Bishop Stika elevates the seminarian to holy orders, calling him a ‘gift from God’ for the diocese By Dan McWilliams As Bishop Richard F. Stika said in his homily, the name Matthew means “gift from God,” and he added that’s what the Diocese of Knoxville is receiving in newly ordained transitional deacon Matthew Donahue. The bishop ordained the student at Pontifical North American College in Rome to the diaconate July 21 at his home church of St. John Neumann in Farragut. “Matthew, I don’t know what you’re going to feel like as you leave this church and go on to your destiny, but you do so touched by God, not because you have earned it, but because it is a gift,” Bishop Stika told Deacon Donahue. “God gives to the Church this day, the universal Church, the eternal Church—God gives to the Church of the Diocese of Knoxville, which... Read more →
