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Deacons Yesterday and Today
by Duane L.C.M. Galles
[The Canon Law Society of America has approved the issuance of a
report titled "The Canonical Implications of Ordaining Women to the
Permanent Diaconate." This report has generated considerable publicity and
the Foundation has been asked by quite a few of our friends if we intend to
comment. We intend to do so but are still in the process of carefully
preparing our observations. In the meantime, Duane Galles has written an
excellent article about deacons in general and I believe it will serve also
to provide the needed background to our forthcoming observations concerning
the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate. Also, the article is
timely since the feast of the proto-deacon and proto-martyr St. Stephen is
observed on December 26. CMW.]
Three decades ago in 1964, in article 29 of its dogmatic constitution on the
Church, <Lumen gentium>, the Second Vatican Council asked Paul VI to restore
the permanent diaconate in the Latin church. He did so by the motu proprio,
<Sacrum diaconatus ordinem>, which was promulgated on June 18, 1967, the
feast of Saint Ephraem, deacon. The apostolic letter permitted episcopal
conferences to request that the Holy See allow the ordination of celibate
and married men permanently to the diaconate within their territory. In
April, 1968, the American bishops made that request, which four months later
was granted.
In November of that year the first Standing Committee on the Permanent
Diaconate of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops was appointed. The
Committee was charged with drawing up a program of studies for the diaconate
and in May and June of 1971, it saw the first fruits of its labors with the
first ordinations of permanent deacons since the conciliar reform had been
mooted.
Numerically, deacons have been one of the successes since Vatican II. While
the number of women religious in the United States has plummeted forty per
cent from 160,931 in 1970 to 94,431 in 1994, and during those same years the
number of diocesan priests has declined ten per cent from 37,292 to 33,204,
during that same period the number of deacons has soared. Starting at zero
in 1970, by 1994 the number of permanent deacons in the United States had
jumped to 11,123; moreover, another 1,724
candidates awaited diaconal ordination. Of the permanent deacons, 92 per
cent were married, 13 per cent were Hispanic and 3 per cent were black. Some
1,740 were salaried church employees and 66 administered a parish or a
mission. Interestingly, in the entire Catholic world there were but 19,395
permanent deacons and so the United States, which accounts for six per cent
of the world's Catholics, had sixty per cent of the Catholic world's
permanent deacons.[1]
Canon 835 tells us that the sanctifying office of the church is exercised
principally by the bishops, who are the high priests and the principal
dispensers of the mysteries of God. But later that same canon advises us
that deacons, too, have a share in that office, in accordance with the norms
of law. To understand, then, the role of deacons today one needs to survey
the revised 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Latin church and her reformed
liturgical rites.
THE DEACON IN HISTORY
But first one needs to know something about the deacon in history. We
initially encounter the deacon in the famous passage in Acts 6:2, where
Peter says it is not proper for the apostles to give up preaching so that
they can wait on tables. Accordingly, they ordained seven deacons, including
the proto-martyr Stephen, to serve the Christian community. By the end of
the ancient world the deacon was the bishop's assistant, serving as his
"eyes and ears," taking care of church property as well as administrative
matters.
Deacons quickly became VIP's. One measure of the importance of the deacon in
the early church is the number of deacons elected pope in the early Middle
Ages. Of the thirty-seven men elected pope between 432 and 684 A.D., only
three are known to have been ordained to priest before their election to the
Chair of Peter.[2]
In the course of time the bishop's principal assistant, the <diaconus
episcopi>, came to be called the archdeacon and by the fifth century his
role had developed into a powerful ecclesiastical office. He had charge of
church administration and of the care of the poor and thus held the purse.
When archdeacons became too dominant sometimes their bishops were minded to
"kick them upstairs" by ordaining them priest whereupon they would lose the
office of archdeacon. Saint Jerome said, "<archidiaconus injuriam putat si
presbyter ordinetur,>" ("the archdeacon thinks himself injured if ordained
priest"), for then he would lose his powerful archdiaconal office. Pope
Gregory the Great, in fact, once upbraided a bishop for ordaining his
archdeacon priest with a view "craftily to degrade the aforesaid
archdeacon."
