Dumaguete Bishop Cortes ordains 2 deacons

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  — The Diocese of Dumaguete has two new additions to its clergy, following the ordination to the deaconate of two seminarians on Tuesday.

The new deacons are Reverends Ryan Deposoy and Romolito Reyes, both graduates with a Bachelor in Sacred Theology degree of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

Dumaguete Bishop, Most Reverend Julito Cortes, ordained the deacons in a concelebrated Mass attended by about 50 priests at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral in this capital city.

In his homily, the bishop described the ordination as a “response to the call to serve. The ordained ministry is a call to serve. The deacon is ordained in order to serve, and not to be served.”

Cortes told the ordinandi that this deaconate ordination is not the culmination of their formation and the end of their struggles but only “a stage along the long and winding road.”

Reyes was born August 15, 1983 to Romulo Reyes and Lydia Zerna of Tanjay City, Negros Oriental. He studied Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at the St. Joseph Seminary College of the Diocese of Dumaguete before he proceeded to Theology studies at the UST.

Deposoy, for his part, was born September 16, 1983 to parents Harvey Deposoy and Lorna Patoc of Bayawan City, Negros Oriental. He also earned his Bachelor of Arts major in Philosophy at the SJSC of the Diocese of Dumaguete, and then finished Theology at UST.

Meanwhile, Cortes admitted the need of the diocese to have more priests even though in recent years, it has had additional members after a lull of about four or five years since the last priestly ordination.

His wish was not just to have a continuous albeit just a few ordained deacons and priests each year but that they should be “good shepherds because there is never enough.”

The need of the church is so much and even if we had enough priests, saying “we in the church have to be missionary; our obligation is to look out to other churches who do not have priests.” In other places like Europe, there is a dearth of priests, Cortes added.  (FREEMAN)