The Diocese of Honolulu is looking for men for its seventh permanent deacon class which begins its formation program in the fall of 2009.

Information sessions will be offered on several islands this fall for active Catholic men, 30 and older, who feel called to this particular vocation. A screening process will then determine who will be candidates for the program.

A deacon is one of three “orders” of ordained ministers in the Catholic Church, priest and bishop being the other two.

Deacons, who must be at least 35 years old at ordination, serve a diocese according to their talents and abilities. Most are assigned to parishes, usually their own. In Hawaii, they do not receive a church salary unless they are hired for paid church position.

Though a deacon is ordained, church work is considered to be his third priority, behind family and job.

In parishes, they are authorized to proclaim the Gospel, preach, and teach in the name of the church. Deacons also baptize, lead parishioners in prayer, witness marriages, and conduct wake and funeral services.

In Hawaii, permanent deacons do a wide range of other activities including pro-life work, education, prison ministry, youth ministry, spiritual writing, lay devotions and participation on church committees and boards.

The diaconate flourished in the early church as a permanent status for single or married men, but later became a transitional step for single men on the way to priesthood.

The Second Vatican Council restored the order to a distinct ministry in the 1960s. The Diocese of Honolulu began its diaconate program in the 1970s and ordained its first class of eight in 1981.

Today Hawaii has 59 active and retired permanent deacons.

With the 2009 class, the diocese will lengthen the formation program from four to five years, which includes a beginning “aspirancy” year of discernment and prayer.

During the program, the men will meet one weekend a month at the St. Stephen Diocesan Center in Kaneohe for theological and pastoral education and spiritual formation.

They will take classes in church history, theology, Scripture, liturgy, spirituality, homiletics and other topics.

During the process, three public ceremonies will mark the progress of the deacons-to-be through three designations — candidacy, acolyte and reader.

Next year’s class will be the first class initiated by Bishop Larry Silva with Deacon John Coughlin and his wife Kathleen named as the directors of formation.

Members of the last diocesan class, who were ordained last year, became candidates in 2004 under the administration of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo.

The term “permanent” is used to distinguish the deacon from the “transitional” deacon, who receives the same ordination, but only as a step toward ordination to the priesthood.

For more information contact, deacon John Coughlin at 203-6729, jcoughlin@rcchawaii .org.