In ensuing centuries the archdeacon acquired the duty of supervising and
disciplining the lower clergy. Because of this role the archdeacon acquired
the right to examine candidates for ordination, and in the ordinals we find
the archdeacon now presenting to the bishop candidates for priestly
ordination and attesting their fitness.
Beginning with the eighth century, the right to discipline the clergy
brought to the archdeacon ordinary jurisdiction and his own separate church
court. And soon we find that at least the larger dioceses were divided up
into several archdeaconries, each headed by an archdeacon who presided over
a first instance tribunal and carried out visitations to correct abuses and
infractions of church canons. The archdeacon also served as the bishop's
administrative assistant in instituting clerics to their benefices and
watching over the decency of worship and the repair of churches within his
territory. In many places the archdeacon of the see city also acted as vicar
capitular, or diocesan administrator of the vacant or impeded see.
From the eighth to the thirteenth century the power of the archdeacon waxed
greatly and archdeacons began to exercise quasi-episcopal powers. Like
bishops, they even began to appoint vicars and officials to carry out their
administrative and judicial functions, respectively. With the development of
the benefice system, moreover, archdeacons were no longer removable at the
whim of the bishop, since their
archdeaconry was now considered a benefice in which they had a life interest
that was protected by law, barring judicial privation for good cause. Their
wide powers and fixity of tenure made archdeacons serious rivals of bishops
whose own authority over them had begun to recede into something like that
of a metropolitan over his suffragan bishops. So powerful had the
archdeacons become that a reform movement was spawned and bishops began to
counter the power of the archdeacons by appointing
priests as their vicars general and officials (or judicial vicars). These
priests enjoyed powers similar to those of archdeacons but, importantly,
their office was not a benefice and they served at the pleasure of the
bishop and were directly subject to his control. Once established, these
alternatives set the scene for a frontal assault on the power of the
archdeacons.
The Council of Trent's reforms drastically restricted the archdeacon's
power. Archdeacons were deprived of the power of excommunication and of
their jurisdiction in matrimonial and criminal matters. No longer could they
make visitations and order the correction of abuses, unless asked to do so
by the bishop. By the seventeenth century the once-powerful office had been
reduced to that of a master of pontifical ceremonies and the last vestige of
the office was the liturgical role in the ordination service of presenting
the ordinands to the bishop at priestly ordinations.
Now the office of archdeacon was merely ceremonial and the real power had
passed to the vicar general, vicar capitular and the judicial vicar-all
priests. The order of deacon itself became a mere apprenticeship to
priesthood lasting only a few months, even though until 1917 a deacon still
could be canonically appointed pastor of a parish or canon of a cathedral or
cardinal of the Holy Roman Church-as in the case of Pius IX's Secretary of
State, Giacomo Cardinal Antonelli (1806-1876), who never proceeded beyond
the order of deacon.[3]
THE RESTORED DIACONATE
In our own century the liturgical movement spawned an interest in the
glorious history of the order of deacon during the church's first
millennium. Later, to restore to its hierarchy of ordained ministers its <plena
esse> (or fullness) the Second Vatican Council asked Paul VI to restore the
order of deacon as a permanent order. As restored, however, the permanent
deacon became the assistant of the priest, not the bishop. Article 23 of the
1967 <motu proprio> saw the deacon as "subject to the bishop and the
priests." The document specifically describes the deacon as assisting the
priest or as deputising for the priest in certain cases in the latter's
absence.
This new role becomes clearer when we survey the canonical framework within
which permanent deacons operate today. As we have seen, during the first
Christian millennium deacons undertook, as the bishops' assistants, the
functions that are today those of the vicar general, the judicial vicar, the
vicar capitular, the cathedral chapter and the oeconome, or finance officer.
In current canon law these are almost exclusively priests' functions.
But before discussing the functions of the deacon it is important to
understand first his <status vitae>. Distinct from lay people in the church
by divine institution are the sacred ministers, whom canon law calls clerics
(c. 207). One becomes a cleric when one is ordained deacon (c. 266). Only
clerics can obtain offices the exercise of which requires the power of
orders or the power of ecclesiastical governance (c. 274). Deacons thus are
clerics by virtue of their ordination and this makes them capable of
exercising
sacred office and sacred power. All clerics must be incardinated in a
diocese or personal prelature or in some religious institute (c. 266). By
ordination to the diaconate one becomes incardinated in the entity for which
one is ordained (c. 266), and a cleric becomes entitled to suitable
remuneration (c. 281). Married deacons with a secular job, however, are to
provide for themselves and their families from that job's income.
