A gift flowing from Vatican II: the Permanent Diaconate

A New Voice at the Pulpit

By Greg Kandra
A date most Catholics do not know may be one of the most important anniversaries on the church calendar: June 18, 1967. That was the day Pope Paul VI, following the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council, issued “Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem,” which laid out “General Norms for Restoring the Permanent Diaconate in the Latin Church.” That document and what followed it had a seismic impact. Nearly 50 years later the earth continues to move.
There are some 31,000 permanent deacons worldwide, over 17,000 of them in the United States. They are increasingly a part of the Catholic landscape, in ways that are vibrant, vocal and visible. Deacons run religious education programs and food pantries; supervise adult Christian initiation teams and bereavement groups; facilitate Pre-Cana classes and annulments. They make regular appearances in the pulpit; some parishes have “deacon weekends,” where they preach at all the Masses. In many dioceses, they have assumed leadership responsibilities that once belonged exclusively to priests. More and more, when families flip through photo albums of weddings and baptisms, the vested figure smiling in the background, offering a blessing and a toothy grin, is not the parish priest. It is the deacon.
The deacon has also become a presence in the life of the universal church. Three points spring to mind.
The diaconate has broadened our idea of what it means to belong to the clergy. Some of us can remember when the most familiar member of the clergy was the parish priest. He was usually a “lifer” who entered the seminary fresh from college (or a prep seminary), was ordained in his mid-20s and never knew any other kind of life. The restoration of the diaconate opened up membership in the clergy to men who were older, married and had families, jobs and careers. This significant move challenged the church to change its perception of what it means to be ordained. It does not necessarily mean being celibate; a life dedicated to holiness could come from anywhere. A résumé in the world suddenly became an asset. The church came to embrace the idea that life experience could inform and enhance ministry.
For most deacons that includes experience as a husband and father, which has brought into the Roman church the clergyman’s wife and family. The wife’s role, in particular, is critical. Many wives work closely with their husbands in ministry, helping prepare couples for marriage, assisting at baptisms and/or serving as a prayerful support when the nights get long, the classes become grueling and the parish council meeting turns into a shouting match. (More than a few deacons will tell you that when it comes to homilies, their wives are also their most trustworthy critics.)
The diaconate has put a new voice in the pulpit. When deacons arrived on the scene, many in the pews began to hear preaching that connected with their lives in unexpected ways. They heard a father talk about the challenges of raising teenagers; they heard a husband preach about the sacrament of marriage; they heard a worker talk about the pressures of paying off a mortgage or dealing with a difficult boss. This different kind of homiletics can mirror the people in the pews.
The diaconate has given a new dimension to the sacrament of holy orders. It has brought the laity closer to the clergy and vice versa. The deacon bridges two worlds. To his bishop and pastor he can be a set of eyes and ears; to the faithful he can be a prayerful advocate and sympathetic voice. He lives down the block, has a child in the parish school and will often be the first person parishioners approach if they have a problem, a question, a worry or a doubt.
As the Code of Canon Law (Canon 1009, No. 3) makes clear: “Those who are constituted in the order of the episcopate or the presbyterate receive the mission and capacity to act in the person of Christ the Head, whereas deacons are empowered to serve the people of God in the ministries of the liturgy, the word and charity.”The deacon’s faculty—and his defining charism—is one of service.
It is a service we are still coming to understand, for the restored diaconate is a work in progress. But its impact is unmistakable. The diaconate, a flourishing fruit of the council, has strengthened the church’s presence in the modern world and left the church and the world enriched.
Deacon Greg Kandra of the Diocese of Brooklyn is the executive editor of ONE magazine, published by Catholic Near East Welfare Association. He also writes the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”



>>>The gift of the Permanent Diaconate is among one of the many gifts of Vatican II that bears much fruit; good fruit.  I thank God nightly for the gift of my vocational call, and response, to the Permanent Diaconate.