Andrew Hart, a seminarian for the Diocese of Little Rock and member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock, was ordained a deacon with 34 other classmates by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 6.
Bishop Anthony B. Taylor, nine other bishops, about 300 priests and about 2,000 family members and friends were in attendance
Making the trip to Rome were also his parents, Robert and Evelyn Hart, his sister, Rosemary Hart, brother, Stephen Hart, who is also studying to be a priest, his uncle, J. Fred Hart Jr., and aunt, Faye Spond. About 40 other friends and parishioners from Christ the King joined them.
Reflecting on his ordination, Hart said, “I felt very grateful and humbled by all the Lord had done for me and all the many people who were praying for me. I was and am also very excited about serving the Church in this new way.”
At the ordination, the deacons made three promises: celibacy, prayer and obedience.
He said the laying on of hands during the ordination rite was the most powerful moment for him.
“I felt very connected to the very first deacons of the Church, on whom the apostles laid their hands,” he wrote during an e-mail interview with Arkansas Catholic.
Hart, 28, is studying dogmatic theology this year at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas, also known as the Angelicum, and will also be serving as a deacon the North American College and at the Church of Santa Susanna, the English-speaking parish in Rome.
After graduation from St. Louis University in 2005, he began to discern a call to the priesthood. He worked for the Diocese of Little Rock in 2005-2006 to help plan the diocese’s Eucharistic Congress.
He was accepted as a seminarian in 2006 and studied philosophy for two years at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. Hart was chosen in 2008 to attend the Pontifical North American College in Rome for his theological studies.
Little Rock seminarian ordained a deacon in Rome
