Bishop Earl Fernandes will ordain four diocesan seminarians to the diaconate at a Mass on Friday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at Westerville St. Paul Church, 313 N. State St.
Three weeks later, Bishop Fernandes will ordain Deacon PeterKlaver Kasasa Kiviiri to the priesthood on Saturday, May 27 at 10 a.m. at St. Joseph Cathedral, 212 E. Broad St., in downtown Columbus.
Both ordination Masses are open to anyone who would like to attend. A light reception will follow the diaconate ordination in the Klinger Center at St. Paul.
The four deacon candidates are Tyler Carter and Michael Haemmerle of Columbus St. Patrick Church, David Johnstone of Marysville Our Lady of Lourdes Church and Jason Fox of Powell St. Joan of Arc Church.
Carter, Haemmerle and Johnstone are currently studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum, and Fox is at the Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.
After the four seminarians are ordained as deacons, they will spend a final year in studies before their anticipated ordination to the priesthood in 2024.
Deacon Kiviiri, a native of Uganda who moved to Columbus in 2010 and is a member of St. Joseph Cathedral, is completing his studies at the Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary. He will be the first candidate that Bishop Fernandes ordains to the priesthood since he became the shepherd of the Columbus diocese on May 31, 2022.
The diocese had no ordinations to the priesthood in 2022, two in 2021 and four each in 2020 and 2019.
For more information on vocations, visit www.columbuscatholic.org/vocations.