For those who think the permanent diaconate is a new creation of the Catholic church, please check out this website. In fact: St.Stephen, was a deacon and he was the first martyr of the church.
deacons.net/Articles/A_brief_history_of_the_permanent_Diaconate.htm
DEACONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Deacons are ordained ministers, as priests and bishops are. From the very earliest days of the church they were understood to occupy a special place in the Christian Community, set apart along with the ‘presbyters’ (bishops and priests) for a special role modelled on that of Christ himself. The first definite reference to deacons in this sense – perhaps as early as 53 A.D – occurs in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which is addressed to “all the holy ones at Philippi, with their bishops and deacons in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:1)
Some hold that the very origin of the diaconate is recorded in the New Testament – in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There we read of a dispute which arose in the church of Jerusalem between Greek – speaking and Aramaic – speaking Christians, the former complaining that some of their poor weren’t getting a fair share of the goods which the Christian community divided among people in need of help. When the argument came to the attention of the Apostles, the leaders of the community, they declined to become directly involved, explaining: “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.” Instead they told people to select for this charitable work seven upstanding men “acknowledged to be deeply spiritual and prudent”. The seven candidates were presented to he apostles, who “prayed over them and then imposed hands on them”. Among them was one Stephen, “a man filled with grace and power”, who for his courage in proclaiming the Good News of Christ soon became the first Christian martyr (cf. Acts 6-7).
While these seven early Christians were not deacons in the developed sense, the
While these seven early Christians were not deacons in the developed sense, the account in Acts accords with the understanding of the diaconate as it emerged and evolved in the church. ‘Deacon’ comes from a Greek word – diakonos – which means a servant or helper. It occurs frequently in the New Testament and is sometimes applied to Christ himself. But the Apostles, for whom it was not “not right…. To neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables”, the deacons soon came to be understood as helpers in more than a material sense – “not servants of food and drink, but ministers of the Church of God”. As St. Ignatius of Antioch put it around 100 A.D., the deacon’s task was nothing less than to continue “the ministry of Jesus Christ”.
In a special way deacons were considered to be ‘helpers’ of the bishop. St. Ignatius specifically mentions two functions of this sort; writing letters for the bishop and generally assisting him in ministry of the word, and serving as the legate of the bishop from one local church to another.
In addition, deacons often rendered assistance – on the bishop’s behalf – to the poor and needy of the community. The special relationship between deacons and bishops was emphasised, among other places, in a third century Christian document which speaks of the deacons being ordained “for the ministry of the work designated by the bishops as being necessary to the Church’s ministry”. Similarly, the Theologian Karl Rahner says that central to all that deacons did was the fact that they were “to help those who direct the church”. It has been suggested that in current terminology, one might say deacons, though they share certain basics in common, can be thought of as ‘specialists’ available for assignment by the bishop to very specific tasks.
So GoLatin…having a deacon in the family is very much a church thing, not a family thing