Question about deacons and celibacy

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Nelka

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I always learnt that when someone wants to be a priest he becomes a Deacon after five years and the year after takes a vow of celibacy when he is ordained a priest.

If a permanent deacon isn’t married he isn’t allowed to find wife so therefore has a vow of celibacy?

Why aren’t the deacons on their way to priesthood taking a vow of celibacy when they become deacons first or why are deacons taking a vow of celibacy if they aren’t going to be be priests?

Thanks.
 
Nelka said:
I always learnt that when someone wants to be a priest he becomes a Deacon after five years and the year after takes a vow of celibacy when he is ordained a priest…
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The restriction to not marry, if not already married, begins with the reception of Holy Orders of the Diaconate, which could be the temporary or permanent kind. Holy Orders was not defined yet in the early Church but corresponds to those that received an imposition of hands.

ITC, From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles:

The Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua, also composed in the south of Gaul towards 480, re-proposed a list of eight officiates ecclesiae who received an ordinatio: bishop, priest and deacon received an imposition of hands, [while] the candidates for orders inferior to these (sub-deacon, acolyte, exorcist, lector and doorkeeper) were installed by a rite of handing over of the instruments of their office.
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The ordination of deacons included the handing over of the book of the Gospels, signifying their function of proclaiming the Gospel in the liturgy. The deacon here appears closer to the sub-deacon than to the priest. The priest was the man of the Eucharist; the deacon attended him at the altar. This ritual was introduced at Rome through the Germanic emperors’ zeal for reform at the end of the tenth century. Rome fell into line with the per gradum career path for clergy which was the rule in the Empire. From that time on the history of the ordination rites attests perfect continuity.106 The First Lateran Council (1123) can. 7, and the Second Lateran Council (1139) can. 6, deprived of their office any clergy who contracted marriage, from the sub-diaconate inclusive. Can. 7 of the Second Lateran Council declared that such a marriage would be null and void.107 From that time on the Latin Church normally ordained only celibate men.
– http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c.../rc_con_cfaith_pro_05072004_diaconate_en.html
 
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I did actually know of a deacon who remarried. Apparently, after the death of his first wife, he fell in love with a widow at church, and they applied to Rome for dispensation, which was granted.
 
Nelka said:
If a permanent deacon isn’t married he isn’t allowed to find wife so therefore has a vow of celibacy?

Why aren’t the deacons on their way to priesthood taking a vow of celibacy when they become deacons first or why are deacons taking a vow of celibacy if they aren’t going to be be priests?
Click to expand...
It is really less about a vow of celibacy then the fact that Holy Orders is an impediment to Matrimony. Any may that is ordained is made abundantly aware that they may not enter into the marital state after their ordination without a dispensation that comes from the Pope.

Just as the impediment of Holy Orders can be dispense for marriage, a man that made a vow of celibacy can be released from that vow. The primary reason a married deacon (or priest) does not vow celibacy is that they are already married. Since celibacy is the state of being unmarried you cannot make a vow that is contrary to your current state.

You do bring up a good question about if an unmarried man that is ordained as a Deacon, but is not planning on being a priest, is asked to promise remaining celibate while those who intent to carry on to the priesthood are not. To be honest I don’t know that is the case. According to the Pontifical North American College, transitional deacons do promise to remain celibate. You can see that is the first question asked at their ordination.

 
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