The ordination of Deacon Joseph Morley at St. Theresa?s Cathedral on December 8 will mark an historic occasion for the Bermuda diocese.

As local Catholics observe the feast of the Immaculate Conception, they will also celebrate the ordination of ?Deacon Joe? ? the first time an ordination will take place in Bermuda.

Deacon Joseph, 45, of Devonshire said that he hoped the occasion would encourage more Bermudian males to join the priesthood.

?First of all, it takes the first person to break ground ? people like Mahatma Gandhi or Rosa Parks. I think it helps to give people inspiration. For years people have been talking about Bermudianisation. This shows it is possible for Bermuda to aspire to these dreams and goals,? he said.

He said he felt the call to be a priest since he was eight years old when he was at Mount St. Agnes.

After leaving school in 1978, he attended St. Leo?s College in Florida and in 1983 graduated with a BA in Religious Studies. Before getting his Masters of Divinity from the Toronto School of Theology in 1989, he gained pastoral experience and exposure to a number of parish and ministry environments.

?It?s a very explicit way of serving the people of God,? he said.

He said his Bishop asked him why he did not just remain a deacon, but ?Deacon Joe? ? as he is affectionately known to his parishioners ? said that he wanted to be able to hear confessions and give the Eucharist.

Although not the first Bermudian to become a priest, he said that he knew of three or four others, including one still preaching in Florida. But Deacon Joe is the first to be ordained locally and not overseas, since the Bermuda Diocese began in 1967.

Deacon Joe attended John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts in 1998. He was ordained to the deaconate in June, 2000 in Bermuda and received his second Masters of Divinity degree in 2001.

He served as Diocesan Director of Religious Education for a year but returned to Boston and was assigned to St. Angela?s Parish, which he described as ?a poor, black, Haitian, inner city, dynamic parish,? for 18 months before returning to Bermuda on June 30.

On July 1, he was appointed Pastoral Administrator to the oldest Catholic community in Bermuda at St. Joseph?s in Somerset.

Once ordained, he will become involved in the Pro-Life, Prison and Diocesan newsletter ministries.

?This is an honour,? he said of his ordination. ?I realise it?s been a struggle, but I learned a long time ago that things don?t happen in my time, but in God?s time. I did not intend to be the first one, but that?s how it worked out in God?s plan. I will simply do the best I can for God and his people,? he said.

The ordination will take place at St. Theresa?s Cathedral at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8.