Students receive ministry of lector, acolyte at St. Meinrad

Diocese of Evansville seminarian Nathan Folz, third from left, was one of 12 seminarians from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad who received the ministry of lector Feb. 15 in the seminary’s St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel. Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis installed the lectors. Folz is a son of Good Shepherd Parish in Evansville. Submitted photo

Special to The Message

A Diocese of Evansville seminarian is one of 12 seminarians from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad who received the ministry of lector Feb. 15 in the seminary’s St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel. Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis installed the lectors. 

Seminarians receiving the ministry of lector include Nathan Folz from the Diocese of Evansville; Christian Collopy and Caleb S. Goff from the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire; Casey Deal, Archdiocese of Indianapolis; Tristan Frisk, Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana; Michael Hickey, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana; Nicholas Hickman, Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee; Michael Mong’are Ooga, FMH, Franciscan Missionaries of Hope; Moses Ndung’u, Glenmary Home Missioners, Cincinnati, Ohio; Junwoo (Andrew) Park, Diocese of Busan, South Korea; Benedictine Brother Jude Angel Romero, St. Meinrad Archabbey; and James Southard, Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The ministry of lector is conferred upon those who prepare and proclaim readings from Scripture at Mass and other liturgical celebrations. A lector also may recite psalms between the readings and present the intentions for the general intercessions.

Also on Feb. 15, Archbishop Thompson installed 20 seminarians to the ministry of acolyte in the seminary’s St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel.

 

The seminarians receiving the ministry or acolyte include Lance Tony Antony Samy, Diocese of Palayamkottai, India; Carmelite Brothers Elias Bar-Shimon, John Black, Paul Marie Castieau and Seraphim Mary Heffernan of the Carmelite Monastery of Wyoming, Powell; Daniel Cooper and Robert K. Denne Jr., Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee; John Gardiner, Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama; Kristofer Garlitch, Samuel Hansen and Khaing M. Thu, Archdiocese of Indianapolis; Raphael Kavita, Evarist Mukama, Alex N. Omari and Aloysius Ssennyondo, Glenmary Home Missioners, , Cincinnati, Ohio; Stephen Matthew McClain, Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Evrard Muhoza, Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky; Felix Pesce, Diocese of Memphis, Tennessee; Benedictine Brother Symeon Rubbelke, Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri; and Guillaume Temkkit, Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. 

An acolyte assists a deacon or priest, primarily in the celebration of Mass. He attends to the needs of the altar and may distribute Communion as an auxiliary minister. He also may be entrusted with the public veneration of the Blessed Sacrament, but he does not give the Benediction, which is reserved for a priest or deacon.