Two months into 2015, there are already nine new Jesuit deacons in the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific – two Koreans, six Vietnamese and one Singaporean.
On January 4, Hun Jun Lee SJ and Jae Wok Lee SJ of the Korean Province of the Society of Jesus were ordained, along with Irish Jesuit Shane Daly, to the diaconate by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in the Milltown Park Chapel in Ireland.
Three weeks later, on January 27, Matthew Tan SJ of the Malaysia-Singapore Region of the Society of Jesus was ordained to the diaconate by Archbishop William Goh at the Church of St Ignatius in Singapore.
Then on February 12, six deacons were ordained in the Vietnamese Jesuit Province. Francis Xavier Nguyễn Thanh Hùng SJ, Anthony Nguyễn Hoàng Dũng SJ, Joseph Đỗ Cao Bằng SJ, Peter Nguyễn Xuân Anh SJ, Paul Nguyễn Thái Sơn SJ, Peter Đào Kim Sơn SJ were ordained to the diaconate by Most Reverend Joseph Nguyen Tan Tuoc, Bishop of Phu Cuong in the chapel of Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate in Thuduc, Ho Chi Minh City.
The ordination on February 12 came just weeks after the Province concluded its yearlong celebration of 400 hundred years since the arrival of the first Jesuit in Vietnam.
These Jesuits have been ordained deacons as part of the path to priestly ordination, but, as Archbishop Martin said in his homily at the ordination in Ireland, being a deacon is never simply a category within the Church. “The deacon is a witness to something that belongs to the essence of the Church, that call to serve, not just the outward form of service within the liturgy, but a service of journeying with others on the path of life.”
Main Picture: Bishop Joseph Nguyen Tan Tuoc and Vietnamese Jesuit Provincial Fr Joseph Pham Thanh Liem SJ (extreme left) with the new deacons (from left to right) Francis Xavier Nguyễn Thanh Hùng SJ, Anthony Nguyễn Hoàng Dũng SJ, Joseph Đỗ Cao Bằng SJ, Peter Nguyễn Xuân Anh SJ, Paul Nguyễn Thái Sơn SJ, Peter Đào Kim Sơn SJ.