By Eric Martin
Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long has last week spoken in depth about the importance and history of the diaconate.
“The importance of the diaconate waned as a result of the shift towards the celibate priesthood as the normative form of ministry,” Bishop Long explained.
Throughout the second millennium, to speak of ordination was to speak ultimately about the priesthood,” he continued.
“One could say that the priesthood of the ordained assumed or even usurped the rich and varied ministries of the Baptised,” Bishop Vincent Long, of the Diocese of Parramatta said, at the recent Deacons Conference in Fremantle, 3-6 October 2019.
“I believe that the time has come for a deeper appreciation and application of this ministry within the larger context of the Diaconate Church, a Church that is called to be a servant of the World: A Church that exemplifies and models the life of Christ,” Bishop Long explained.
“So much of what is wrong with the Church today stems from the travesty of Christian leadership in service. As far as I am concerned, the sexual abuse crisis is only the tip of the iceberg, it is a symptom of a serious malaise which is described as the Cancer of Clericalism.
“Elitism and separation allows for Clericalism to fester.”
Though most of the clerical abuses that gave rise to the Reformation were addressed at the 60-year-long Council of Trent, the role of the married Deacon, which had been created in support of the Bishops through responsibility for evangelisation, pastoral care and preaching, was also removed from prominence, in favour of stressing the celibate nature of the priesthood in direct response to Protestant teachings against the dangers of such a practice.
“Pope Paul VI declared that the Diaconate is the driving force of the Church’s own diakonia: in other words, it’s the embodiment, the actualisation of the Church as the Servant,” he said.
“The one sided, cultic emphasis of clericalism gives way to a wider apostolic ministry which has found expression, above all, in the teaching, sanctifying and shepherding offices of Christ.”
Bishop Long explained that the perception that the push towards the Permanent Diaconate comes from developing countries is incorrect, it actually came from European Bishops in the wake of WWII, when the European Church desired to respond to the pastoral needs that arose in its aftermath.
Following the horrors of war, the Church needed a new form of ordained ministry that was modeled on Christ the humble servant.
The Church also envisaged the need for deacons to exercise the administration of the Church’s temporal goods, they spoke of the many charisms distinct from the priesthood that were established to provide direct assistance to the Bishop in the care of the poor and the nurturing of the community.
“Deacons more often than not have been tested by their lived experience in the world, including the workplace. Their immersion into secularity by way of their professional lives allows them to actively stand with working people. The expression of faith in our daily lives in the world is not an optional extra but is of the essence of Christianity.”