Springfield Diocese to Ordain Three from Poland
SPRINGFIELD — St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield will be the site of the ordination of three Polish seminarians to the order of the transitional diaconate at an 11 a.m. Mass on Saturday, Aug. 15. Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell will preside at the ordination ceremony."This is a significant event," said the Rev. Gary M. Dailey, vocations director for the Diocese of Springfield, "because for the first time in a long time, we are ordaining three men from Poland to serve permanently in the Diocese of Springfield."
Tomasz Jerzy Gorny, Tomasz Pawel Parzynski and Piotr Jacek Pawlus are Polish natives who are attending American seminaries and will serve as priests in the Diocese of Springfield after the completion of their seminarian education and their planned ordination to the priesthood in 2010.
Gorny is a third-year theology student at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Mich. He was born in Kozy.
Parzynski is a native of Lublin and found his vocation through liturgical music. He began playing the organ when he was in high school. He worked as a religion teacher at St. Joseph Calasanz Primary School in Poznan before attending St. John's Seminary in Brighton.
Pawlus was born in Radziechowy, where he was an altar server and lector at his home parish of St. Martin. He first attended seminary in Krakow before transferring to SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary.
Unlike the permanent diaconate, the transitional diaconate is a temporary position given to seminarians marking their eighth and final year of seminary preparation. It is the first stage of the priesthood. The word "deacon" comes from the Greek diakonos meaning "servant."
"The transitional diaconate order is a time when [seminarians] prepare themselves for service to the altar and service to the community, in preparation for ordained priesthood where they will be ministers of word and sacrament," said Dailey.
Parzynski will be working within the Springfield Diocese during his year of diaconate service, while Gorny and Pawlus will return in Michigan to complete their studies and will serve in parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit.
