20 years of Permanent Diaconate

A Few Memories and Reflections on the 20th Anniversary 2022 of the Permanent Diaconate in the Diocese of Calgary 

The primary movement for the restoration of the order of deacons in this century occurred in the death camp at Dachau. The identity of the deacon is conceived in the midst of indescribable human suffering. A “new” diaconate is envisioned as a permanent hope to those who are without hope.
 
During World War II, a group of Catholic priests, interned at Dachau prison camp, provided support and encouragement to many of the nameless and voiceless victims of injustice around them. Somehow they kept faith alive, sustained hope and witnessed to God’s unconditional love even in an atmosphere that viciously opposed and denied these gifts. One of these priests, Fr. Otto Pies SJ, who was seriously ill when released from the concentration camp, published an article titled “Cellblock 26 - Experiences of the Priestly Life in Dachau” - dealing with the sufferings of priests imprisoned here. He also reports about those topics that were the subject of the discussions among priests who were ready to discharge their responsibilities in the face of death. In conjunction with the increasingly more serious shortage of priests, Fr. Pies poses the question as ‘to whether or not it was time to act upon the nudges that were - apparently - being initiated by the Holy Spirit’ and to permit the diaconate to rise again.
 
Knowing that their aspiration required decisive action, these priests after their liberation, continued to meet and work to awaken in every Catholic a commitment to justice through personal service and advocacy. Many people came to join these survivors, who named their group the Deacon Circle. In time, additional groups convened throughout Germany, France and Eastern Europe.
 
In 1962 Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council and within this growing awareness of the church’s obligation to be actively engaged in the world, the original members of the Deacon’s Circle, the Dachau survivors and those who had joined them in Munich wrote a letter in 1962 addressed directly to the council fathers in which they state:
 
“Would it not be a living testimony to the church’s concern for the temporal and supernatural needs of all peoples to have ordained deacons engaged in actual necessities of temporal life to the poor and the suffering, bringing  Christ both sacramentally and also in their committed care for the lowly and oppressed into places of neglect and destitution, of hunger and sickness?”

The rest of the story is our history
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Vatican II reconstituted the diaconate in the western Catholic Churches, and taught that deacons are helpers to the bishop at the altar and in the ministry of the word, while caring always for those who might otherwise be overlooked by the successors of the apostles.
 
Three reasons behind the Council’s decision:

1. a desire to enrich the Church with the functions of the diaconate, which otherwise, in many regions, could only be exercised with great difficulty;
2. the intention of strengthening with the grace of diaconal ordination those who already exercised many of the functions of the Diaconate; and
3. a concern to provide regions, where there was a shortage of clergy, with sacred ministers.

 
Deacons are ordained to make visible Christ, the servant of his people. The bishop is responsible for the selection, personal formation, ministerial training and assignment of deacons. 

Prior to my arrival in Calgary, I recall a discernment weekend experience in the Diocese of London. Our topic was to try and attuned ourselves as a selected and balanced group of leaders in the diocese - bishops, ordained priests, religious women, catechists, male and female lay leaders -  to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit through prayer and discussion led by a Jesuit priest whose expertise was discernment in the Ignatius Tradition.  Our question was straight forward: “Should We Introduce the Permanent Diaconate in the our Diocese.” At the end of our session, marked more by turbulence than peace, we held a vote - 60% yes, 40% no. Bishop Sherlock decided that the margin was not large enough to proceed and it would only divide the diocese. I was one of the 60%. My main argument was that our local church would be stronger with the fullness of the Sacrament of Orders - bishop, priests, and deacons.
 
Before the subject was revisited several years later, I was transferred to the Diocese of Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario in March of 1995. Fortunately, they already had introduced the permanent diaconate. We were a very large missionary diocese (geographically), many indigenous peoples, few clergy and  heavily reliant on the religious communities and the international community to staff our parishes and missions.  Both groups tended to be serving on a contract basis. Our married deacons were local - many were born and raised in the north, involved in business industry, recreation, etc. They and their wives who were part of the formation sessions were a terrific addition to our pastoral care delivery system. I was now more committed than ever.
 
Arriving in Calgary as the local Bishop, I was surprised that one of the most frequently asked questions, in addition to “when are you going to build us a church?”, was “What do you think of the permanent diaconate?” “I’m all in favour. It’s simply when and how?”
 
There was no permanent diaconate program west of St. Boniface. I recall an exchange at the one of the Western Conference of Catholic Bishops Meetings. I announced  that we were establishing a permanent diaconate program in Calgary and one of the senior bishops interjected “That here in the west we have opted for lay formation.” I replied: “I didn’t think that it was an either/or proposition, we can do both. Beside, I’m simply telling you, not asking for permission.”
 
First west of St. Boniface Diocese but happily, not the last!
 
