Deacon Andrew Clark, Deacon Samuel Hill, and Deacon Matthew Kelly received the Call to Orders to the priesthood from Bishop Barry C. Knestout April 29. Mass was then celebrated by the bishop in the chapel at the Pastoral Center in Richmond, and Deacon Clark and Deacon Kelly served. Deacon Hill is still in Rome, completing his degree at the Pontifical North American College.
Members of the Vocations Advisory Board concelebrated: Father Michael Boehling, vicar general; Father Timothy Kuhneman, vicar for clergy; Father Eric Ayers, pastor of St. Bede, Williamsburg, and vicar of the Eastern Vicariate; and Father Kenneth Shuping, pastor of St. Bridget, Richmond, and vicar of the Central Vicariate. Father Brian Capuano, judicial vicar and chancellor, and pastor of St. John, Highland Springs, St. Patrick, Richmond, and St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral, Richmond; and Father Matthew Kiehl, vicar for vocations, also concelebrated.
During his homily, Bishop Knestout encouraged the deacons and everyone else present to follow the example of St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast it was that day. He said St. Catherine fostered a sense of communion in the Church, and that the men who will be ordained will serve as instruments of reconciliation and communion for the faithful.
All three men will be ordained to the priesthood June 7 at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond. Read profiles on Deacon Clark, Deacon Hill, and Deacon Kelly in the next edition of The Catholic Virginian.