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Bishop Matthew H. Clark ordained the Diocese of Rochester’s rst class of permanent deacons at Sacred Heart Cathedral April 17, 1982. Posing with the newly ordained deacons were Msgr. George Cocuzzi (from front row left, wearing priestly stole), director of the Permanent Diaconate Program; Auxiliary Bishop Dennis W. Hickey; Bishop Clark; Emeritus Bishop Joseph L. Hogan, under whose administration the program had begun; and Mercy Sister M. Hilaire Gaelens, administrative assistant to the program.
He also promoted the council’s focus on involving the laity in church life. In 1994 Bishop Clark appointed Sister of St. Joseph Anne Michelle McGill as the rst lay pastoral administrator, opening opportunities for laypeople to become parish leaders. Additionally, he called a diocesan synod in the early 1990s that sought input from diocesan Catholics, and initiated a pastoral-planning process in 1997 that gave parishioners substantial say in how their parishes would be recon gured.
Bishop Matthew H. Clark chats with students at an annual Mass for Finger Lakes-area Catholic schools Sept. 27, 2011, at St. Stephen’s Church in Geneva.
And his 2009 book Forward in Hope: Saying Amen to Lay Ecclesial Ministry detailed how increasing ministerial opportunities for laypeople had changed the face of the church.
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