The archdeacon, as we have seen, was the precursor of the office of vicar
general and the archdeacon had enjoyed most of the vicar general's powers.
Today the moderator of the curia must be a priest, under canon 473 #2, as
must, under canon 478, the vicar general and that other species of
presbyteral local ordinary, the vicar episcopal.
The archdeacon was also a judge ordinary with his own ecclesiastical court
and the forerunner, in fact, of the officialis. Today the judicial vicar (or
officialis) and vice-officialis (c. 1420) must be priests. Being a cleric, a
deacon (who is otherwise qualified) may be appointed a judge of an
ecclesiastical tribunal. Since as a cleric he is endowed with sacred power,
a deacon (like a priest or bishop) is allowed by canon 1421 to sit alone as
a single judge in an ecclesiastical tribunal. By contrast, the same canon
requires that, when a layman is appointed a judge, he can sit on a panel or
collegiate tribunal only along with two clerics. While today a deacon only
assists a priest-officialis, the deacon-canonist could, of course, be a very
busy judge in an ecclesiastical tribunal.
Deacons were once the bishop's "eyes and ears" and once as canons were his
chief advisors. Today the presbyteral council or senate of priests has many
of the functions of the chapter of canons and it advises the diocesan bishop
on the government of the diocese. As the name suggests, its members, under
canon 495, must be priests. <A fortiori> its inner circle, the college of
consultors (who have the remaining functions of the chapter of canons),
must-under canon 502- also be priests. This college must give its advice and
consent in certain church property matters and it elects the diocesan
administrator or vicar capitular if the see is vacant or impeded. Even the
eviscerated office of canon today can be held only by a priest (c. 503).
Before the 1917 <Code> a deacon could be appointed to an office with the
care of souls. Today only an ordained priest can be appointed validly to the
office of parish priest (c. 521), parochial vicar or assistant (c. 546),
vicar forane or rural dean (c. 553), rector of a non-parochial church (c.
556), or chaplain of a community (c. 551). Deacons may, of course, assist
the parish priest (c. 519).
Of the manifold functions exercised by the deacon during the first Christian
millennium, today's deacon is permitted to hold only the offices of
chancellor (c. 482) and oeconome (finance officer) (c. 494) and judge of the
tribunal. All these duties, it might be noted, can also be held by a
layman.[4]
Besides his administrative and judicial roles, the restored deacon is given
certain liturgical roles: he may baptise solemnly, witness marriages,
administer sacramentals, conduct funerals, read sacred Scripture, preach and
instruct the faithful. He is portrayed as the leader of the congregation in
prayers. His functions include roles at Mass and in conferring sacraments as
well as in the liturgy of the hours, services of the word, sacramentals and
public devotions.
Perhaps the most important service of the deacon to the sacred liturgy is at
the solemn Mass, for in the solemn liturgy the deacon's presence is
necessary. The solemn Mass is a sung Mass celebrated with the assistance of
other sacred ministers. In 1972 Paul VI suppressed first tonsure and
converted the subdiaconate and minor orders into lay ministries. Thus, today
the deacon is the only sacred minister remaining (besides the priest and
bishop) and his presence at the solemn liturgy is necessary for it to take
place.
At Mass his assigned roles include reading the Gospel and the intercessions,
preaching, and distributing Holy Communion. Despite the ubiquity of
"extra-ordinary" ministers of Holy Communion in this country, it might be
pointed out that canon 910 declares that the "ordinary" minister of Holy
Communion is a bishop, priest or deacon. For Mass the deacon vests in amice,
alb, cincture, stole, maniple (if desired) and in his distinctive vestment,
the dalmatic. Article 71 of the <General Instruction on the Roman Missal>
notes that the functions of the deacon can be divided between two or more
deacons.
