EDMONTON – Two Catholic deacons from central Alberta take to the airwaves each week, sharing their faith, strength and hope on a radio talk show broadcast from a small station in Maskwacis, a First Nations community south of Edmonton.

Pope Francis on Sunday told Deacons from across the globe that they must be generous with their lives and with their time.

PULASKI, Wis. – When David Parker informed his eldest child, Legionary Brother David Parker Jr., that he was pursuing the diaconate again, the son had a question for his father: "How many years do you have in formation?"

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis told the heads of women's religious orders from around the world that he would set up a commission to study the New Testament deaconesses and he also insisted more can and should be done to involve lay and consecrated women in church decision-making at every level.

TORONTO - Ordaining deacons is just like Christmas. It's all about the word made flesh.

"Deacons are ordained to assist the Apostles proclaim the word and make that word a reality," Bishop Vincent Nguyen told 14 men he ordained to the second order of deacons on Saturday, May 26 at St. Michael's Cathedral.

TORONTO - Michael Ho quickly learned it takes more than prayer to be a deacon with the Apostleship of the Sea (AOS).

Aside from sharing the sacraments Ho, along with his international colleagues, delivers word on human rights, dignity and equality while comforting those enduring the hardships of a life at sea.

As an associate chaplain with AOS, which began providing ministerial services to sailors in 1899 out of Scotland, Ho’s formal function is to offer communion, hear confessions and arrange Masses for those he calls the Salties. While Ho calls these tasks his primary responsibility, the 64-year-old deacon does not always go home after saying amen with the seafarers — in fact some days he never says it at all.

TORONTO - The deacon other Toronto deacons relied on for years has passed away. Deacon Bert Cambre died peacefully, surrounded by his family at Burlington's Joseph Brant Hospital March 29.

"He was an icon of Christ the servant, especially when it came to reaching out to try to gather the marginalized," said Stephen Pitre, Toronto's co-ordinator of diaconal ministry.

Deacon Cambre grew the office for deacons at the archdiocese of Toronto in 2000 and ran it for 10 years. He was a careful steward of the community of deacons and always attentive to the deacons' wives and widows.