great degree.

In once case, one of our group was in the hospital in a life or death situation and took a marked turn for the better while the entire class was downstairs in the chapel praying the Rosary. We’ve had many cases where a whole lot of praying was going on and healings followed.

We are all getting ready for our assignments, which should become finalized in the next few weeks. Some of us are staying in our current parishes and others are moving to new ones to fill the needs of the Archdiocese. We have just 1 more class plus our retreat to go, so pray for all of us and our wives as we get ready for this new phase in our lives.

The post Less Than 100 Days appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

Go there. Read. I had a great post written about what being a deacon means, can mean and must mean to us and the Church. It really was a good piece of writing. I was even going to bring in Dignitatis Humane Personae, the declaration on religious freedom, because it speaks about the dignity of the human person right from the start. And the dignity of the human person is so imporant to all the faithful, but especially a deaon I believe.

Anyway, lost the post contents. Too depressed to re-attempt it right now.

The post Whats a deacon do? – The Deacons Bench appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

Well, I obviously couldn’t let that pass, now could I? Go here to read my response to poster Moon1234 over there.

I list 3 main reasons I see for the decline in the number of priestly vocations, though they are by no means the only or probably even the most important. Please let me know here what you think about my reasoning.

The post Priestly Vocations appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

Heck, one wife was praying to the Lord before they got together and the Lord literally said to her, “Help Jerry become a deacon.” Bear in mind that this woman was a casual acquaintance of her future husband at the time and had no idea he was considering the Diaconate. Surprisingly we also have several couples where one or more of the spouses have been divorced. 

And we seem to be a bunch of smart-asses too. Not in a bad way so much as we seem to be a group who can be irreverent about ourselves.

The day started with lots of good continental style breakfast food and lunch was also awesome. Very good job there. We got to meet our companion couple who are from the 2008 class about to be ordained in three weeks and the Deacon Office staff, which consists of Deacon Bob and his admin, Debbie. We also had another couple from that class come in and give a quick talk on things to expect.

We watched a one hour talk by Fr. Richard Rohr, apparently from a couple of years before he went deep into the enneagram, eco-spirituality and other highly questionable stuff. I thought he had a few moments that I disagreed with strongly. For instance he bemoaned and strongly lamented the rise of what I would call the orthodoxy and orthorpraxy oriented folks. On the other hand he did have some great points about ministry and why one does it. While I wouldn’t seek his stuff out as a general rule, it was a great talk in that respect.

After that great lunch (and a trip outside to warm up) we briefly told our stories about how we got there. That’s where we found out that we may be in for a ride with this group. Finally we got some books. A copy of the Catechism which goes to Mrs. Fric as I already had one, Bokenkotter’s Brief History of the Catholic Church, Keaton’s Deacon Reader and the transcription of Fr. Rohr’s talk I mentioned and the two follow-ups at that same conference.

Lot’s of stuff to mull over certainly. Didn’t seem to be anyone who was outwardly problematic in their approach to the Church. One woman mentioned she wanted to be a priest when she was young before she knew better. One woman seemed a little vague in a way that made me wonder how much of Church teaching she believes. Other than that (and that is hardly worth mentioning so far), the group seems solid.

I think there will be a lot of great friendships developed here. Really looking forward to the next four years.

Oh yeah. Retreat weekend is next week at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. Been there once for a self-directed retreat day with some friends. Awesome place. Can’t wait.

The post Diaconate Journey appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

We met with Archbishop Kurtz yesterday afternoon for a little less than 45 minutes total. He is an extremely gracious and engaging man. We truly enjoyed our talk with him. For some reason he didn’t have our packet with all the information on what steps we had completed, results, etc. So we just spent some time telling him about ourselves and our family. We segued into marriage and family issues and NFP and living out our faith daily. It was a fascinating talk.

Archbishop Kurtz is on two committees dealing with marriage and family/life issues and he is quite passionate about these subjects. We seemed to really connect while talking about these issues. He saw our own passion for these things and told us he could easily see our ministry taking place in these areas.

Surprisingly we didn’t really talk about things like why I wanted to be a deacon or what I expected to get out of it or put into it. I presume he puts his trust in the process that we have been vetted pretty well so far. I think he got a pretty good sense of us in the time we spent with him. As did we of him.

