The Worcester Diocese has stopped accepting new men
into its permanent diaconate program – at least temporarily – Deacon
Anthony R. Surozenski, director of the Office of Diaconate, said this
week.
This will allow time to assess whether more
deacons will be needed and whether assignments and funding will be
available for them, he said.
It also allows time for studying how to better
apply national Church norms to deacons’ ministry and finding ways
deacons could help meet needs that they are not currently addressing,
such as hospice and truck stop ministries, he said.
The Diaconate
Advisory Board will study how to improve the diaconate, Deacon
Surozenski said.
Currently 32 men are at different stages in the
five-year preparation program; they are to continue formation and be
ordained as scheduled this year and through 2015, Deacon Surozenski
said.
No others were ready to begin the program.
Deacon Surozenski said he suggested to Bishop
McManus that they needed to look at the diaconate.
Bishop McManus, on a
Holy Land pilgrimage, was not available to comment.
“We don’t know what the diocese is going to look like and what the
needs are going to be,” Deacon Surozenski said, explaining the decision
to halt the program.
“Parishes are merging, some parishes are closing,
new parishes may be evolving. We have to take a look at the big picture
for ministry service for deacons."
“If all goes well, there should be 135 active
priests by the year 2015 and there should be 98 deacons.”
There might be
an additional 17 deacons officially retired but still serving.
A deacon and a priest working with the diaconate nationally put the Worcester Diocese’s situation in context.
The United States has 17,165 permanent deacons,
more than 50 percent of all the permanent deacons in the world, said
Deacon Gerald W. DuPont, president of the National Association of
Diaconate Directors.
He said he did not know of any dioceses permanently stopping their diaconate program.
“On the whole, the diaconate in most dioceses
continues to grow; it’s not being pulled back,” he said.
But he said his
impression is that roughly 10 percent of the dioceses in the United
States are taking or have taken a “breather,” such as when the number of
deacons approaches the number of priests or there are financial
difficulties.
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, where he is
director of the Office of the Diaconate, did that about 15 years ago, he
said.
The diaconate was reinstated after two years, he said.
“In general it is a common practice for bishops to
ordain one class” of permanent deacons before beginning another class,
said Father Shawn McKnight, executive director of the Secretariat of
Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations for the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
Assessment is needed with diaconal ministry,
because it is new, he said.
Although it began in the early Church, it
was absent for 1,500 years before being restored after Vatican Council
II, he explained.
Deacon DuPont said the 50th anniversary of the
diaconate in the United States will be celebrated in 2018.
The Worcester Diocese’s first permanent diaconate
class was ordained in 1978.
Some years there were no ordinations; the
longest stretch was between 1984 and 1990.
But since 2001 there has been
a class ordained each year except for 2006, when the traditional
December ordination Mass was moved to the following April, Deacon
Surozenski said.
He said eight men are to be ordained deacons this year, eight next year, four in 2013, five in 2014 and seven in 2015.
“Our question is, ‘Do we have enough at this time?’” he said.
When churches are closing – in part for lack of practicing Catholics – why have fewer people doing outreach?
Deacon Surozenski said most deacons have a
liturgical ministry in a parish and it costs a parish nearly $3,000 a
year for a deacon – for out-of-pocket reimbursement, a retreat and a
financial assessment for the diaconate program.
He said there are at
least 70 parishes with one deacon, a few with more, and all have been
paying the assessment.
Sometimes another institution the deacon serves, such as a
hospital, might pay these costs, he said.
But deacons usually enter such
ministries on their own initiative; the diaconate program does not
arrange the training.
Deacon DuPont said that, in his archdiocese,
deacons perform more than 40 ministries – such as at hospitals and
prisons – in addition to parish ministry.
They receive training for
these through continuing education courses, and sometimes one of these
is their primary ministry and the parish secondary.
In this new model, the deacon sees a need, asks
permission to address it and involves laypeople, he said.
When the laity
can take over the project, the deacon moves on to address another need.
If a parish is dying, a deacon trained in the new evangelization could
start revitalization.
The deacon brings the Church to the marketplace,
evangelizing the world, and the marketplace to the Church, evangelizing
the Church, he said.
“I think that’s going to become the norm in the
future, because that’s where the need is” and that’s the direction in
which “The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of
Permanent Deacons in the United States” seems to be moving, he said.
Deacon DuPont gave a brief background.
From 1970 to 1985 deacons performed liturgical
ministry, in line with the first USCCB document on the diaconate, “The
Little Green Book.”
In 1985 the USCCB published “The Red Book,” which
placed more emphasis on deacons doing charitable work.
In 1998 the Vatican published “Basic Norms for the
Formation of Permanent Deacons” and “Directory for the Ministry and
Life of Permanent Deacons,” he said.
From this, each bishops’ conference
around the world was to generate its own document, which would be
particular norm for that country, he said.
The United States “National
Directory” was published in 2005 and reissued in 2010.
“It is possible to have too many deacons;” needs
will determine the number and type, Father McKnight said. “You can never
have too many lay people.” Deacons assist priests and serve laity, but
are not replacements for either, he said. If there are too many deacons,
it will be hard to identify their ministry."
Deacon Surozenski said that locally efforts are
made to give deacons assignments no more than a 30-minute drive from
their homes, because otherwise “it’s difficult to really get invested in
the parish.”
He said there are many men in formation from areas
where there are already plenty of deacons, but there is a need in the
western part of the diocese.
There are also several men in formation
from the Hispanic community and three from the Vietnamese community, but
none from the Brazilian or African communities, he said.
“It has been traditional that the pastor requests a
deacon,” he said, raising another issue. “If the request is not there,
it would be difficult to put someone there.” Some priests don’t want, or
see a need for, a deacon, he said.
“We have a place for our deacons all the way up to
the class of 2012,” he said, but he still needs placements for those
being ordained later.
“A class could be started prior to 2015 if the bishop deems it necessary,” he said.
The diaconate office is to remain open.
Deacon
Surozenski said he and Deacon Peter and Gail Ryan will continue their
part-time positions.
Deacon Francisco and Fanny Escobar are retiring
from the diaconate office in June. Deacon Ronald and Kathleen Buron
volunteer in the office.