WORCESTER – Bishop McManus is to ordain 10 men deacons at a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Paul Cathedral May 31, 2014.
All are welcome to attend the Mass and a public reception for all the newly ordained afterwards in the cenacle in the cathedral’s lower level. Helping with the reception are the diocesan Office for Vocations, Serra Club North and South, and the Knights of Columbus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Ann Parish Council.
The Mass is to be broadcast on Charter TV 3 at 1 p.m. June 1 and 10 a.m. June 4.

Five of those being ordained are married men who are to serve the Diocese as permanent deacons.
The other five are to be ordained transitional deacons. They are preparing for priesthood, four of them for the Diocese, one for the Augustinians of the Assumption at Assumption College.
Transitional and permanent deacons assist in the celebration of Mass as ordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and by proclaiming the Gospel and preaching. They can assist at and bless marriages and preside over funerals and wake services, and are dedicated to various works of charity in living out their call to service.
Following are the biographies of the men being ordained.

Brother Ronald Sibugan, son of Alberto and Aida Sibugan, was born Oct. 6, 1978 in Pasay City in the Philippines, and brought up in Manila.
He attended Kasarinlan Elementary School in Caloocan City and Lakan Dula High School in Manila. He got his bachelor’s in computer engineering from Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila in 2000, and worked in that field  in the Philippines and Taiwan.
He was a missionary in Porac, Pampanga, teaching catechism, adult literacy and high school math and served in college ministry.
He met the Augustinians of the Assumption from Worcester in the Philippines, and came here in August 2004 to discern a vocation with them.
He got his bachelor’s in philosophy and did his first year of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. In 2012 he got his master’s of divinity and in 2013 his master’s in theology, with a concentration in spirituality and culture,  both from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
April 20, 2013, he made his final vows as an Assumptionist at Assumption College, where he is a campus minister.
He is to assist at Mass at 4:15 p.m. May 31 at St. John Parish in Worcester, with a public reception following. The Filipino Santa Cruzan and Flores de Mayo festival is beginning before Mass.
He is to assist at a Mass of Thanksgiving at 10 a.m. June 1 in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Assumption College, with a public reception following in the adjoining Tinsley Campus Ministry Center.

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Presss