Married man, D’Monte, is now deacon, to ACT as priest
CAMIL PARKHE
http://www.sakaaltimes.com/20120425/5040630968061290313.htm
Sakal Times
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 AT 11:09 AM (IST)
PIMPRI: For the first time in the history of the 126-year-old Pune Catholic diocese, a married person, Roy D'Monte, was ordained a deacon by Bishop Thomas Dabre at Pimpri Church on Monday evening. The ordination of a married person as a deacon marks historic departure from the centuries-old-practice of the Catholic Church permitting only the celibate clergy to administer all sacraments and perform various religious rites.
D'Monte
is an administrator at the Jesuits-run Loyola High School in Pashan and
has been active in the religious and other activities of the Pune
diocese for many years.
He
is a parishioner of the Our Lady of Consoler of Afflicted Church in
Pimpri. His wife Juliet and daughters Renita (24) and Ramona (22) also
active in their local church activities.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Bishop Dabre said that the new deacon, D'Monte, is empowered to perform all duties of a clergy -- deliver sermons in churches, administer sacraments like baptism, bless marriages, distribute
the holy communion and also perform the last rites at funerals.
Celebration of the mass and hearing confessions are the only two
religious duties of a priest he will not be allowed to do.
Significantly,
even nuns, who who take the oath of celibacy are not allowed to carry
out duties as entrusted to the married deacons.
Mumbai
archdiocese was the first diocese in the country to ordain married men
as deacons for performing duties and responsibilities of the clergy.
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