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WASHINGTON (February 7, 2001) -- U.S. deacons will provide a panel discussion via teleconference February 9, for an Irish clergy meeting in Belfast.
Ireland has just restored the diaconate and the Belfast meeting will allow more than 100 priests to seek practical advice on how the diaconate has been implemented in the United States.
There are 13,000 permanent deacons currently and almost 2,500 men studying for the diaconate in the United States.
Panelists will include Gerard Wilson, head of the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for the Diaconate; his wife Margaret; Donald Quigley a single deacon in the Archdiocese of New York; Anthony Cassoneto, Ph.D., director of the New York archdiocesan diaconate office; and Father Brian McWeeney, pastor of St. Martin De Porres Parish in Poughkeepsie, New York where four deacons serve.
The teleconference will be carried from the Walsh Library at Fordham University's Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx.
The panel discussion begins at 9:45 a.m. Media who wish to cover the teleconference should be in place at the Walsh Library 15 minutes before the teleconference starts.