Today's Parish | Ideas and Inspiration for Pastors, Parish Ministers, and Leaders

By William Ditewig

In the October 2010 issue of Today’s Parish, I wrote about the various reasons the bishops of the United States decided to implement a permanent diaconate. In particular, I focused on the last reason given. That is, deacons would be used “to provide an impetus and source for creative adaptations of diaconal ministries to the rapidly changing needs of our society.”

As I noted, “This notion that the diaconate should be involved in creative new modes of service remains largely unfilled.” In this column, I want to stress the fully balanced and integrated nature of diaconal ministry.

Deacons are often heavily engaged in the traditional ministries of the parish. These are vitally important areas of diaconal ministry. However, deacons ought not to be identified exclusively with them.

As ordained members of the clergy, deacons participate in the three-fold office of word, sacrament, and charity associated in its fullness with the bishop. This three-fold function of the bishop was referred to as diakonia in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Cardinal Walter Kasper once wrote a wonderful summary of the deacon’s multifaceted role:

In his ministry of the altar, he lays the needs of human beings on the eucharistic table, and naturally he also speaks of these needs when he preaches. He must make the parish aware of urgent situations of need, motivating them to share with one another and to give practical help.

The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States, echoing earlier formation guidelines, stresses the “inherent unity” of the triple functions of diakonia:

The diaconal ministries, distinguished above, are not to be separated; the deacon is ordained for them all, and no one should be ordained who is not prepared to undertake each in some way….[E]ven if this inherent ministerial service is one and the same in every case, nevertheless, the concrete ways of carrying it out are diverse; these must be suggested, in each case, by the different pastoral situations of the single churches.

The Directory acknowledges that deacons might have different skills and gifts; there needs to be an acknowledgment that there is an intrinsic unity in a deacon’s ministry. Resonating with the vision of Cardinal Kasper, the bishops wrote: “In preaching the word, he is involved in every kind of missionary outreach. In sanctifying God’s People through the liturgy, he infuses and elevates people with new meaning and with a Christian worldview. In bringing Christ’s reign into every stratum of society, the deacon develops a Christian conscience among all people of good will, motivating their service and commitment to the sanctity of human life.”

One final source speaks in a different way to the pastoral assignment of the deacon. In 1998, the Congregation for Clergy promulgated the Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons:

In every case it is important, however, that deacons fully exercise their ministry, in preaching, in the liturgy, and in charity to the extent that circumstances permit. They should not be relegated to marginal duties, be made merely to act as substitutes, nor discharge duties normally entrusted to nonordained members of the faithful. Only in this way will the true identity of permanent deacons as ministers of Christ become apparent and the impression avoided that deacons are simply lay people particularly involved in the life of the Church. (40)

As can be plainly seen, when the bishop assigns a deacon to the parish, there are many issues to be considered. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to let go of preconceived notions of what a deacon’s ministry looks like. Rather, it is critically important to be open to the many needs currently not being met in the parish and its wider community. Likewise, we need to be open to the particular gifts and skills of the deacon involved. And we need to discern how all three aspects of the deacon’s ministry relate to each other in matching these needs and gifts—and what all of this says about who we are as disciples of Christ in this place and time.

Questions for Reflection

1. How well are the specific details of the deacon’s assignment from the bishop known to your parishioners? To your pastoral staff?
2. How effective is your deacon’s current assignment at avoiding the pitfalls mentioned in no. 40 of the Vatican Directory: “not relegated to marginal duties, not treated as substitutes, not assigned duties normally assigned to others”?
3. To what extent is the deacon assigned to your parish able to “fully exercise” his three-fold obligations in word, sacrament, and charity? What changes may be necessary?

PhD William Ditewig

Deacon William T. Ditewig, PhD, is the former executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for the Diaconate and the Secretariat for Evangelization. He is currently a professor of theology and director of graduate programs in theology at Saint Leo University near Tampa, Florida.