In my own parish there is a solemn Latin Mass each Sunday celebrated by a
priest and assisted by two deacons - using the reformed Vatican II missal
and rubrics. One deacon serves as "Gospel deacon" and the other as "altar
deacon." In this way it is possible to celebrate the <novus ordo> solemn
Mass with most of the ceremonies of the Roman rite as Adrian Fortescue
described them in his classic work on the liturgy, written decades before
the introduction of the reformed rite.[5]
The liturgy of the hours provides a more extensive role for deacons. Canon
276 2 and 3 requires that permanent deacons recite daily that portion of the
liturgy of the hours laid down by the episcopal conference, which in the
United States is morning prayer and evening prayer. Vatican II intensely
desired the renewal and revival of the liturgy of the hours as a popular
liturgical celebration on Sundays and holy days and it urged a choral
celebration (<Sacrosanctum Concilium>, arts. 99, 100). Indeed, a little -
remembered 1866 decree of the second plenary council of Baltimore - still in
force - requires vespers to be celebrated each Sunday to the extent possible
in all parish churches in the United States.[6] Sunday vespers, in fact,
will be the most practicable part of the liturgy of the hours for parish
celebration. The deacon, vested in dalmatic and stole according to article
255 of the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, could preside at
the service and preach.
Deacons may baptise solemnly, witness marriages and conduct funerals. The
reformed Vatican II rites are more complex than those formerly followed in
that they are preceded by a service of the word, which consists of a prayer
or exhortation, lessons and psalms. Vatican II was most desirous that the
reformed rites open up to the people the treasury of Scripture and this has
been done.
Canon 849 says that baptism is the gateway to the sacraments and is
necessary for salvation. By it one becomes incorporated into the Church.
Moreover, one not baptised cannot validly receive any other sacrament (c.
842). Canon 861 declares that a deacon is an ordinary minister of baptism.
When baptism is administered by a deacon, he is to notify the pastor so that
a proper record of the baptism can be made in the parish sacramental
registers (c. 877).[7]
A deacon is also qualified to assist at marriages if he has the faculty to
do so from the local ordinary, or a proper delegation from the local
ordinary or pastor (c. 1108). Since a deacon is a cleric, he has sacred
power by virtue of his ordination. Thus, when officiating at a wedding, a
deacon can in certain cases grant dispensations from matrimonial impediments
when there is a case of danger of death (c. 1079) and in certain other
emergency cases when all the preparations have been made and certain
impediments surface at the last moment (c. 1080). While lay people in some
rare cases might be given the faculty to assist at marriages (c. 1112), such
persons (as non-clerics) would lack the power to dispense. The deacon
assisting at the marriage would need to see to it that a record of the
marriage were made in the parish sacramental register and, where the couple
were not baptised in the same place as the marriage, send notice of the
marriage to their places of baptism (c. 1121) to be annotated in the
baptismal register there.
While he cannot celebrate a funeral Mass, a deacon may conduct funerals and
burial services and preach. He should also record the funeral in the parish
register of funerals (c. 1182).
And while deacons cannot confirm or absolve, the reformed rites for those
sacraments underscore the deacon's role as leader of the congregation at
prayer by making provision for a deacon to announce the intercessions. Thus,
if Penance Rite II with a communal celebration followed by individual
confession and absolution is used, the deacon may lead the penitents in
prayer.
The worship of the Blessed Sacrament outside Mass has lamentably declined
since Vatican II, though nothing could be farther from the church's wishes.
The ritual continues to provide a "Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and
Benediction" of the Blessed Sacrament and a deacon may be the minister of
exposition and reposition and may bless the people with the Host in a
monstrance, wearing a cassock, surplice, stole and cope during the service
as well as a humeral veil at the blessing (c. 943). Benediction may occur in
any church in which the Blessed Sacrament is lawfully reserved. The rubrics
provide for the singing of Saint Thomas Aquinas' venerable eucharistic hymn,
the "Tantum ergo," and in the United States it is customary to precede this
with the hymn "O Salutaris." The rubrics encourage other psalms, hymns and
prayers before the benediction with the monstrance and on Sundays vespers
might laudably be sung before the Blessed Sacrament exposed.
