Diocese of Steubenville - Office of the Diaconate at 422 Washington Street, Steubenville, OH 43952 US - What is a Deacon?
| What is a Deacon? |
What is the permanent diaconate?
A permanent deacon is a member of the sacred hierarchy of the Church ordained for the ministry of service assisting the diocesan bishop with the needs of the faith community. Diaconal ministry includes a threefold ministry of Word, Sacrament, and charity exercised for the benefit of the local Church. The name “deacon” comes from the Greek word diakonos meaning servant or minister. From the earliest times in the Church, deacons have assisted in the day-to-day ministries of charity and justice. Since a man is ordained into Holy Orders, the diaconate imprints a character and communicates a specific sacramental grace for the purpose of service. The spirituality and ministry of the deacon, therefore, can be a source of inspiration, motivation, and example for all the faithful in the Church. How does the diaconate relate to the priesthood? The Church teaches that Christ has instituted the sacraments for the good of the People of God, including the sacrament of Holy Orders. There are three degrees of Holy Orders — the episcopacy, presbyterate, and the diaconate. Those ordained to Holy Orders are invested with sacred power to further the Church’s mission. There are two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ -- the episcopacy and presbyterate. The Diaconate provides a sacramental grace to the Church with witness and ministry to charity. Thus while the bishop and priest are ordained in the person of Christ as head of the Church, the deacon is ordained in the person of Christ as servant of the Church. Has the diaconate always been part of the Church? Yes. The roots of the diaconate are in the Acts of the Apostles. The apostles, overwhelmed with the many needs of the growing Church, appointed seven men, including St. Stephen, to ministries of charity and service. Deacons had an important role in the western Church’s hierarchy until the fifth century. For various reasons though, it began to experience a slow decline, until the diaconate became only an intermediate stage for candidates preparing for priestly ordination. The Second Vatican Council renewed the permanent diaconate to meet growing pastoral needs. In 1967, Pope Paul VI issued norms for the re-establishment of the Order of Deacon; and since then, the diaconate has flourished in many dioceses throughout the world. In the United States, as Pope John Paul II observed, the call has come at exactly the right time for the Church in America. American society faces unprecedented challenges from abortion, euthanasia, eroding of social values, technological advances, an aging population, racism, poverty, and scores of other issues that the Church needs to address.
