The remarkable diaconate

Last night I spent some 6 hours revising my literature review for what is called in the master's degree program I am trying desparately to complete, the Integrated Pastoral Research project, which is just a more technical term for thesis. My thesis is about the importance of married permanent deacons in the life of the church, namely their simultaneous and full participation in the sacraments at the service of communion: matrimony and holy orders. I have to say that while I am deeply interested in my subject, my enthusiasm for the project overall is waning given the demands of the rest of my life, including my very active ministry. I am committed to finishing it, however. So, I appreciate all the prayers anyone would care to offer on my behalf as I continue to trudge this road. In order to finish I will spend the balance of this long weekend writing chapter three of this five chapter endeavor.

So, for today I offer a brief passage about the development of permanent diaconate from the late nineteenth century to it's renewal and restoration just a few short years after the Second Vatican Council:

"What is truly remarkable is that it took less than a century between what is viewed as the initial proposal to restore the diaconate, even conferring holy orders on married men, and when the restoration, which was also an expansion, actually occurred. Only seven years elapsed between Pius XII’s declaration that the time was not yet ripe to restore the diaconate and the call of an ecumenical council to restore it. It bears noting that, from the very genesis of the proposal to restore the diaconate as a permanent order of ministry, married men with families, who worked in secular occupations, were primarily the ones envisaged as deacons by those advocating for its restoration, renewal, and expansion."