2 Things a Deacon can't do

[Elzee]

There’s a thread open asking if a Deacon can bless things. I was told in our bible study class a couple weeks ago that there are only 2 things a Deacon can’t do that a priest can: hear confessions and say Mass. Is this accurate?

 

[msproule]

Elzee:

There’s a thread open asking if a Deacon can bless things. I was told in our bible study class a couple weeks ago that there are only 2 things a Deacon can’t do that a priest can: hear confessions and say Mass. Is this accurate?

No, that is not accurate, although it is true that a Deacon cannot absolve one of their sins nor perform the Consecration during Mass.

While a Deacon can baptize, he cannot perform the Sacrament of Annointing of the Sick.

It is much more complicated than the explanation you were provided. One resource for accurate information is the Code of Canon Law.

 

[thistle]

Elzee:

There’s a thread open asking if a Deacon can bless things. I was told in our bible study class a couple weeks ago that there are only 2 things a Deacon can’t do that a priest can: hear confessions and say Mass. Is this accurate?

I don’t think a deacon can marry people.

 

[Brendan]

Elzee:

There’s a thread open asking if a Deacon can bless things. I was told in our bible study class a couple weeks ago that there are only 2 things a Deacon can’t do that a priest can: hear confessions and say Mass. Is this accurate?

Any of the Sacredotal functions of a priest.

That includes (but isn’t limited to)

Say Mass
Hear Confessions
Confirm Catecumens
Annoint the Sick

As opposed to articulating what a deacon can’t do, the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium articulates what they CAN

Lumen Gentium 29

It is the duty of the deacon, according as it shall have been assigned to him by competent authority, to administer baptism solemnly, to be custodian and dispenser of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, to bring Viaticum to the dying, to read the Sacred Scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside over the worship and prayer of the faithful, to administer sacramentals, to officiate at funeral and burial services.

The Minsterial Priesthood and the Diaconate share the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but are different callings, with different roles.

A priest is always a Deacon, thus may perform the roles and ministries proper to a Deacon, but one ordainted to the Diaconate alone does not share in the Minsterial Priesthood, but as the servant of the Church.

 

[Brendan]

thistle:

I don’t think a deacon can marry people.

Baptized persons marry each other, they each confer the Sacrament of Marriage on their spouse. The priest or deacon is just the official witness.

And yes, a deacon does witness Catholic Marriages.

 

[msproule]

thistle:

I don’t think a deacon can marry people.

Actually, he can:
Can. 1111 §1. As long as they hold office validly, the local ordinary and the pastor can delegate to priests and deacons the faculty, even a general one, of assisting at marriages within the limits of their territory.

 

[Marauder]

thistle:

I don’t think a deacon can marry people.

Actually a deacon can witness a marriage. Since the principal people in the wedding is the couple themselves.

The only restriction would be that it couldn’t be a wedding Mass with the Eucharist being consecrated. Since a deacon can not consecrate the Eucharist. A lot of couples that have one person being a Catholic and the other not prefer this method since they do not have to deal with one person receiving the Eucharist and the other not.

 

[Brendan]

Marauder:

Actually a deacon can witness a marriage. Since the principal people in the wedding is the couple themselves.

The only restriction would be that it couldn’t be a wedding Mass with the Eucharist being consecrated. Since a deacon can not consecrate the Eucharist.

Sort of…a priest could say the Mass, while a deacon witnesses the Marriage.

Yea, I know it’s nit picking, but it’s my hope that I would be able to witness the marriages of my nieces and nephews whenever they get married.

 

[Marauder]

Brendan:

Sort of…a priest could say the Mass, while a deacon witnesses the Marriage.

Yea, I know it’s nit picking, but it’s my hope that I would be able to witness the marriages of my nieces and nephews whenever they get married.

Actually I know that a priest and a deacon can witness a marriage and then have the Eucharist considering that is how I got married. Just meant that if the only person present from the Church was the deacon then the Eucharist can not be consecrated.

 

[BillyT92679]

Brendan:

Baptized persons marry each other, they each confer the Sacrament of Marriage on their spouse. The priest or deacon is just the official witness.

And yes, a deacon does witness Catholic Marriages.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches though, the Priest marries the couple, as opposed to the couple conferring the Mystery on each other… different theological approach. So I believe a Deacon cannot witness that Mystery in the East, but I could be mistaken.

 

[plato3]

Marauder:

Actually I know that a priest and a deacon can witness a marriage and then have the Eucharist considering that is how I got married. Just meant that if the only person present from the Church was the deacon then the Eucharist can not be consecrated.

You are correct. I was involved in a ceremony like yours. I preached the homily and witnessed the vows, while the pastor celebrated the Eucharist. It was an honor to be able to speak about marriage. Most of the deacons in our diocese have been married many years and so offer a different prospective than their pastors.

Deacon Tony SFO

 

[Brendan]

BillyT92679:

In the Eastern Catholic Churches though, the Priest marries the couple, as opposed to the couple conferring the Mystery on each other… different theological approach. So I believe a Deacon cannot witness that Mystery in the East, but I could be mistaken.

I don’t think the East has gone as far as the West in defining who exactly confers what and when in Sacramentology.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, there is an understanding that the Sacrament is known to be confirmed when the two give their consent and the priest imparts his blessing.

So why ‘tinker’ with it or ‘what more to we really need to know’

So yes, an Eastern marriage witnessed by the deacon alone is certainly invalid due to Form (to use the Roman terms) and to the Eastern understanding of the Mystery.

But that does not mean that the Eastern Churches, either Eastern Catholic or Orthodox, would not deem a Roman Marriage witnesses by a deacon alone as being invalid.

