Synod briefing – Day 7: The diaconate
De Cubber: A post-synodal encounter for deacons?
Deacon De Cubber repeated what he had said in the Synod Hall: the deacon is a ‘bridge-builder’ in the family, with other families, in the community, and also with wider society. This, he said, “can be really useful in a secularized society” like Belgium, which the Pope visited at the end of September after a brief stop in Luxembourg.
The deacon’s task, De Cubber added, is to go out and “go where the Church does not go, to those who have no voice and are marginalized by the Church itself and by society and bring them back into the Church.”
In a Church where the faithful are often tired and elderly, and where “if we do not walk in a synodal way the Church will not survive,” the Belgian deacon sought to bring synodality to the youth, uniting the youth ministries of all the Flemish-speaking dioceses in the effort.
Prompted by a journalist’s question, he admitted that deacons could have been better represented at the synod, and that he knows that deacons in the US, for instance, “where the ministry is very strong,” are “not very happy that we are so few.”
He thus proposed a post-synodal meeting of deacons in the future, as was done this year with parish priests.
“Being a deacon,” De Cubber concluded, “is not for me at all a preparation for the priesthood, I do not have this vocation. Ours is a ministry exclusively of service.”
Chile and the richness of the permanent diaconate
The Archbishop of Puerto Montt, Chile, Luis Fernando Ramos Pérez, was asked about the experience of the permanent diaconate in his country, which has seen many permanent deacons ordained in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Today, he said, permanent deacons outnumber priests and religious, and their contribution – including collaborating with pastors in the administration of parishes – is “extraordinary and appreciated.”
At the same time, the Archbishop emphasized that deacons are not “miniature priests.”
For his part, Archbishop Inácio Saure, Archbishop of Nampula, Mozambique – the president of his country’s Episcopal Conference and a member of the Missionaries of the Consolata – explained that there are no deacons in his particular Church at the moment, because limited resources are already being used in the formation of priest. He noted, however, that in the future, if the opportunity arises, permanent deacons would certainly be ordained.
At the same time, he highlighted the need to prepare the parish communities, helping understand the difference between deacons and priests.
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