Permanent Deacons - Opinions?

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@praytell what would you say to someone (i.e. me) thinking of the Diaconate? As you are nearly done, how would you tell others about your vocation?
 
Warning - - I have never been in a parish with a deacon, however, I have a negative opinion of them. Read on at your own risk.

I guess this sounds terrible, but deacons seem like “second-best” to me. Like people would prefer to have a priest for their baptism, wedding, funeral, but he’s not available for some reason, so it’ll be the deacon. My feeling is that if there weren’t a priest shortage, we wouldn’t need deacons.

My impression is that priests have a lot of meetings/ admin stuff to go to, then they have to have deacons do the stuff the they should be doing. I may be wrong, that is just my impression from afar.
Go ahead - - educate me. Excoriate me if you must.
 
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That’s is awesome that this is on your heart. I would say that if you are feeling the “tickle” of a call you should follow it. All the normal advice would apply: talk to your Diocese’ Diaconate Office, talk to your Pastor, etc… More importantly though, pray for God’s will in discerning this vocation and carefully listen for His answer.
Sorry for the length of this.
I have always felt a call to a religious vocation even when I was away from the Church. I ignored it for the most part. After a powerful reversion experience, I began to pray more for Him to reveal His will for me. There were time when people would walk up to me and tell me “You would make a good Deacon.” I thought they were crazy.
There was a particular occurrence that finally moved me to pursue it. I was praying to know His will, literally begging “What do you want of me?” The Deacon came out before Mass and made an announcement that the Diocese was holding meetings for Diaconal discernment the following week. He was basically staring at me throughout his announcement even though he did not know I was discerning.
As we were getting ready for Mass the following week, I announced to my wife that I was going to go to the meeting to see what the deal was. She looked at me with her mouth wide open. After Mass I had an errand to run and ran into someone from our Parish. She said “I have something personal to tell you, can we talk privately?”
She told me she had a dream the previous night in which God told her to tell me that He wanted me to be a Deacon. She had no foreknowledge that I was even considering it. I smile and told her “Well, just so you know, I am going to a meeting today to sign up for formation.” She tearfully told me “Oh my, God still talks to me! I haven’t felt like He was answering my prayers lately.” I told my wife about the encounter and she tearfully (joy) told me “Well, I guess that settles it. I will need to start praying more for you.”
It has been three years of night school so far and has been a great experience so far. Even if I get to the end and find that maybe my call isn’t real, I still have this formation experience to buoy me in my faith and in my relationship with the Lord. Jesus has called me to follow Him and regardless of where I end up, I am certain it was His will that I walk this path. I would highly encourage you to consider and explore the Diaconate.
Now that I am near the end, I am excited and a little frightened of what is to come. I am excited to get back into ministry and to see Jesus in others and pray they see Him in me. It is a little frightening because I don’t know where I will end up or how the Lord will use me. All I can do is to listen for His gentle voice in those to whom I minister.
I pray that this answers your question.
 
No excoriation and no hate from me. I asked for honest opinions and appreciate your candor. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I also used to feel that way until I saw how involved the Deacon was in my Parish. We had four at one time doing various things. Just remember though, Deacons are not “Priest-lite”. There are particular things to which they are an “ordinary minister” (Baptisms, graveside committals, witness at weddings, preaching, etc…).
They also lend a different perspective from a priest owing to their having family and other jobs. This helps tremendously in pastoral situations where a lived experience helps inform a spiritual situation.
I don’t know if anything I said will change your mind, but I appreciate your observations and will pray for you.
Blessings on you and your family always. 🙂
 
praytell said:
They also lend a different perspective from a priest owing to their having family and other jobs. This helps tremendously in pastoral situations where a lived experience helps inform a spiritual situation.
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Yes, this was part of my earlier mentioned answer. A deacon at my old parish did marriage counseling as a team with his wife, for parishioners. He could bring a great understanding because he was married, and had raised a family.
 
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Thanks for your kind words.
It may be that I would feel quite differently about deacons if I actually knew any!
I feel like I’ve been quite rude. Sorry!
Best of luck to you - - it sounds like you are going about it all in a very compassionate way!
 
