Pre-Diaconate Ceremony Fri 30 Oct 2009
On Friday 30 October the seminary community gathered to witness six of its students make their commitment to life-long celibacy as a pre-cursor to their upcoming ordination to the diaconate ministry.
The Latin rite of the Catholic Church requires that its ordained ministers make this commitment as a sign of the nuptial union between God and man, and of one’s total gift of self to Christ and to his Church (Matthew 19:12).
The ceremony took place during solemn vespers and was presided over by Fr Anthony Percy, the Rector.
During the ceremony, the candidates were required to recite the Nicene Creed and to then sign an oath of fidelity, promising to always be faithful to the Church’s teachings, and to cooperate with its apostolic activities.
Finally they made their commitment to celibacy. The ceremony was an edifying example to the remainder of the seminary body, and a reminder of the ideal to which each seminarian will finally be called. |
