In the service of the Church: 21 to join the Holy Order of Deacon on Jan. 23 in Salt Lake

IC photo by Marie Mischel

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The fourth group of permanent deacons trained in the Diocese of Salt Lake City will be ordained in The Cathedral of the Madeleine on Saturday, Jan. 23.

SALT LAKE CITY - Twenty-one men will follow the steps of Saint Stephen when they are ordained as permanent deacons by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake next week.

St. Stephen, "a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 6:5) was one of the first seven deacons of the Catholic Church to help minister the growing congregation of believers.

Bob Hardy, a member of Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City, is one of the diaconate candidates. He investigated the possibility of becoming a deacon at the suggestion of his pastor, Msgr. Robert Bussen, and Deacon Tom Tosti. "I went through a long period of discernment," Hardy said. "It was well into the first year (of the four-year program) before I really said, ‘This is something I want to do.' It took me a long time to discern that this was indeed a calling and not just something that other people thought I ought to look at."

Hardy has been a lector and Eucharistic minister as well as a member of the Knights of Columbus. He and his wife, Carol, also taught RCIA, so he fit the requirement that the deacon candidate be involved in ministry and active in his parish.

Under the guidance of Msgr. Bussen and other priests, Hardy had developed a prayer life that included the recitation of the daily Liturgy of the Hours even before he joined the deacon formation program, but "When I got into this program, it was really kind of an awakening to me. I thought I was pretty good and on the top of my game and in essence I found out that, realistically, I was just getting started... I found out that in essence what I had filled myself with was fluff. You look and find there's this huge amount of empty space that needs to be filled and I am slowly finding ways to fill that with spiritual things."

Going through the program has mellowed Bob Hardy, said his wife, Carol Hardy. "Part of it is age, part of it is the spirituality aspect added to our lives," she said, adding that he also has become more active in the community and changed his business perspective.

Bob Hardy, an executive with MillerCoors, LLC, agreed. "I'm much more involved with mentoring young people coming into our company and the idea of humanity of what we're doing; the morality of the business decisions that we make."

The permanent diaconate differs from the year-long transitional deacon position held by the men who are preparing for the priesthood. Unlike those who will be ordained priests, permanent deacons may be married, although if their wife dies they can't remarry. Single men who become deacons can't marry after they are ordained.

The four-year program required the men to meet every other Saturday for lectures in prayer, scripture, ecclesiology, church history, ethics, morality, canon law, homiletics, Catholic social teaching and other topics. The class that will be ordained on Jan. 23 will be the fourth in the Salt Lake diocese since Bishop Joseph L. Federal established the permanent diaconate here in 1974. They will join the 45 active deacons in the diocese who assist parish priests and regularly provide Sunday services at 13 missions scattered throughout Utah.

"To become a deacon is definitely a call; it comes out of prayer," said Holy Cross Sister Patricia Riley, director of the Salt Lake Diocese's deacon formation program.

"It's a life-changing experience," Bob Hardy said. "I thought my life was in pretty good shape until I got into this program. I found out that it's better now than it was four years ago." After ordination, "the journey will continue; it will just take a little bend in the road. Whether it's to the right or the left, I have no idea until I get there."