Deacons

[gavin52]

Do deacons have to be married before becoming deacons? That is if they intend to have a wife.

 

[Brendan]

Yes,

Holy Orders is an impediment to Marriage. A deacon cannot licitly contract marriage.

A married man, however, may recieve Holy Orders.

If his wife precedes him in death, he may not remarry

 

[hilde_the_dog]

Brendan Interesting about not being able to remarry, but after thnking about it it does make since. PS I might bring that up to my Deacon when I talk with him tonight about being a Deacon

 

[Deacon_Ed]

Brendan,

Your answer was fine up until the last statement. It is possible for a deacon to remarry following the death of his wife. Difficult, but possible. The current requirements based upon the latest circular letter is as follows: there must be young children at home, the deacon’s work and exceptional value to the diocese must be exemplary as testified to by the local bishop. There is at least one deacon that I know of currently planning his wedding following the reception of a dispensation from Rome.

Note, however, that it is very difficult to get this dispensation today.

Deacon Ed

 

[cameron_lansing]

And, Deacon Ed,

We probably both remember before 1997 when Rome would customarily dispense the deacon from the obligation of celibacy only in conjunction with a rescript for laicization.

I remember the reaction of wives over the third condition of that circular (parents or parents-in-law who are elderly and in need of care).

Now the copies of rescript that I’ve seen just reference canon 1087 as a straight forward dispensation. Of interest to me is that they speak of “lawfully” entering a new marriage while continuing to exercise ministry. It could be the translation, but of course, the impediment prevents valid marriage.

A little more for the curious can be found in the new directory, not a bad thing for hilde or gavin to read.

usccb.org/deacon/DeaconDirectory.pdf

John

 

[hilde_the_dog]

John thanks for the link I’ll be looking it up

 

[Deacon_Ed]

cameron_lansing:

And, Deacon Ed,

We probably both remember before 1997 when Rome would customarily dispense the deacon from the obligation of celibacy only in conjunction with a rescript for laicization.

I remember the reaction of wives over the third condition of that circular (parents or parents-in-law who are elderly and in need of care).

Now the copies of rescript that I’ve seen just reference canon 1087 as a straight forward dispensation. Of interest to me is that they speak of “lawfully” entering a new marriage while continuing to exercise ministry. It could be the translation, but of course, the impediment prevents valid marriage.

A little more for the curious can be found in the new directory, not a bad thing for hilde or gavin to read.

usccb.org/deacon/DeaconDirectory.pdf

John

Deacon John,

Absolutely correct! Then it got easier, any one of the three points were sufficient to get Rome to grant a dispensation. Now it’s been made tougher again. I don’t think there was a great flood of requests to remarry. In my own diocese the deacons that have lost their wives are, generally, older and not inclined to seek female companionship (although there is a man in his late 50s early 60s that lost his wefe).

In any event, most of us no longer have young children at home (at least, that’s what the statistics say), so the idea of remarrying is out.

But, we all knew that going it…

Deacon Ed