Why the lack of support for the diaconate?

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Lurch104

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Greeting all!

After reading several of the threads regarding the permanent Diaconate I was wondering…Why is there not a program for the formation of deacons in every diocese? I cannot for the life of me understand why not. With the shortage of vocations, I would assume that all bishops would enjoy the benefit of having men with the grace of orders serve the parishes. My particular diocese (Harrisburg, PA) had a diaconate program in the past (under Cardinal Keeler IIIRC), but no longer. The few deacons we have are getting long in tooth. I can only wonder who will assist our priests when our deacons retire from their ministry. In the meantime, I will continue to pray for vocations.

God Bless!
 
Its a difficult one to get a handle on. It seems to me a very diocesan driven issue, if the Bishop and his team are keen then it seems to happen. If they are not, it doesn’t. Although the principle of re-establishment has been agreed by the Church, there appears to be no drive from the top (Rome).

Perhaps Bishops where it is working need to share the success stories with dioceses without deacons.

I’m sure the permanent diaconate will take off in time.
 
The last 3 dioceses we have lived in had diaconate formation programs in the 80s, were suspended by new bishops in the 90s because of grave irregularities in the teaching, I don’t know but would guess the same people doing the education in the seminaries, which have also been reformed in each of these dioceses. Some deacons were found to have absorbed downright heretical ideals and to be pushing them in their work, women priests, God is a woman, liturgical abuses, not acknowledging the Real Presence., etc. Particular problems in my last diocese was homelitics and scripture, preaching against Church teaching, denial of scripture as inspired Word of God etc.

All three dioceses have gone through a lengthy process of reconstruction the diaconate formation process, and have also begun new lay ministry formation, which had also been suspended for similar reasons.
 
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baltobetsy:
What does IIIRC mean?

Thanks,
Betsy
Click to expand...
Sorry for my lazy typing. It stands for If I Recall Correctly (which I often do not!).
 
Thanks, Lurch! I couldn’t get my mind around that one!

Betsy
 
I’m not sure there is a lack of support for the diaconate. There are over 12,000 permanent deacons in the United States, and we account for approximately 75% of the permanent deacons in the world.

Having said that, there were problems with the formation of deacons in the past. Formation programs were not standardized, the requirements for entry into the programs were not standardized, and the screening process was not standardized. With the development of the Directory this has been corrected.

There are still bishops who do not have deacons, and this is usually a lack of familiarity. I know that the bishop who ordained me came to our diocese from one that had not deacons he said he had no need for more “potted plants” on the altar. After he’d been here a year and saw what we did he changed his tune and started talking about “his deacons.”

Deacon Ed
 
I can’t speak for others, but in my parish, there has been overwhelming support and encouragement toward me and the diaconate. We were told to expect some problems as many parishes in our diocese had never had a deacon. Most of the candidates, however, had a long history of service to the church. Prior to Ordination, I had lived in my parish for over 20 years and had served it in various ways for many of those years. Years before I was Ordained, one of our pastors called me his deacon.

The Ordinary (Bishop) sets the policy in the diocese and the deacons must follow it if they want to remain in active ministry. I have found that folks feel the most comfortable complaining about church policy to the deacon. We try to be pastoral, but we really can’t make any changes. Sometimes this causes a lack of support for us. This does not happen often.

It’s great to see threads on the diaconate.
God bless,
Deacon Tony SFO
 
My parish had a wonderful man in the diaconate program, problem was, he had to travel out of state to Georgia and the program was for either 3 or 5 years. This man had a family and other responsibilities. He had to drop out! 😦 He would have made a great deacon.
 
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