WASHINGTON — Cidouane Joseph, OFM, and Erick Lopez, OFM, were ordained to the diaconate at a Mass on Sept. 4 celebrated by Bishop Francisco González, auxiliary bishop of Washington. The Mass took place in the Crypt Church in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here.
They were ordained deacons with Dat Tran, CSP, and James McCabe, CSSR.
After the Mass, the friars, along with friends and relatives, gathered at Holy Name College in Silver Spring, Md., for a festive celebration, said Francis Di Spigno, OFM, the Province’s director of post-novitiate formation.
Cidouane, a native of Haiti, said that the diaconate ordination — two weeks after the solemn profession of vows — was significant for him.
“Since, with the grace of God, I feel called to ordained ministry,” he said, “the ordination to the diaconate was also quite significant. The prostrations on the floor — both during the solemn vows ceremony and for the diaconate — were moments of intense reflection on what I was doing at that moment. Though I was not able to see people, I was really aware of all of my family, friends and people who were at the same moment, praying to the saints for me. I can remember being very moved as the bishop imposed his hands on me at the very moment of ordination. It was gradually dawning upon me that I was a deacon in the Church. I was still me, but now, I would be representing the Church in a different way.”
Cid said it was hard to believe it was four years ago that he began the process of becoming a friar in the Bronx. “It doesn’t seem that all of that time has passed.”
Cid and Erick professed their final vows as Franciscan friars on Aug. 22 with Robert Lentz, OFM, and Paul O’Keeffe, OFM. Cid is serving a year-long internship at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church in Hartford, and Erick is completing his studies at Washington Theological Union.
— Jocelyn Thomas is director of communications for the Province.