Four Jesuits were ordained as deacons in a joyful celebration at St Ignatius Church in Richmond on 3 December.
Korean Jesuits Shin-jae Youh, Jin-hyon Lee, and Jin-hyuk Park, were joined by East Timorese Jesuit Plínio Gusmão Martins at the ordination, with Bishop Greg O’Kelly presiding.
In his homily, Bishop O’Kelly spoke of the journeys of the four young men into their vocation.
Jin-hyon Lee was born in South Korea, on Je-ju Island, in 1972. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 2000, and took his first vows in 2002. He completed his Master’s Degree in Philosophy at the Sogang Graduate School of Theology in Seoul, and did his regency working in the ‘Window on Life’ Café as part of the Social Apostolate.
Jin-hyuk Park was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1973. While studying at university, he came across a book about people working with families who had been forcibly displaced from their homes. Describing the experience of reading the book as a ‘kind of electric shock’, he decided to enter the priesthood. He entered the Jesuit Novitiate in 2000 and took his vows in 2002. He spent his regency in Cambodia, working for Banteay Prieb, the vocational training centre for the disabled.
Shin-jae Youh was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1964. As a young man, he discovered the writings of Pedro Arrupe and decided to aspire to the life of a Jesuit. He joined the Jesuits in 2000, and did his regency working for the campus ministry at Sogang University in Seoul.
Plínio Gusmão Martins was born in Dili, East Timor, in 1976. His childhood was amid the violence of the country’s national struggle for liberation. In 1992, he was wounded and nearly killed in the massacre at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1996 at the novitiate in Indonesia, and studied in the Philippines and Indonesia before coming to Australia.
Bishop O’Kelly said he was intrigued to learn that both Shin-jae and Plínio, in their younger days, had been told by different people that they had the ‘face of a Jesuit’.
‘This is intriguing me’, he said. ‘I have fears about what some people might think a Jesuit face might look like. That’s clearly an avenue that might be explored by the Jesuit vocations committee.’
Ordination to the diaconate is a special sacrament within the Catholic Church, said Bishop O’Kelly.
‘Holy orders has three levels of practice as is reflected in the apostolic church where we find deacons, priests and bishops. Something does happen to the inner person with these sacraments. The sacrament imposes an inner configuration – to use a term favoured by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict – an orientation of the person that can never be revoked.’
As deacons, the four young men have the tasks of proclaiming the Gospel, preparing the Eucharist, giving communion, bringing God’s word, presiding over public prayer, as well as saying baptisms, marriages, providing last rites, and leading the rites of burial.
‘For me, it’s a great privilege to be a servant of God’, said Shin-jae after the ordination. ‘I feel like I am the mediator of God’s grace to the people, and to show God’s love and grace to others.’
Members of the Melbourne Korean and East Timorese communities came out to celebrate the ordinations, along with family and friends of the four men. Shin-jae said he was surprised and happy that members of his old choir, Polyphony Ensemble, were able to fly to Australia and perform at the ordination.
‘I never expected my friends would come and sing for us. It was a real privilege for me and my community’, he said.
Below are some pictures from the ordination.
Pictured above: Jin-hyuk Park, Shin-jae Youh, Bishop Greg O’Kelly, Jin-hyon Lee and Plinio Martins.
The deacons and their families.
Photos Michael McVeigh, Jesuit Communications Australia.