PROGRAM FOR JUBILEE OF PERMANENT DEACONS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - Today at 5 p.m. in St. Mary Major Basilica, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, will inaugurate the Jubilee of Permanent Deacons. Following his welcome speech, there will be the recitation of the rosary and Eucharistic adoration and benediction.

The program for Saturday, February 19, will take place in the Paul VI Hall, starting with Mass at 8:30 a.m., presided over by Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. This will be followed by a talk on St. Lawrence, Deacon, celebration of the Third Hour with Cardinal Pio Laghi and an audience with the Holy Father at noon.

Saturday afternoon the program continues with a meeting at 4 p.m. of permanent deacons and a speech to them by Archbishop Roberto Octavio Gonzalez of San Juan de Puerto Rico on "The permanent deacon: his identity, role and prospective." At this same hour the families of permanent deacons who are married will meet in Holy Spirit Church near the Vatican where Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, will speak on "The Ideal Family of the Married Permanent Deacon."

At 6 p.m. all participants will meet at the obelisk in St. Peter's Square for a penitential procession through the Holy Door, the profession of faith and a renewal of commitments assumed on ordination day.

On Sunday, February 20 at 9 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will ordain new deacons. This will be followed by the noon angelus with the Holy Father.

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