This past weekend 36 faithful of Opus Dei were ordained as deacons.The new deacons come from 15 countries and were ordained Saturday by the Prelate of Opus Dei Bishop Javier Echevarría, in the Basílica of San Eugenio in Rome. "All of us as Christian faithful," the Prelate said in his homily, "are called to collaborate with Christ in carrying out the work of Redemption. In order to realize this service, we make use of all the necessary means: prayer and the sacraments. Let us pray for our relatives, friends and colleagues. Let us invite them to frequent Confession, the sacrament of God’s mercy, and to receive the Eucharist, sacramentum caritatis, which is the guarantee of everlasting life."
“Each one of us should carry out this service with the example of our wholly Christian conduct, with that opportune word, with a good piece of advice. You, my deacon sons, in addition to these means that are common to all the faithful, are called from this day on to collaborate in the spreading of the kingdom of Christ through the exercise of the deaconate, which allows you to render – in the name of Christ and of the Church – service at the altar, in the Word, and in charity."
Bishop Echevarría asked for prayers for ecumenism and for the 23 new cardinals who have just been appointed by the Holy Father.
At the same time he mentioned that on November 28, Opus Dei will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its erection as a personal prelature.
On this date, he said, "our prayer will be summarized in a single phrase: Deo omnis gloria!, may we give all the glory to God. . . . Besides God and the Blessed Virgin, we direct our gratitude in a special way to the unforgettable Pope John Paul II, who erected the Prelature with his apostolic authority. We also thank our Father, a priest who was most faithful to the divine will, and the beloved Don Álvaro del Portillo, who with the help of God carried to completion the task that our Founder had entrusted to him."
Finally, he invited those present to stay very close to the Blessed Virgin during this anniversary of the Prelature. "We confide our thanksgiving to the Virgin, our Mother, through whose intercession come so many graces from heaven. I urge you all to live each day very close to Mary. In this way, the period which will begin on the 28th of November and last until the 28th of November 2008 will be truly a Marian Year for all of us."
The newly ordained deacons come from fifteen different countries, and hundreds of their relatives and filled the church. The deacons are the following:
Avelino Picón (Spain)
Marc Chatanay (France)
Juan Manuel de Ojeda (Spain)
Iñaki Landa (Spain)
Gabriel de Castro (Spain)
Pedro Regojo (Portugal)
Dominique Khoury-Hélou (Lebanon)
José Antonio Brage (Spain)
Manuel García de Madariaga (Spain)
Marcos Santini (Brazil)
Sergio Gascón (Spain)
Fernando José Gallego (Spain)
Óscar Beorlegui (Spain)
Antonio Cózar (Spain)
Iñigo Martínez-Echevarría (Spain)
Carlo de Marchi (Italy)
Francisco Javier Zabaleta (Spain)
Alexandre Antosz (Brazil)
Bernal Antonio Campos (Costa Rica)
José Fernández Labastida (Mexico)
Javier Vicente Salegui (Venezuela)
Juan Herráiz (Spain)
Rafael López-Ortega (Mexico)
Julio Serrano (Spain)
Ignacio Palma (Argentina)
Daniel de Jesús Silva (Venezuela)
Alfonso Berlanga (Spain)
Matías Rodríguez Quirós (Spain)
Jorge Boronat (Spain)
Carlos Enrique Guillén (Peru)
Marc Bosch (Spain)
Guillermo Antonio Aragón (Guatemala)
Michał Stefan Kwitliński (Poland)
Leonardo Agustina (Spain)
Anthony Sy Reyes (Phillipines)
Charles Wanyoike Mundia (Kenya)
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