The Archdiocese of Fortaleza ordained 15 new deacons for the Church. After a period of approximately nine years of preparation, the seminarians took another step in the sacrament of Holy Orders. The ceremony took place in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Fortaleza and was presided over by Archbishop José Antonio Tosi Marques.
Among the 15 new deacons, 4 are members of the Shalom Catholic Community: Francisco Tiago, Evandro Meneses, Francisco Wyradan and Vitor Aragão.
The founder of the Shalom Catholic Community, Moysés Azevedo, and the co-founder, Maria Emmir Nogueira, were present at the diaconal ordination as well as brothers from the Community of Life, the Alliance Community and relatives of the new deacons at the service of the Church in the Shalom Community.
The new deacons of the Shalom Catholic Community
Vitor Aragão tells that in 2008 he participated in a priestly ordination for the first time: “It was the ordination of Father Denys Lima and there I strongly felt the call to a total offering as a priest. A compassion for people who suffer like ‘sheep without a shepherd’ (Mt 9,36)”.
Francisco Tiago was born in Fortaleza, but today he lives in the mission of Rome, serving the Community as an international assistant. Tiago was introduced to the Shalom Community when he was 18 years old, after receiving an invitation to a weekend youth retreat.
Evandro Meneses has lived as a missionary in Aparecida in the state of São Paulo, in Pacajus and Juazeiro do Norte in the state of Ceará, and graduated in Theology in Lugano, Switzerland (2016-2020), at the Faculty of Theology of Lugano.
Francisco Wyaradan was a captain in the military police when, in 2001, he participated in the Renascer, the Community’s carnival retreat, and began to follow his path to find out his vocation.
The minister is a servant
In his homily, Bishop José Antonio Tosi Marques highlighted the mission of the deacon from the first institutions, in the primitive Church: service to those most in need and to the Word, bearing witness with his life to what the Gospel says.
“Whoever wants to be first, let him be last of all and the servant of all.” (Mk 9,35) “Whoever wants to be great among you, let him be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you, let him be the servant of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10,43-45).
“Being a deacon is a spiritual configuration to Jesus who is the servant of all and who wants to remain present in his family, which is the Church. His body that extends in society, his mystical body that walks in history, grows in history , a body of which He is the head and of which we are its living members.Love is the cement that unites all these living stones so that we may be God’s dwelling place.
May the Holy Spirit encourage you and fill you with love in everything you are going to do, and that is not for the benefit of yourselves. It is not to promote themselves, but to be servants of a single Body, which is promoted all by the love that God has poured out on us, paid for by Jesus, who came to meet us.”