He is one of my favorites. His humility and heroism are truly inspiring. The Franciscans at my Parish have a tie to him. Friar Lucjan Krolikowski lived in the retirement home adjacent to the Basilica. He was a contemporary of Kolbe and professed his vows in his presence. Fr Lucjan also has an interesting history. He wrote a book, Stolen Childhood, about the events in Poland in World War II.
 
Was there a specific incident (or type of incident) or type of comment from people that you’ve heard about Deacons or your efforts to become a Deacon? I have not once heard a negative comment about or towards a Deacon at any Parish I’ve attended. FYI mostly in the Northern US and some in Ireland.

It is one thing to not care for Deacons or their homilies, or even express some concerns here on CAF which is relatively anonymous, but I’m surprised that anybody would say something to you personally though.
 
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There was no specific incident. I have overheard comments at different occasions where the commenter had less than nice things to say about a Deacon. Some comments were regarding poor homilies. Others talked about Deacons being ineffectual or priest wanna-be’s. Some of it had to do with individual Deacons, but a lot was generalized.
I also read a lot of Catholic News and Blogs of all different perspectives. There are some “celebrity” bloggers who have a level of disdain for Deacons (Fr Z for example). When you wade into comments on some sites, you really get an eyeful sometimes. I realize comment sections are not bastions of civil conversation.
None of this troubles me to the extent that I take it personally. I am genuinely curious as to how others feel about the vocation.
Thank you for asking the question and your observations.
 
That is a beautiful testimony, thank you. I was an ordained deacon in my old church, the Seventh-day Adventist church. In many ways, I am compelled to seek to serve in the Catholic Church.
 
God bless you! That is joyous news. As difficult as it must be to leave your former life behind, I pray that you will find joy and acceptance in the Catholic Church.

Welcome! I will be praying for you.
 
praytell said:
There was no specific incident. I have overheard comments at different occasions where the commenter had less than nice things to say about a Deacon. Some comments were regarding poor homilies. Others talked about Deacons being ineffectual or priest wanna-be’s. Some of it had to do with individual Deacons, but a lot was generalized.
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Occasionally, I’ll strike up conversations with Catholic and they’ll make comments like "I like most of the Deacon’s Homilies, but there is that one Deacon So&So who I just can’t follow…I need to be careful of those conversations…who knows who is listening…or what could be taken out of context. Other than than that, I’ve never heard anything.

Fr. Z’s views don’t get much traction, attention, or notice around where I have lived.
 
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I find my parish deacon very approachable and he seems to relate better to the laity. So it’s all good.
 
Given that we’ve only had permanent deacons back for about 50 years (at the most) it’s not surprising that the theology and practice of their role is still being figured out. Certainly, we can gain guidance from the New Testament but even then that’s extremely general. How much exposure / instruction in the role the deacons is given to seminarians (and priests for that matter) is another problem - often a priest just “inherits” the deacon along with the parish and the roles and relationships are something which has to be figured out as they go along.

A deacon is a leader in the community but in a different way to the pastor - the two should complement and not compete with each other. As @Irishmom2 rightly pointed out, priests come and go so having a deacon who doesn’t can be helpful for both the clergy and the community. This is why imo a deacon needs to have roots in the community - not just attending mass there but deeply involved (e.g. kids at the school) so as to form a bridge between the clergy and laity. While I of course appreciate that deacons ar clergy, their particular role also means that they remain part of the community (practically even if not theologically).
27lw said:
My impression is that priests have a lot of meetings/ admin stuff to go to, then they have to have deacons do the stuff the they should be doing.
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While I think some priests do delegate their excess workload to the deacon, this isn’t what the diaconate should be about. The deacon isn’t supposed to be a “plastic priest” but rather a co-worker with the bishop (who is, in practice, represented by the priest) and one who is able to not only bring their life experience of things like marriage and family to their ministry but also be more involved in the community.

Besides poor homilies (which far from a major concern) the problems I’ve heard of with deacons tend to be around inadequate theological formation and poor leadership (basically an overinflated sense of self-importance). In fairness, these can be problems among priests too and, if anything, say more about the particular diocese than about the diaconate.
 
Those are great observations. Thank you. I have witnessed the poor leadership you mention in other parishes I have visited. It’s kind of sad because it usually leads to souls finding others spiritual homes.
 
I pray that people find their experiences with me as fruitful as what you have witnessed. Thank you.
 
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