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The Secretariat for Clergy Formation and
Chaplaincy Services is composed of departments that provide education and
formation of men for the priesthood and permanent diaconate as well as
departments that provide direct sacramental and pastoral care for persons
who are outside the parish structure.
In the
Catholic Church there are three ranks of ordained clerics: the diaconate
(deacons), the presbyterate (priests) and the episcopacy (bishops).
The diaconate is a ministry of service and there are both transitional
deacons (men preparing to be priests) and permanent deacons (men who will
remain deacons). Permanent deacons can be married men with families
while transitional deacons, because they will proceed to priestly
ordination, must be celibate (unmarried). The
departments that assist in the identifying, training and pastoral support
of deacons and priests are: Vocations Office (identify candidates for the
diocesan priesthood and the religious life for men and women), St. Mary
Seminary (men studying for the diocesan priesthood), Permanent Diaconate
(prepares men for diaconal ordination with programs in both English and
Spanish and support for ordained deacons), Ministry to
Priests (support for ordained priests) and Continuing Education of Priests
(post-ordination education).
The
primary place for the celebration of the sacraments is the parish.
The Church, however, must reach out to those faithful who find themselves
in need of the pastoral and sacramental care of the Church when they are
away from their parish. Towards this end, the Diocese has provided
chaplains to key institutions in order to meet the sacramental needs of
the faithful. They are the Catholic Chaplain Corps (ministry to
those in the hospitals of
the Texas Medical Center and UTMB in Galveston), Correctional Ministries
(ministry to those in jails and prisons), Port Ministry (ministry to those
who dock at ports) and Deaf Ministry (ministry to the hearing impaired).
Completing
this secretariat is the Church's outreach to the spread and support of the
Catholic faith in other countries (Mission Office) and its collaboration
and dialogue with persons of other Christian and non-Christian faiths
(Ecumenism Commission).
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