Filipino ordained a permanent deacon in Washington, DC
Pinoy Global Online News
WASHINGTON D.C - Deacon Leandro Yambao Espinosa, a Filipino American residing in Fort Washington, Maryland, is a newly ordained permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Washington. He was ordained by the Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D., Archbishop of Washington, together with 15 other men from parishes in Maryland and Washington, D.C. last Saturday, June 28, 2008 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
The ordination ceremonies were participated in by many priests and deacons from the archdiocese and were attended by relatives, friends and fellow parishioners of the ordained deacons.
Permanent deacons serve the Church at liturgical celebrations and in ministries of the Word, charity and social justice. They are given faculties to administer the sacrament of Baptism, to serve as witnesses for the Church in the sacrament of Marriage, distribute Holy Communion and viaticum to the sick, proclaim the Gospel and preach at Masses. They may also preside at funeral services. Unlike transitional deacons who go on to the priesthood, permanent deacons may be married men.
Deacon Espinosa was born in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. Aspiring for the Catholic priesthood after graduation from high school, he attended Mater Boni Consilii Seminary, the diocesan minor seminary in Apalit, Pampanga for 2 years and went on to San Jose Seminary, a major seminary run by the Jesuits. He obtained an AB Philosophy degree from San Jose.
Discerning another calling, he later on went to get an MBA degree from the Jesuits’ Ateneo de Manila University.
Married to Maria Lourdes Abella, he and Maria are blessed with a son, Aloysius, and three daughters, Agnes, Andrea and Annalee. Annalee is married to Gerry Gonzales. They have a 15-month old daughter, Leila. The Espinosa children and Gerry serve in St. Columba Parish in Oxon Hill, Maryland in various parish ministries such as the Young Adults Choir, the Parish School of Religion and the Singles for Christ.
A parishioner of St. Columba Church in Oxon Hill, Maryland for eight years, Deacon Espinosa was involved in several parish ministries and organizations. He and Maria are also active in some parish ministries especially the RCIA and the Parish Council.
Before migrating to the US, Andy worked as a teacher at the Ateneo University and as an agricultural economist with the Development Bank of the Philippines.
He was senior executive assistant to the president in a firm involved in construction products manufacturing. He is presently employed at Elizabeth Seton High School, a Catholic high school for girls run by the Daughters of Charity, in Bladensburg, Maryland, as its chief financial officer and business manager.
Deacon Espinosa, Maria and their children feel richly blessed for his calling to serve the Church in the Archdiocese of Washington as a permanent deacon.
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