21 New Deacons for Salt Lake City

New Deacons in Salt Lake City

The Diocese of Salt Lake City and its Cathedral of the Madeleine hold a special place in my heart (and at least one reader who I know was baptized there.) They are in the midst of the headquarters of the division of the company that I work within. I spent my birthday and the next day - Ash Wednesday - there last year, and worshiped in the Cathedral on Ash Wednesday.

As a result, it's especially touching to read that they were blessed with the ordination of 21 more permanent deacons on Saturday.

As the Salt Lake Tribune reports, deacons are:

"...men who straddle two streams in the church: They are both laypeople and clergy."

"All of us live in the secular world," says Perry resident Karl Meyersick, one of those being ordained. "This ordination ties us to the mystical world, the clerical side of God's kingdom."

That's the role of the deacon, to be in the middle," says Meyersick, who works as a logistics manager for a Hill Air Force Base contractor.

Deacons have three main roles: to pray, to assist at worship and to serve the people, particularly the poor, sick and isolated.

"The whole point is service," says Moab resident Rick Klein, a potash mine manager and one of the 21 men."This probably sounds corny ... but that's really what I'd like to do," Klein says. "This corner of the state is awfully big, and there's not a lot of clergy down here."

Congratulations to these fine men and their families as this new chapter in their life of faith and vocation begins.

Read: Utahns answer the call to serve as Catholic deacons at the Salt Lake Tribune.

Pray: For the new deacons and their families, and for those who are discerning a call to the diaconate.

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