Hundreds of Houston-area deacons serving as ladders to heavenly Liturgy

A crowd of more than 400 deacons and their wives listen to Daniel Cardinal DiNardo at their annual Archdiocesan Diaconate Convocation Aug. 3 at St. Mary’s Seminary.  (Photo courtesy of Abraham Salas/Life & Lens Media)HOUSTON — More than 400 local deacons and their wives attended the annual Diaconate Convocation on Aug. 3, reflecting an updated report that the Archdiocese is among the top four U.S. dioceses with the most deacons. 

Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, to whom the deacons ultimately report to, in addition to their church pastors, celebrated a closing Mass for the deacons and their families attending the convocation.  

“The ministry of the deacon is defined by his closeness to the people of God in works of charity. To share in people’s joys and sorrows, to bring them to the altar and to make them known in the local Church gathered,” Cardinal DiNardo told the crowd. 

Deacon Phillip Jackson, director of the Archdiocesan Office of the Permanent Diaconate, told the overflowing auditorium at St. Mary’s Seminary that there are a total of 423 permanent deacons with the Archdiocese. But of those, only 235 are active, and 188 are retired, he said. 

An estimated 19,855 of the world’s 50,450 permanent deacons, or nearly 40%, serve in the U.S., according to a recent study conducted for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). 

The local convocation’s keynote speaker, Adam Brill, Archdiocesan director of the Office of Worship, focused on the importance of ordained deacons serving in the Mass and in the community both inside and outside parishes. 

He described the image of a deacon having “one foot in the world, but also one foot in the hierarchical life of the Church.” Most deacons continue working in their individual professions yet also volunteer many hours in their religious vocations, counseling parishioners, teaching catechism and other community service. 

Brill asked the deacons, “What is your liturgical role? Are you serving as a ladder or a hurdle?” 

Deacons can celebrate Baptisms, marriages, and funerals should they take place outside of Mass, but they cannot consecrate the hosts or anoint the sick, which only priests can do. 

As an example, Brill pointed out the importance of reciting the correct Liturgy rather than taking too much creative license as previously happened when baptisms were wrongly recited in the plural “We baptize you in the name of the Father...” rather than the correct singular “I baptize you in the name...” 

He explained, “You wouldn’t sing the Happy Birthday song with the wrong name, would you?” 

Brill quoted Father Aidan Kavanagh, OSB, author of the “Elements of Rite,” describing the deacon as “a server of servers, cantor of cantors, reader of readers.” 

Father Kavanaugh added in his writings, “Given the service (diakonia) emphasis of his office and ministry, the deacon is the most profoundly Christic of the three major ministries.” This implies that it is not the bishop or presbyter who are liturgically “another Christ” but the deacon. 

Yet 93% of permanent deacons are married, with many of the wives working in ministries with their husbands, and 4% are widowers, with the remaining few percent never married.

However, the CARA report also pointed out, “As is the case with priests in the U.S., there are not enough new permanent deacons being ordained to make up for the numbers who are retiring from active ministry and dying each year.” 

Upcoming workshops for deacons include learning the changes to the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA), formerly called Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA), scheduled for Oct. 14 and 16. For deacons learning to chant the Gospel, training is set for Oct. 18 and 19. 

The next permanent diaconate ordinations are set for Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, 2025, at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Houston.