Bishop Larry Silva has appointed Deacon John Coughlin and his wife Kathleen as directors of the Permanent Deacon Formation Program which will train the next class of deacons for the diocese. (The assignment is listed in the “Official Notices” in this issue of the Hawaii Catholic Herald on page 2.)

John Coughlin, 59, who has been a deacon for only a year, said “surprise” was “probably too mild an expression” to describe their reaction to the appointment.

But the initial shock has since “been supplanted with excitement and deep humility,” he said.

The diocese does not have a deacon class currently in formation. Coughlin said the entire program will be reviewed by the bishop and others in April, which should result in a “realistic sense as to when a new class could be convened.”

Potential candidates must first go through a screening process. Preparation for ordination usually involves four years of classes, held over one weekend a month. Wives are full participants in the process.

Coughlin said that a new formation program will see some changes. National guidelines for deacon formation were only recently finalized, he said. Some of those changes were anticipated and incorporated in the last class, of which Coughlin was a member, but there will be more, he said.

Coughlin’s class was initiated by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo. The next one will be Bishop Larry Silva’s first. The previous directors of the Permanent Deacon Formation Program were Deacon Bill McPeek and his wife Flo.

Coughlin was ordained on Feb. 9, 2007. He is on “extended leave” as assistant fire chief at Hickam Air Force Base and will formally retire within the next few months. Kathleen is manager of the Queen Emma Clinics at Queen’s Medical Center.

John said that he and Kathleen will complement each other in this new job. He describes himself as “somewhat of a visionary ... the ‘what if’ guy” married to “the implementer, the organizer, the detail person.”

Among the ideas he envisions are classes by teleconferencing and the Internet.