Centuries-old holy orders still struggle for acceptance.
By Anthony Barich
Deacons are still facing resistance by priests and laypeople throughout Australia, the chair of the National Committee for Deacons’ has told The Record.
While the diaconate dates back to St Stephen, martyred by St Paul before the evangelist’s conversion, the permanent diaconate is still a relatively new concept in the Church in Australia, said Brisbane Deacon Peter Olsen.
Deacon Peter is chairman of the NCD, a sub-committee of the National Council of Priests in its consultative role to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
Deacon Peter, 72, said that while deacons are accepted, the issue that often comes up during national deacon gatherings is remaining “pockets of resistance”, including priests and laity, particularly in some dioceses where the permanent diaconate is a relatively new concept.
He says the remedy for this is for deacons to do their jobs as well as possible. The “resistance”, he says, is mainly due to misunderstandings about the role of deacons, though there are over 100 deacons throughout Australia.
“I don’t blame people for that, as from my experience, we didn’t have a good introduction,” he said.
“People in the pews weren’t informed about the diaconate. In my case when I came back into my old parish as a deacon it was a bit hard for me and for people to understand… here’s a guy who’s been a layman for so long, and now he’s clergy.
“Sometimes the thought is still there that we’re glorified laypeople, not holy orders.”
Deacons are traditionally assistants to the bishop and are at the service of the diocese, but are often assigned to parishes to conduct funeral services, the Sacrament of Marriage, baptisms and, with permission, preach the Gospel and the homily at Mass.
They are also often obliged to do additional pastoral work. Many permanent deacons work in diocesan agencies, while others run parishes in the absence of a priest, but cannot consecrate the host into the Body and Blood of Christ or conduct Last Rites.
One of Australia’s first Deacons was Boniface Perdjert, an Aboriginal, ordained by Bishop John O’Loughlin in Darwin Cathedral in July 1974. Deacon Peter, a retired cabinetmaker and father of five, was ordained by Archbishop John Bathersby in 2005 after working for the Church in Brisbane for 25 years as a parish coordinator at St Mary’s Ipswich then as pastoral associate at St Joseph’s in Ipswich and at Leichhardt.
He spends much of his time preparing couples for marriage and for the baptism of their children and is often the unofficial chaplain at the parish primary school where his wife is the assistant principal.
Deacons enjoyed an active pastoral ministry in the first five centuries of the Christian Church, but was eventually relegated to a "transitional" order given to candidates on their way to priestly ordination.
While the diaconate is still a transitional order given to those on their way to priestly ordination, the Second Vatican Council restored the diaconate as a permanent ministry in the life of the Church, and this may be given to unmarried men, or married men who cannot then become priests.
John Paul II renewed ordered and approved the extensive documents, "The Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons" and "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons.
Up to 50 Deacons and their wives are expected to attend the National Deacons Conference in Broken Bay, NSW from August 6-9.Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, former Federal Health Minister and former seminarian Tony Abbott, Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone, Broken bay Bishop David Walker and Fr Frank Brennan SJ will address the conference.