Mumbai, Jan 18: The Roman Catholic Church in India will witness a landmark event on Sunday when the Archbishop of Bombay will ordain two married men as permanent deacons.Posted on 01/19/2006 1:03:06 AM PST by Cronos
Mumbai, Jan 18: The Roman Catholic Church in India will witness a landmark event on Sunday when the Archbishop of Bombay will ordain two married men as permanent deacons.
Lloyd Dias, belongs to the Sacred Heart Parish, Vashi, and Elwyn deSouza is a parishoner of St Joseph’s, Juhu will receive their religious orders at a ceremony at the Holy Name Cathedral in Colaba.
Deacons are ranked next to bishops and priests in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. They can perform most of the religious duties that a priest does, like baptism and nuptials, but cannot conduct mass or hear confessions. Till date, priests have worked as deacons. This is the first time a lay person is being ordained as a permanent deacon.
Father Anthony Charanghat, spokesperson for the Cardinal Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Bombay, said, “This is the first time a married person will be officially ordained as a deacon. No other diocese in India is known to have ordained a permanent deacon.”
In the West, a shortage of priests, caused by a decline in the number of men taking up the vocation, was one of the prime reasons for the decision to train deacons to perform some of the religious duties previously performed only by priests.
In India, though the problem is not so acute, there has been a perceptible decline in the number of candidates at seminaries.
The church says that deacons could help take the work pressure off the priests on weekends when baptisms, nuptials and masses are lined up one after the other. Married men who take up the vocation are expected to embrace the vow of celibacy.
Though the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome had given the go ahead for the ordaining of lay Catholics as deacons as early as 1983, the church in India decided to let the idea seep into the laity slowly. “We had to prepare the people for it. There could have been resistance from people, especially old people who would not like to receive communion from a lay person. We also needed to create a training programme for the candidates,” said Charanghat.
Dias, a 74-year old grandfather and a former supervisor with a Saudi Arabia-based shipping company said that his fascination for preaching the word of God led him to a two year course in theology at the St Pius Seminary in Goregaon, Mumbai. “Even in Saudi Arabia where preaching in religions other than Islam is not allowed, I preached to fellow workers. The American workers there encouraged me to learn theology,” he said.
He studied theology between 1985 and 1987 after he came back from the Middle East and worked with the community till Bishop Bosco Penha, auxiliary bishop of Bombay suggested his diaconate with cardinal Dias.
To prepare the laity for this significant event, parishioners in Mumbai were given questionnaires to seek their opinion. Some church members did say that they did not see the need for deacons from the laity. “We are saying that priests should get married. But I do not see the need for deacons who are married, when priests and nuns are asked to be celibate.
“If we have married deacons, what is the difference between the Catholic Church and the new born-again churches,” said a parishioner from South Mumbai, who requested anonymity.
There are an estimated 30,000 permanent deacons all over the world today. But for India, this will be a first.
In a church circular released this Sunday Bishop Dias said, “January 22, 2006 will truly be a red-letter day in the history of the Bombay Archdiocese, for it will mark a big step forward towards providing an ever more efficient pastoral care to the faithful,” he said.
"It maybe the first married deacons in that Catholic church but there have been married deacons in the Church in America for some time."
That is correct. We have several in our parish here.
I've never known a single catholic parish that even had a deacon. I've never heard the term mentioned in connection with any catholic church.
Most of the larger parishes have deacons and many of the smaller ones do, too.
Maybe by the Methodists.
Most RC Parishes have at least one Deacon these days. Wasn't true 20 or 30 years ago but it is quite common, even the norm, today.
Priests are ordained deacons before becoming priests, known as transitional deacons. In Detroit seminarians are ordained deacon in December and then ordained to the priesthood on Pentecost. Those who are ordained deacon and are married are called permanent deacons. You must be married to be a permanent deacon I believe, and the marriage has to be considered stable. The guys who become permanent deacons up here in Michigan are usually older, say in their late 30s and upwards and who have been married for a number of years. I'm pretty sure if their wife dies after being ordained a deacon they are not suppose to remarry. They also have to be in the seminary for a number of years.
We have a wonderful deacon in my parish. Use any measure you like, he's the pastor of the parish. The priests come and go, too often lately, but our deacon is here. His wife is as wonderful as he is. Consider my surprise when, as a recent convert, I expected to be ushered into the faith by a priest. Oh, the bishop and the priest did the required bits, but it was a married deacon and his wife who did the other 95%. How very Protestant.
Married deacons have been around forever.
The option was there as early as the 80's, when I was researching a religious life.
(Yes, I know, much longer, but I'm referring to FIRST HAND knowledge!)
Anyway, it's almost 'Priest Lite'. There are a couple ceremonies you can't perform, but you can perform most of a Priest or Bishops duties, releasing him for other things.
The rules on marriage are that deacons may or may not be married, but (as I recall) they may not marry from that point forward. Thus, if not married, you may not marry; if you are married at ordination, you're fine, but you may not marry again if widowed.
So the complainers are a bit out of touch. The writer seems to be, as well.
A small town I once lived in had a married priest. There are about a 100 former Episcopal priests who became Catholic priests even though they were married. http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95000680
Ping for India -- I'm sure you know this already.
How very Catholic. Married deacons are nothing new.
Eastern Catholic priests may be married before they are ordained. Eastern Rite Catholics, not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox or more numerous Latin Rite Catholics are fully and 100% Catholic but retain the practices of the East.
No such thing as 'priest lite'. A deacon is a fully ordained position and has holy orders.
I don't think they are out of touch, I just think that they're trying to push this down American Catholics that somehow there can be married priests in the Latin Church and maybe priestesses too! ;)
They've had deacons (and married, too) for almost 35 years
Dick Johe, the father of a high school classmate or mine, was a member of the 1st class of Permanent Deacons for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States appointed in 1971 and was assigned to Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Randallstown, MD
We have 4 priests and 6 deacons at our parish. But we also have about 6000 families that are registered at our church.
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