Personally, I donāt think that there is a chance in heck that priests will be reduced to sacrament dispensers for several reasons. About a third or a little more of priests today are religious. Those who are religious usually spend much more time in other ministries than in sacramental minsitries. I know priests who teach all week. Others who work on the streets with the poor. Some who who are completely contemplative. These men donāt spend that much time celebrating sacraments. Some are not even allowed to celebrate daily mass. In many communities such as Carmelites, Franciscans and some Benedictines, only one priest can celebrate the mass and everyone else attends. So the priests donāt even celebrate daily mass, unless they are assigned to a parish where you have to do so for the parishioners.
There is little chance that deacons will become priests lite. The big problem, as usual, is the laity. The laity has no clue what a deacon is. I know that most lay Catholics do not know that deacons are one of the orders of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. They think that the term orders in Holy Orders means Carmelite, Dominicans, Salesians, etc. They donāt know or donāt remember that there are three orders to the sacrament and that diaconate is one of them.
Few people know that deacons are not lay men, but are clerics. I have heard people call them ālay deacons.ā When I asked why they called the permanent deacons lay deacons the answer was, because theyāre married or because they are not studying for the priesthood. People donāt understand that itās not a stepping stone for the priesthood. Itās one of the orders and that priests are also deacons. You do not cease to be a deacon when you are ordained a priest. In the rite of priestly ordination there is specific mention about consecrating the Eucharist and absolving from sin. There is ot mention about preaching or the other sacraments, because the man being ordained a priest already has those sacramental powers by virtue of his diaconate. This is not being taken away from him. But people think that a priest WAS a deacon. Catechists are horrible in teaching the sacrament of Holy Orders. I have seen some classes that make my hairs stand on end.
Also, letās look at what a deacon has traditionally done in the Western Church: preach, baptize, bury the dead, distribute communion, take communion to the sick and shut-in, assist the bishop in administrative matters (thatās not priestās job. Itās a deaconās job). They have taken care of the poor, widowed, sick and orphans. They have been spiritual directors, retreat masters and even religious superiors in monasteries and friaries. Where is the priest lite? What does a priest do that is over and beyond this? He precides as mass, blesses and absolvesā¦ Everything else that our priests do are sacramental, administrative and apostolic functions that have been part of the diaconate. Priests took up these functions when the permanent diaconate was supressed in the Roman Church. But when there were permanent deacons, priests and deacons shared these duties.
In any case, my concern is not that deacons will become āpriests liteā (I like that). My concern is that they will become āreligiuos liteā. There are many areas in the apostolate where deacons and male religious overlap, such as the care of the poor. We have already seen many non-clerical brothers and many lay-brothers asked, āWhy donāt you become a permanent deacon?ā Because people see them overlap in the works of mercy, they believe that they are the same calling, not knowing that one is consecrated and the other is ordained.
I once had someone ask me if the permanent deacons were men who could not be priests because they are married. I had to explain that there are permanent deacons who are celibate and have always been celibate. We have to educate the laity on the diaconate. We have to educate some secular priests too. Because the permanent diaconate has not been exploited yet.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