A Roman couple married in front of a deacon would certainly be accepted by any Eastern Catholic priest as fully married, and in most cases by the Orthodox as well. I’m sure that certain Orthodox priests might perform a conditional Marriage in cases of conversion, but that really isn’t the norm.

 

[BillyT92679]

Brendan:

I don’t think the East has gone as far as the West in defining who exactly confers what and when in Sacramentology.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, there is an understanding that the Sacrament is known to be confirmed when the two give their consent and the priest imparts his blessing.

So why ‘tinker’ with it or ‘what more to we really need to know’

So yes, an Eastern marriage witnessed by the deacon alone is certainly invalid due to Form (to use the Roman terms) and to the Eastern understanding of the Mystery.

But that does not mean that the Eastern Churches, either Eastern Catholic or Orthodox, would not deem a Roman Marriage witnesses by a deacon alone as being invalid.

A Roman couple married in front of a deacon would certainly be accepted by any Eastern Catholic priest as fully married, and in most cases by the Orthodox as well. I’m sure that certain Orthodox priests might perform a conditional Marriage in cases of conversion, but that really isn’t the norm.

Oh of course not… when in Rome, do as the Latins do. The Eastern Catholics of course recognize man and woman as married sacramentally even when a Deacon confirs the Sacrament in the Latin Church. I just wanted to clarify that what is normative in the Latin Church is not necessarily normative for all the sui iuris Churches in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See. Sometimes we Latins forget that or do not know they even exist.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Elzee:

There’s a thread open asking if a Deacon can bless things. I was told in our bible study class a couple weeks ago that there are only 2 things a Deacon can’t do that a priest can: hear confessions and say Mass. Is this accurate?

There are many things that a Deacon can’t do that a priest can. However there are only two of the seven Sacraments that a Deacon can celebrate. A Deacon can Baptize with the pastors permission and a Deacon can witness a Marriage with the pastors permission and the Bishops permission. A Deacon CANNOT celebrate Mass, hear Confessions, Anoint the Sick, Confirmation or Ordination.

 

[cameron_lansing]

The teaching authority of the Church has warned against a functionalist view of the diaconate though. It is not what a deacon “can” or “cannot” do that is important, but the identity conferred on the deacon by virtue of ordination, that is, the role of service to the people of God just as Christ came to serve.

In my particular case, I have delegation from the diocesan bishop to witness marriages in the parish to which I am assigned. In fact, I have even sub-delegated visiting priests the faculty to validly witness marriage, since a faculty can be sub-delegated in a particular case unless restricted.

On the primary point, though, I could do no better than to refer the curious to the websute of the USCCB committee/office on the diaconate about the question of the priority of identity as opposed to “functionalism”:

usccb.org/deacon/infores.shtml

Blessed Christmas.

 

[batteddy]

Marriage, as a sacrament, is a covenant, and because it is for the good of society, is the one most defined by Church law.

The only things unchangeable about the rite of matrimony are that it has to be a man and a woman giving their free consent for a lifelong marital union.

The form can be changed by canon law. The minister can be changed. The requirements for validity can all be changed by Church law.

That is why marriages which are illicit in certain ways are not only illicit, but also invalid and grounds for an annulment. Unlike in the other sacraments, where the Church can impose restrictions that would make the sacrament illicit but not invalid, in marriage the Church can impose canonical restrictions that make it invalid as well as illicit. This is because marriage is a contract and so has legalistic aspects.

So theoretically, the Church could make the deacon the minister of matrimony. In the West it is the couple, in the East it is the priest…but canon law could be changed to make the deacon actually “confer” the sacrament if the Church so chose.

 

[Deacon_Ed]

batteddy:

Marriage, as a sacrament, is a covenant, and because it is for the good of society, is the one most defined by Church law.

The only things unchangeable about the rite of matrimony are that it has to be a man and a woman giving their free consent for a lifelong marital union.

We have to be careful about absolutes as they are usually wrong. In the Byzantine tradition there is no exchange of consent except where necessary for legal purposes, and then it takes place before the marriage ceremony! In the Eastern tradition we do not follow Augustine’s thinking on what makes a valid marriage but, rather, the Greek Fathers who taught that the marriage ceremony itself (the Holy Crowning) formed the “consent” for the marriage.

Deacon Ed

 

[mosher]

Deacon Ed:

We have to be careful about absolutes as they are usually wrong. In the Byzantine tradition there is no exchange of consent except where necessary for legal purposes, and then it takes place before the marriage ceremony! In the Eastern tradition we do not follow Augustine’s thinking on what makes a valid marriage but, rather, the Greek Fathers who taught that the marriage ceremony itself (the Holy Crowning) formed the “consent” for the marriage.

Deacon Ed

Deacon Ed I think this is the best most explanitory and understandable of the eastern tradition concerning matrimony. I have heard and used very convoluted reasons for the difference between east and west concerning concent but this is perfect.

 

[Plato]

Nice thread! Just spoke to my pastor and he’s going to recommend me to the diaconate program. The last time I asked him about it was 8 years ago (I was 32 years old then).

It’s the first step - but I’m thrilled! Now I’m will be going with my wife to information sessions on the diaconate. It’s 8 sessions about 1.5 hours each. I belong to the archdiocese of New York under Cardinal Edward Egan.

Plato
New York City
Thrilled to be recommended to the diaconate by my Pastor!

 

[Deacon_Ed]

mosher:

Deacon Ed I think this is the best most explanitory and understandable of the eastern tradition concerning matrimony. I have heard and used very convoluted reasons for the difference between east and west concerning concent but this is perfect.

Mosher,

Thanks for your kind remarks! BTW. I notice you’re from ABQ. My parents used to live there, and I really love the city. Don’t know if you’re into Mexican food, but Papa Felipe’s on Menaul near Eubank has the best Sopapillas!

Deacon Ed