Deacons may also preside at a service of the word. This is not merely the
"bible service" in vogue in the 1960's but includes a much wider number of
services. On "priestless" Sundays it might be the liturgy of the word taken
from the Mass of the day followed by a sermon and Holy Communion from the
reserved Sacrament.
Deacons also have a role in sacramentals and popular devotions. Despite the
fact that Vatican II "highly recommended" popular devotions (SC 13), these
often have been neglected since the Council and this is unfortunate. Such
devotions provide a useful bridge between the "domestic church" (the family)
and the church's public liturgy. Once again they should be encouraged, for
canon 839 provides summary recognition of the prayers and pious and sacred
practices of Christian people. These include litanies,
the rosary and the Way of the Cross. Since deacons are presumed to be nearer
the popular pulse, this type of exercise suggests an obvious opportunity for
diaconal service. The deacon might preach as well.
In many places we have mentioned the deacon's faculty to preach. Just as the
sanctifying office is committed principally to the bishops, so too is the
preaching office principally committed to bishops, who are "moderators of
the entire ministry of the word" (c 756). And if lay people can be called
upon to "cooperate" with bishops and priests in the exercise of the ministry
of the word (c. 759), deacons by virtue of their ordination actually have a
share in that ministry (c. 757). Sacred ministers (and this includes
deacons) are to consider the office of preaching of great importance, since
this is among their principal duties (c. 762). Deacons, like priests, have
the faculty to preach by virtue of their ordination and may exercise it
everywhere, unless their ordinary has restricted it (c. 764). The homily or
sermon at Mass is in fact reserved to a priest or deacon (c. 767) and
whenever administering some sacrament or sacramental a deacon might well
consider the utility of a sermon.
These, then, are the functions of the permanent deacon as restored by
Vatican II and set forth in the law. Even if they are fewer than those
exercised by the deacons of the first Christian millennium, they are clearly
manifold and important functions and ones opening up to the deacon many
opportunities for service. They also require considerable training and
preparation.
Canonists have a maxim, "<leges instituntur cum promulgantur; firmantur cum
moribus,>" ("laws go into effect when they are promulgated, they become
effective when they are put into practice"). Put more simply by Mr. Justice
Holmes, "the life of the law is experience." We know now what the law is. We
wait to see what will become of it.
Mr. Duane L.C.M. Galles is a graduate of the William Mitchell
College of Law (1977) and of St. Paul University, Ottawa (J.C.B., 1982;
J.C.L., 1988). He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Canon
law Society of America. Admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court of
the United States, he is currently Compliance Administrator for the
Minnesota Department of Commerce. Mr. Galles has had articles publ;ished in
Jurist and Sacred Music.
ENDNOTES
1. <1995 Catholic Almanac>, pp. 229, 368; E. Echlin, <The Deacon in the
Church> (New York, 1971) pp. 123-124.
2. Peter Llewellyn, "The Popes and the Constitution in the Eight Century,"
<English Historical Review>, 101 (1986) 42.
3 "Archdeacon," <Catholic Encyclopedia>, I, 693; "Archidiacre," <Dictionnaire
de Droit Canonique> I, 948.
4. The office of chancellor in the universal law of the church is one of
archivist and notary (c. 482). In the Catholic Church in the United States
the office has long been more important and has in fact been that of vicar
delegate. In practice it was often the most important office in the
episcopal curia. To exercise such wide delegated powers of jurisdiction one
would need to be a cleric and, hence, to be chancellor of an American
diocese. In this wise, one would need to be a deacon or priest.
5. Adrian Fortescue, <The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described> (London,
1930), pp. 111-127.
6. John Barrett, <A Comparative Study of the Councils of Baltimore and the
Code of Canon Law> (Washington, 1932) p. 155.
7. For more detailed information on these sacramental registers, see my "The
Church's Sacramental Registers," <Homiletic and Pastoral Review> (December,
1982) 68-71.
Taken from the Christmas, 1995 issue of "Christifidelis". To subscribe to "Christifidelis",
please contact: The Saint Joseph Foundation, 11107 Wurzbach, #404, San
Antonio, TX 78230-2553, (210) 697-0717, Fax (210) 699-9439.
Copyright, 1995, Duane L.C.M. Galles
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