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Nine men, including two prominent barristers, were ordained as Catholic deacons in Belfast on Sunday.

Brett Lockhart QC, who chairs the Independent Inquiry into the recall of neurology patients, was among two high-profile barristers who were ordained.

Mr Lockhart, born into a Presbyterian family, came to prominence when he represented the Omagh bombing families.

Gregory McGuigan QC was also ordained in the ceremony at St Peter's Cathedral.

The nine men are the first deacons to be ordained in the Down and Connor diocese since the diaconate was re-introduced by Vatican II.

They include Brendan Dowd, a religious education teacher at St Malachy's College in Belfast and Martin Whyte, principal of St Oliver Plunkett's Primary School in Toomebridge, County Londonderry.

The other deacons are Patrick McNeill, Joseph Baxter, Terence Butcher, James McAllister and Kevin Webb.

'Red letter day'

The men can celebrate weddings and funerals but are not permitted to say Mass, hear Confession or administer the Sacrament of the Sick.

Following their ordination, the deacons will take up pastoral work.

Mr Lockhart, a married father-of-four, has been appointed by Bishop Noel Treanor to serve in St Brigid's Parish.

In 1985, before he was married, he joined an ecumenical celibate brotherhood, The Servants of the Word, and began a three-year novitiate in Ann Arbor, Michigan, however he did not take his final vows.

He later returned to Belfast and married his wife Aine, a trained GP who is a distant relative of former bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Daniel Mageean.

He was a member of the Presbyterian church for many years and served as an elder.

Mr Lockhart became a Catholic in 2002. In May, he was appointed as the chairman of an independent inquiry into how the Belfast trust handled complaints about neurology consultant Dr Michael Watt.

It is understood he will remain as a full-time barrister following his ordination.

'Life of parishes'

Religious affairs journalist Martin O'Brien said: "This was undoubtedly a red-letter day in the history of the diocese of Down and Connor, a moment of great joy for the new deacons, their families and the diocese generally.

"However, it will be interesting to see how the diocese responds to what Bishop Noel Treanor referred in his homily to both the possibilities and the challenges the permanent deaconate presents.

"However warmly welcomed the deacons will be, those challenges will centre on integrating and embedding the ministry of the permanent deacon into the life of parishes and pastoral areas."

He said that given the increasing pressure on priests owing to the steep drop in vocations to the priesthood it is "likely that the ministry of the deaconate will come more to the fore".