YOUCAT Lesson 255
YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic
youth
255 What happens in diaconal ordination?
In diaconal ordination the candidate is appointed to a
special service within the sacrament of Holy Orders because he represents
Christ as the one who came, “not to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). In the liturgy of ordination we read: “As a
minister of the Word, of the altar, and of charity (the deacon) will make
himself a servant to all.”
DEACON: The deacon
(Greek diakonos=servant) is the first degree in the sacrament of Holy Orders in
the Catholic Church. As the name itself
implies, a deacon is involved especially in charitable work (diakonia), yet he
also teaches and catechizes, proclaims the Gospel, preaches at Mass, and
assists during the liturgy.
The original model of the deacon is the martyr St.
Stephen. When the apostles in the
original Church of Jerusalem saw that they were overwhelmed by their many
charitable duties, they appointed seven men “to serve tables”, whom they then
ordained. The first mentioned is
Stephen: “full of grace and power”, he accomplished much for the new faith and
for the poor in the Christian community.
Over the centuries the diaconate became merely a degree of Holy Orders
on the way to the presbyterate, but today it is once again an independent
vocation for both celibates and married men.
On the one hand, this is supposed to reemphasize service as a
characteristic of the Church; on the other hand, it helps the priests, as in
the early Church, by establishing an order of ministers who take on particular
pastoral and social duties of the Church.
Diaconal ordination, too, makes a lifelong, irrevocable mark on the
ordained man. 140
“Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not
addicted to much wine, not greedy for gain,…
Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their
children and their households as well.” 1 Timothy 3:8, 12
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