Transitional deacons spend time in parishes before priestly ordination as part of new stage in formation

Transitional Deacon Isaac Siefker speaks on Jan. 9 to eighth-grade students at Holy Name of Jesus School in Beech Grove. He is serving at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove for six months prior to his priestly ordination scheduled for June 7. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

GREENWOOD—A significant change in the way that seminarians in the archdiocese are formed for priestly life and ministry began last December as two transitional deacons began ministry in parishes for six months prior to their ordination as priests on June 7 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

Deacon Thomas Day is serving at Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood, while Deacon Isaac Siefker is ministering at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove.

The change came about through the continued implementation of the latest edition of the Program for Priestly Formation (PPF), developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with guidance from the Vatican.

The implementation began a few years ago with new programs for forming seminarians beginning priestly formation.

Now dioceses and seminaries are starting to apply changes to the last phase of priestly formation, which the new edition of the PPF calls the “vocational synthesis stage.”

Transitional Deacon Liam Hosty, who will also be ordained a priest on June 7, is not ministering in an archdiocesan parish in the months leading up to the ordination liturgy. That is because the seminary in which he is enrolled, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, has not yet implemented this part of the new edition of the PPF.

In interviews with The Criterion, Deacons Day and Siefker, the pastors of the parishes where they are serving and archdiocesan director of seminarians Father Eric Augenstein reflected on how this new stage in priestly formation is affecting how men are being prepared for life and ministry as priests in central and southern Indiana.

‘Helping them to prepare for life as a priest’

Father Augenstein said that the two purposes of the vocational synthesis stage are for the deacons “to gain experience in pastoral ministry” and “to be integrated into the life of the archdiocese and the presbyterate.”

He also explained that “the bulk of the vocational synthesis stage happens at the parish and the pastor is the primary formator and supervisor.”

“My role is to recommend to the archbishop good pastors and parishes for the deacons to be assigned to,” added Father Augenstein, who also serves as pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis.

He meets with the deacons several times during the stage to help them grow in their knowledge of ministries in the archdiocese and people who help lead them.

“We’re not just putting them in a parish,” he said. “We’re also helping them to prepare for life as a priest and what that will look like specifically here in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.”

Deacon Day and Deacon Siefker were familiar with their respective parishes before arriving last December because they had served in ministry there the previous summer.

“I’m really glad that where I’m at now is where I was at during the previous summer,” said Deacon Day of his starting ministry at Our Lady of the Greenwood. “The summer was a great time to begin in. This is a big parish and a busy parish. So, I’m glad that I kind of had a foot in the door from the summer experience.”

Archdiocesan seminarians regularly serve in parishes during the summer. The transitional deacons noted, though, that there’s a difference in starting in ministry in a parish in December.

“I’m here while school is in session,” said Deacon Siefker of his current ministry at Holy Name. “The parish is busier now than when I was here in the summer. I was here for Christmas liturgies. I’ll be here for Holy Week liturgies. It’s a bigger deal. I feel more immersed into the life of the parish.”

“That’s different from the summer,” said Father Todd Goodson, Our Lady of the Greenwood’s pastor. “Some parishes effectively shut down all of July. So, it’s a better time to be engaged in parish life.”

While Father Robert Robeson, Holy Name’s pastor, supervises Deacon Siefker’s ministry in the Beech Grove faith community, he sees the parishioners contributing as much to Deacon Siefker’s formation as himself, noting that they have been “enveloping him and helping him to learn what it’s like to be a part of the parish environment.”

“I see that really as my role,” Father Robeson said, “to facilitate that learning experience with the parish, helping him to learn how to stand in his authority and his identity as a soon-to-be priest.”

While Deacon Siefker has benefited from his interaction with Holy Name parishioners, Father Robeson noted that the parish benefits from seeing his growth in ministry.

“They really have seen this transformation and a growth in confidence,” Father Robeson said. “It’s a great benefit for me and the parish to be able to see that.”

‘Feeling the grace of the sacrament’

Both transitional deacons have ministered in parishes in the past as seminarians. Deacon Siefker, though, “definitely” noticed a change in parish ministry after being ordained a deacon.

“I’m feeling the grace of the sacrament, so to speak,” he said. “There’s more confidence, more boldness. I feel more zealous about it, honestly.”

Part of that feeling, he noted, is because he knows that, now that he is ordained, he’s gone beyond the continuing discernment that marked his earlier priestly formation.

Deacon Siefker likened that earlier formation to “trying on a pair of shoes.”

“Now it’s like, ‘Yep. I’ve put the shoes on, the laces are tied, and we are running,” he said with a laugh.

Both deacons can proclaim the Gospel and preach at Mass and preside over baptisms and graveside committal services, responsibilities they could not do prior to their diaconal ordination on Oct. 26 at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad where they were previously enrolled.

Father Goodson noted the fact that Deacon Day has already been ordained makes the kind of supervision he gives to him different from what he would do with a seminarian earlier in his formation.

“I feel a little bit less like I’m helping form him and more like we’re partnering together as he moves into ministry,” Father Goodson said. “He loves to preach and is a good preacher. So, that’s helpful for me. And it’s a fresh voice for the parish.”

“This isn’t a matter of a mentor teaching a student who might not be here in a few months,” added Deacon Day. “You’re joining a band of brothers.”

He experienced that brotherhood in Our Lady of the Greenwood’s rectory, living with Father Goodson and the parish’s parochial vicar, Father José Neri.

“It’s sort of a locus for other priests in the [Indianapolis] South Deanery,” Deacon Day said. “Just last Sunday, we had five or six priests here just to have dinner, kick back and catch up with what everyone’s doing.”

‘Taking off one of the training wheels’

The vocational synthesis stage is a time for transitional deacons to grow in that brotherhood with archdiocesan priests.

“Fraternity in a diocesan priestly setting is something that you have to be intentional about,” said Father Goodson. “It’s hard to do. There are a lot of demands on you as a priest in a parish. So, you can very easily become isolated if you’re not really intentional about calling brother priests to come over for dinner, checking in, making sure we’re praying the [Liturgy of the Hours] together.

“I’ve certainly learned in my time as a priest that, if I want the brotherhood in the priesthood, it will happen kind of automatically in a seminary setting because you’re all there together. But you really have to be intentional about it in a diocesan setting.”

Father Augenstein noted that going quickly from the community life of a seminary to a more isolated life found in a parish rectory “can be a very jarring transition” for newly ordained priests. The vocational synthesis stage was in part designed to make that transition smoother.

“By the time they are ordained priests and begin priestly ministry, they will have already grown comfortable to the routines of life in a parish,” Father Augenstein said.

While Deacon Siefker has experienced the “loss of the support” he had when he lived at Saint Meinrad, he added that his time at Holy Name and the continued formation he is receiving there has been a good transition.

“It’s an intermediate amount of formation,” Deacon Siefker said. “Before, it was all around you and you were immersed in it. You really had no other choice than to do formation. Now, you’re definitely a lot more independent than when you’re in the seminary. Still, there’s some oversight and some required things in regard to formation to attend to.

“It’s like taking off one of the training wheels. Eventually, I’ll take off both of them.”
 

(For more information on a vocation to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, go to HearGodsCall.com.) †