Does the Permanent Diaconate harm vocations to the Priesthood?

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Joannm said:
Plus you have to be married at least 5 years or more before applying to formation. I doubt many men say, “gee, I want to be a deacon not a priest so I can get married…so I better find me a wife so I can begin my diaconal formaion.” Most of the deacons I know came to discern a vocation to the diaconate long after they got married. Their vocation was first to marriage, then to the diaconate.
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My mother’s friend has a son who discerned a calling for the priesthood for a number of years. He went to prayer groups and prayed about it an awful lot. A woman prayed over him at one of these prayer meetings and she said she could see him in vestaments but not priests ones, and then he started to explore becoming a deacon. In the meantime he has got married, and intends starting to study to be a deacon in a few years time.

I am very confused about the woman praying over him…is that a bit like fortune telling? Also, it seems that the callings were a bit muddled in his head.
 
ASimpleSinner said:
All callings are muddled until they are discerned.
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muddled - talk about an understatement!

as far as “visions” and stuff, take them with a grain of salt. Sirach 34 talks very clearly about dreams and such, to the point of even denouncing them.

1 1 Empty and false are the hopes of the senseless, and fools are borne aloft by dreams. 2 Like a man who catches at shadows or chases the wind, is the one who believes in dreams. 3 What is seen in dreams is to reality what the reflection of a face is to the face itself. 4 Can the unclean produce the clean? can the liar ever speak the truth? 5 Divination, omens and dreams all are unreal; what you already expect, the mind depicts. 6 Unless it be a vision specially sent by the Most High, fix not your heart on it; 7 For dreams have led many astray, and those who believed in them have perished.
so for something as serious as discernment, whether it be religious or married life, we gotta be very careful with dreams and visions, coincidences and conclusions…
 
Having read only the first post and none of the others, I will give a brief answer.

I do not see where the diaconate would harm the priesthood, as the vast majority being ordained deacons are married men. I know of at least 4 in my Archdiocese who were widowed and have become priests at the request of our Archbishop. One was even a classmate of mine, ordained to the diaconate in 1991.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Having read only the first post and none of the others, I will give a brief answer.

I do not see where the diaconate would harm the priesthood, as the vast majority being ordained deacons are married men. I know of at least 4 in my Archdiocese who were widowed and have become priests at the request of our Archbishop. One was even a classmate of mine, ordained to the diaconate in 1991. What was really special was that he was the celebrant at mass for our 15th reunion as deacons.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
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