Ordaining new deacons, a Catholic archbishop said the church and its leaders are called to encounter others and to listen to them.

Archbishop Jose Cabantan of Cagayan de Oro said the church is called to care and in order to do that the church is called to listen.

“That’s why we have to listen to the teachings of the Church, to the teachings of the pope so that we will not become heretic,” Cabantan said in his homily at the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral on March 9.

“We also have to listen to the laity, to others, because we don’t have a monopoly of the Holy Spirit,” he said.

The archbishop pointed out that the diaconate is a loving and humble ministry of service with open hearts, minds, and hands to God.

“We need our hearts to be open, to be cleared from inordinate attachments so that we can allow more friends, more people to enter into our lives to be loved and served,” he said.

The archdiocese’s new deacons are Rev. Arnel Acaso Bahian, Rev. Randy Quider Cainglet, Rev. Richard Ticong Miculod, and Rev. Emmanuel Dancela Pinguil.

As future priests, Cabantan reminded them of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen who, he added, was a great preacher because he preached the Word from his heart to the hearts of others.

According to him, this is one of the heaviest challenges to all who are given the task to preach on the pulpit.

“The clergy who have not kept near the fire of the tabernacle can strike no spark from the pulpit,” Cabantan said.