So, now we begin our first year, the aspirancy year, of the diaconate formation process. Four years of classes and studying. God willing, I will be ordained to the Diaconate in August 2012.

The post Accepted! appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

The Perceiver Interview was done about a week or two after the last post in early October on a Wednesday. I met with Deacon Gerry at his parish and had a wonderful interview. He told me going in that he would just ask the questions and not comment, except to prod me to stop if I were pummelling an expired equine as it were. By the end of the interview he was making positive comments and really seemed positive about the whole process.

As we were walking out, I asked how long the decision process took and he said about 2 weeks or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I said I was mainly trying to gauge when to start getting nervous, as I was trying to take the whole process one step at a time. He then proceeded to tell me that I didn’t have anything to worry about.

That was certainly encouraging to say the least.

So, Mrs. Fric and I go to a Marriage Encounter Weekend not thinking much about the results yet. However, when we got back Sunday afternoon, a letter from the Diaconate Office was waiting for us. I had made it into the next round and enclosed was my full application. That was really FAST.

Unfortunately, I sat on the application for about 6 weeks. I had filled out part of it and was kind of wondering what to put in the biography. Really I fretted over it quite a bit. I had finally resolved to get it done no matter what the coming weekend. Mrs. Fric had already given me her part and I had no excuse. Oddly enough, Deacon Bob emailed me the next day asking me when he could expect the application as he wanted to get me scheduled for the home interview and psych evaluation as soon as possible before the rush of last minute apps happened.

OK. He was already planning on getting me that far? Cool! Still, I was nervous about the app. I actually wrote 3 and a half pages for my bio and upon advice from fellow Maniac, Deacon (who will finally be ordained into the Diaconate August 23, 2008), cut it down by half.

 So, I get it in the mail on Monday and by the end of the week I have my response. I have been moved on to the next stage, the home interview. This is early/mid December at this point. I figure we will hear from the Deacon couple after Christmas most likely. I was kind of getting anxious when we were into January before I got their call. I was literally going to call Deacon Bob about it the next day when I got the call and set the appointment.

The Deacon couple plus the lay representative on the Selection Committee came over and talked with us for about an hour, less time than I though they would. Normally they separate the applicant couple and talk about the commitment and make sure both are on the same page. They actually skipped this for us since Mrs. Fric is the one who initiated this process. She was the one who decided it was time and pushed me along into doing it now instead of later.

The interview went very well I though and Deacon Dave even said he didn’t think some things that are common with converts (ministry formation and religious formation) would be an issue. Apparently some applicants are so new that they still have Protestant things to unlearn. Since pretty much all my religious formation has truly been Catholic, I have no ingrained habits to unlearn. This is all on this past Wednesday evening.

Yesterday the letter came  in the mail, much like after the Perceiver Interview. I have been moved on to the next and pretty much last step, the psychological profile. This, like the Home Interview, is done as a couple. As I understand it, we take a 500+ question survey and have a personal interview with the psychologist separately. Then we go back for the results. Hopefully we will get this scheduled quickly. According to the other couple in my parish that has already been accepted, it’s about 3 weeks to get the results.

Presuming we make it past this step, all that would be left is the formal meeting with our Archbishop where he says “I accept you” which makes it official. They say that this meeting is largely a formality. No one can recall of hearing someone getting to the Archbishop and not getting in. Rarely do couples get to the psych profile and not make it too. I still am going to take it one step at a time, though I can nearly taste it, I am so close!

So, we are almost there. It’s been very interesting how we’ve been getting subtle hints that we are on track and seem to be expected to make it in. For the last month or more, I have been getting the emails that go out to the Deacon Community. Those of us in process currently also got the schedule for the next year from Deacon Bob. He prefaced it saying he wanted all of us to get ready schedule wise as he expected everyone receiving the schedule to make it in.

I am excited to no end. The more and more I think about it and what it means for me, it seems right and true that this is His Will for me and us as a family. And I sincerely pray that if it isn’t, I realize that and let it go. I’d be disappointed of course, but many of the things I can offer the Church, I can offer as a lay person. Not all, as I believe I am well suited to the preaching and teaching aspect of the ministry.

No matter what, all I want to do is serve Him.

The post Diaconate Application Update appeared first on CatholicManiacs.