There was also local opposition from many individuals and groups in the Diocese but not strong enough to stop the forward movement of the Holy Spirit. The biggest decision was to pick Developers and Coordinators who were of “good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom whom we may appoint to this task” (Acts.6:3). Fr. Bill Trienekens and Sr. Maria Nakagawa’  graciously accepted the appointment and set about building our program, selecting and forming our candidates, individually and communally. They have rendered enormous service to our local church! As my mom would say “And the proof is in the pudding.”
 
We were assisted in many way by the Archdiocese of Toronto who readily shared their experience and helped us walk in the direction of our hope.
 
In God’s providence, we were also assisted by the timely publication in 1998 of the two Vatican Documents:

1. Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons - Congregation for Catholic Education
2. Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons - Congregation for the Clergy

 
I suspect that these two documents will influence the development of the Order of Deacon for years to come and therefore will directly influence how the faithful are shepherded by bishops and priests with the help of deacons. Practically, the deacon’s responsibilities are explained, the professional demands of his ministry are regulated, his juridical status and spiritual life are described. Most fundamentally, however, his identity is clarified.

Identity

In the first years after the restoration of the permanent diaconate, pragmatic considerations often seemed to shape its purpose and identity.
 
In some places, it seemed that the diaconate was intended, in particular, for catechists and delegates of the Word, so that familiar ministers and leaders of small communities would, through becoming deacons, make ordained ministry visible in their communities and throughout their diocese.
 
The new directory makes clear that local church cannot simply put the new label of deacon on the familiar reality of catechist without changing the life of the Church. The diaconate is a gift from God which changes not just the deacon but all of God’s people.
 
The diaconate was restored just when the Church’s relationship to the modern world was changing. The line between openness to the world and becoming “worldly’ was often not clear, and this lack of clarity influenced pastoral policy and, at times, teaching. Consequently, the permanent deacon, ordained but with a secular job, was sometimes hailed as the Church’s agent in the workplace and marketplace, as if this were not the vocation of every baptized Christian. Behind this seeming openness to the world lay a clericalism that assumed that only the ordained make the Church present in the world. The selection of candidates was often limited to those whose secular profession was proof of their position in the world and therefore of their value as deacons.
 
A second moment in the development of the restored diaconate brought forward candidates who were already visible in their parish communities as lay ministers and helpers in numerous church activities. Generous men who were obviously of good character and servants of the Lord and his Church sometimes were invited to become deacons as a kind of acknowledgment by their pastor that they were exemplary Catholics and helpful members of their parish. The diaconate became almost unique tied to parochial service.
 
The Directory comes providentially at a new moment in the developing understanding of the diaconate and the consequent criteria for the selection of deacon candidates. Full time work in the world certainly does not disqualify a man from the diaconate nor does prior ministry or service in a parish. But the Directory explains clearly that a deacon makes Christ the servant visible through ordination for a particular Church, a diocese, and not only for a parish. The relationship to the local bishop is central to the deacon’s ministry as servant to those who might otherwise be overlooked or neglected, especially the poor, as the local Church assembles around her bishop. The deacons’ sensitivity to the sick, the handicapped, the religiously illiterate, the victim so prejudice of every sort, the despised and those estranged from the community of believers will lead him to bring them to the altar of Christ. The greatest service a deacon offers is to invite others to the table where they can learn who Christ is by becoming members of his body. Having gathered the poor around the altar of Christ, the deacon proclaims the Gospel, which is always good news for the poor.

MINISTRY
(para 23-42) the Directory’s description of his service of the word, of the altar and of charity cannot be separated. Even though one or the other may be more emphasized in the course of a deacon’s ministerial life, he is always called to all three.
 
SPIRITUALITY
(para.43-62) Ordination as a deacon is a call to convert, to conform one’s heart and mind ever more closely to Jesus Christ, servant of his people; service as a deacon is a call to constant conversion so that a deacon’s ministry is not just a function. His spiritual life begins in relationships that are his by reason of ordination.
 
FORMATION
(para 63-82) the Directory gives special attention to the ongoing or continuing vocational and professional formation of deacons.

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Deacons ordained in 2002:
Dcn. Paul Coderre – Sacred Heart, Strathmore
Dcn. John Hagan – Retired, Calgary
Dcn. Paul Heffernan – Holy Spirit, Calgary
†Dcn. Albert Henri – Deceased
Dcn. Allan Hinger – now in the Diocese of Prince Albert, SK.
†Dcn. Louis Lapointe -- Deceased
Dcn. Alex Martinez-Lievano – Holy Spirit, Calgary
Dcn. Clarence Otteson – now in the Archdiocese of Edmonton
Dcn. Robert Risling –Holy Family, Medicine Hat
Dcn. Albert Riendeau—Retired, Calgary
Dcn. Robert Wilson – Retired, Brooks
Dcn. John Wu – Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Calgary

Written by
Bishop Emeritus
Frederick Henry
​for Faithfully

June 2022