Philippine Church to allow for married permanent deacons

 

Vatican allows married deacons for Philippine Church

The Vatican has approved a request from Philippine bishops to allow them to ordain qualified Catholics, including married men, as permanent deacons to help check the widening priest-catholic ratio in the country.

Pope Francis granted the request of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines to establish a “permanent diaconate” within the local Church, according to a Vatican letter the conference received on Sept. 12.

Archbishop Romeo Lazo, chairman of the bishops’ Commission on Clergy, said the approval addresses a major social-pastoral need in the Catholic-majority nation.

Spanish missionaries evangelized the Philippines four centuries ago making it currently a Catholic-majority nation. “But because of our population, we’re experiencing a shortage of priests,” Lazo told UCA News on Sept. 13.

The Vatican letter issued by Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for General Affairs of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, lauded the move as a “noble initiative” that will “bear much fruit for many years to come.”

The letter, addressed to conference president Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, asked him to contact the Vatican’s Dicastery for clergy for further matters on establishing a permanent diaconate.

The Vatican letter dated Aug. 17 came in response to a July 25 letter from the bishops’ conference that sought permission, said a report on the conference's news site.

Lazo said most of the bishops voted in favor of a permanent diaconate during their plenary meeting in July.

The Philippines had more than 85 million Catholics, forming about 92 percent of the total population of over 108 million, according to government statistics taken from the latest census in 2020.

But the country has only one priest serving some 9,500 Catholics on average, which is far less than the ratio of one priest for 3,373 Catholics across the world, Church statistics show. 

The Philippines’ case is the worst in Asia, which has one priest for 2,137 Catholics on average. It is also poorer than America (1:5,534) and Africa (1:5,101), according to statistics the Vatican published in 2023.

“There is already a vocation for a permanent diaconate in the Philippines. If there is a vocation, there is always room for the ministry,” Lazo told UCA News.

Lay Catholics have welcomed the move.

Michael Sales, a medical doctor and father of three from Paranaque on the outskirts of Manila, said he is willing to become a permanent deacon.

“It is an option among family men who have the desire to serve the Church,” Sales told UCA News.

He distributes Communion on Sundays. “But feel something is lacking within. Perhaps I could serve the Church more” by being a deacon, he said.

Bishop David told UCA News that permanent deacons can serve the “mission centers” of the Philippines, where people have fewer priests.

“If we have permanent deacons, we can deploy them in mission centers as chaplains,” David added.

The permanent diaconate, which is different from a transitional diaconate, allows ordaining married men to enable them to offer pastoral services. Permanent deacons can independently administer two of the seven sacraments — Baptism and Matrimony.

While the transitional diaconate is part of the preparation for the priesthood, the permanent diaconate accepts single or married men after specific theological formation. They will not be ordained priests.

Most permanent deacons are married men as unmarried single men have the option of being transitional deacons and ordained as priests later.