www.therecord.com.au
1 December 2016
Edition #110
Ordination to the Diaconate
READY TO BE A SIGN OF CHRIST’S OWN SERVING MISSION By Marco Ceccarelli
Four young men from St Charles’ Seminary in Perth will this Friday reach one of the great milestones of their spiritual journey as they step into the diaconate – one of the three forms of the sacrament of Holy Orders. Tung Vu, Joseph Laundy, Mariusz Grzech and Konrad Gagatek will be ordained to the diaconate by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe at St Mary’s Cathedral in a momentous occasion eagerly awaited by the Archdiocese of Perth. Hailing from Vietnam, Poland and Australia, the four men have reached this important step of their formation through years of prayer, discernment, academic study and service within and outside of the Archdiocese. Their ordination brings them a step closer to the ministry of priesthood. A seed planted and watered in the family For 32 year old Tung Vu, who is currently assisting at St Mary MacKillop Parish in Ballajura, the importance of the role of the family in the spiritual formation of young people is held in very high regard. Born and raised as the youngest of six children in the province of Ha Noi, Vietnam, Mr Vu recalls with fondness the ongoing efforts of his parents to transmit the Catholic faith to him and his siblings from a
CLOCKWISE: ,Joseph Laundy, Tung Vu, Konrad Gagatek and Mariusz Grzech will be ordained to the diaconate by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe at St Mary’s Cathedral in what is set to be a momentous occasion eagerly awaited PHOTOS: MARCO CECCARELLI ARTWORK: FEBY PLANDO by the Archdiocese of Perth.
very young age. Referring to their dedicated approach as “the planting of a seed of faith which gradually grew into a vocation,” Mr Vu decided to join the local St Joseph Minor Seminary of Ha Noi in his late teenage years. In conjunction with his university studies (he studied a degree in Arts and Sciences), he spent four years of spiritual formation in St Joseph’s Seminary before working as a volunteer missionary in the northern diocese of Lang Son for a further three and a half years. “I believe that those initial
years in the seminary combined with my time as a missionary confirmed the vocation to the priesthood that had been gradually growing within me,” Mr Vu said. “It is after this experience that I decided to come to Perth, in 2011, to continue my studies for the priesthood at St Charles’ Seminary.” Much like the other seminarians at St Charles’, Mr Vu pursued his academic studies by attending courses of Philosophy and Theology at The University of Notre Dame in Fremantle. He recently graduated from the University
and is ready to dedicate himself to the ministry of deacon. The Ordination to the Diaconate of Tung Vu, Joseph Laundy, Mariusz Grzech and Konrad Gagatek will take place on Friday, 2 December 2016 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth, 7:30pm. For those unable to attend, the ordination will be streamed LIVE via social media from approximately 7.15pm, to watch please go to www.facebook. com/TheRecordPerth. Full Text available at
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