Meetings provide deacon info

"There is a need for public ministers, a need for leadership in the context of the Church," Rev. Joseph Cotugno declares.

The director of the [permanent] diaconate formation program for the Albany Diocese feels some of that need can be met by deacons. To that end, he recently began a series of informational meetings at sites around the Diocese.

Father Cotugno realized not long ago that to recruit more deacons, the Diocese had to be pro-active. In the past two years, the number of applicants has dropped.

Laypeople can take on responsibility for many Church ministries, he explained, adding: "You need someone who signifies to the community what it is to be of service, responding to God's people with whatever needs they have and [since some deacons can preach at liturgies] breaking open the Scriptures. There is a real need in the Church for that kind of leadership."

Father Cotugno began with an information night at St. Stanislaus parish in Amsterdam, since Deacon Michael Ryba is the only deacon in that area and was willing to talk about his ministry. The two also explained the Formation for Ministry program, a two-year education in lay ministry that men must go through before applying for the diaconate and proceeding to ordination. (Women can also go through Formation for Ministry in order to take on leadership roles in parishes. They are not eligible for ordination to the diaconate.)

Seven men, from blue-collar workers to doctors, all of them married, attended.

"If I got seven people on our first try, I find that to be encouraging," Father Cotugno stated. "If we get the same number from the suburban Albany area [where the next meeting will be held], we've got a good number of men beginning to look at the process" of becoming a deacon.

(To become deacons, men must be between 35 and 62, single or successfully married, and capable of doing post-graduate work in theology. The next meeting will be held sometime in February at St. Clare's Church in Colonie. For information, call the diocesan Office of Initial and Ongoing Formation at 453-6670.)

(1/15/04)