Restoration of the permanent diaconate: 50 years of changes

Deacon Michael Mantz is the Director for the Permanent Diaconate in the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
 

Last month’s article told the story of how the Order of Deacon was restored as a permanent order in the Latin Church hierarchy. This article explores the changes that have taken place during the 50 years and all that had to be done once the Vatican Council voted to restore the Permanent Diaconate in Lumen Gentium.

The process began when Pope Paul VI sent the apostolic letter Sacrum Diaconatus Ordito to all episcopal conferences in 1967 requiring them to petition for the right to start a diaconate formation program. In 1968, the Apostolic Constitution Pontiticalis Romani Recognitio approved the new rite of conferring the sacred orders of the episcopate, presbyterate and the diaconate and determined the matter and form of these sacramental ordinations. The 1972 Apostolic Letter Ministeria Quaedam basically suppressed tonsure, minor orders and the sub-diaconate in the Latin Rite of the Church. Lastly, in this line of formal acts by Church authority, Pope Paul VI issued the Apostolic letter Ad Pascendum in August 1972, which clarified the conditions for the admission and ordination of the candidates.  

The essential elements of these norms passed into the Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, in 1983. The institution of the ministries of reader and acolyte became pre-requisites for entering the clerical state, with the vow of celibacy being taken at the time of diaconate ordination for those men going on to the priesthood and for those single men who enter the permanent diaconate.

The bishops of the United States petitioned Rome in 1968 and were granted permission by the Holy See to begin a program. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops then began working on a set of guidelines to help guide dioceses as they initiated their programs. They created a standing committee for the permanent diaconate.

The first set of guidelines created by the U.S. bishops was promulgated in 1971 but were not normative. They were suggestions for the formation and for the ministry and life of those already ordained. While very well written, they were only a conceptual presentation that left the interpretation to each local diocese.

These new guidelines were a type of national catechesis on the diaconate, but this catechesis was shared only with those involved in the program. In other words, the majority of the people in the pews had no idea that this was happening. 

These guidelines had the intent of assisting the fledgling programs in this country, but fell short of the mark because they could not reflect the actual experience of formation programs and or the experiences of those who had already received holy orders. This makes absolute sense because these guidelines were published in 1971 and the first 13 programs nationwide with more than 400 candidates were also established that same year.

The first group ordinations took place in 1972. The number of ordained deacons in the U.S. was listed at 58 in 1972, with an additional 500 plus candidates. The number of deacons began to grow along with the number of candidates. The bishops’ committee ordered a study after 10 years of actual experience with the restored order of deacon.

This study was done primarily to update and revise the original 1971 guidelines.  In 1984, the bishops published the revised guidelines, which were driven by one common theme; they wanted to correct, improve and update the existing formation and ministerial efforts in the light of the increased theological and ecclesial practice of deacons and deacon formation programs for the first dozen years.

Ten years passed and the bishops called for another national study. This study resulted in the U.S. bishops convening two sub-committees to oversee another revision of the 1984 guidelines.

In 1998, Pope John Paul II promulgated a joint document by the congregations for clergy and education. They organized a plenary assembly to study the diaconate, which raised some concerns about selection, adequate intellectual formation and proper pastoral ministries for deacons. The document was titled “Basic Norms for the Formation and Ministry and Life of Deacons” and dovetailed with the study of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1997 and was used as a springboard for the new “National Directory for the Formation Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons in the U.S.”  

This Directory was promulgated in 2004, and is normative throughout the United States. It is no longer a guideline to be used, but something that must be followed by the USCCB and its territorial sees. The new Directory has helped to harmonize the formation programs drawn-up by each diocese in the United States that at times varied greatly from one diocese to another.

The Directory came together after extensive consultations with bishops, major superiors of men religious as well as diocesan directors of diaconate programs and national diaconate organizations. The Directory has come to be an important point of reference for the Church as the diaconate has become a living and active reality.  

The diaconate has come a long way in just 50 short years. From the early days of programs that varied in length and were less than solid theological and pastoral instruction, to a National Directory that guides and makes normative all programs in the U.S., programs that must contain academic, pastoral, human and diaconal formation and  programs that must be at least five years in length, including a year of inquiry and discernment.

The National Association of Diaconate Directors, in conjunction with the USCCB Committee on the Diaconate, is in the process of “tweaking” minor changes to the National Directory. These changes are not major revisions, nor are they a complete updating. They are— after a dozen years of experience with the new Directory—more of a “fine-tuning”.

The development of the Order of Deacon as a permanent order in the Church has been a slow but authentic process. It has been 50 years in which the diaconate has grown and matured in conjunction with the needs of the Church in the ever-changing world around us. Fifty years seem like a long time, but it is merely a blink of an eye in the life of the Church. What started as a small movement in Germany and France after the Second World War, has grown to be a dynamic call to service in bringing Gospel values to all walks of life.

The deacons in the United States, which number about 19,000, are organized nationally by state and by individual diocese. All of these organizations exist for the prime purpose of serving their bishops to help build-up the body of Christ and to bring Jesus Christ to a society in need of God’s healing love.  

(Editor’s note: Next month we will take a look at the diaconate program in Corpus Christi.)