National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent ...

2 Prefacecontribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to othersthat they do so. They confer a particular mission in the Churchand serve to build up the People of God.” 11The deacon’s ministryof service is linkedwith the missionarydimensions ofthe ChurchThe restoration ofthe diaconate inthe ChurchThe vision for thediaconate in theUnited States3. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the Decree onthe Missionary Activity of the Church, and the Decree on theCatholic Eastern Churches, the Second Vatican Council reestablishedthe diaconate “as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy.”12 The Sacred Order of Deacons is to be “a driving force for theChurch’s service or diakonia toward the local Christian communities,and as a sign or sacrament of the Lord Christ himself, who ‘camenot to be served but to serve.’” 13 “The deacon’s ministry of service islinked with the missionary dimension of the Church: the missionaryefforts of the deacon will embrace the ministry of the word, the liturgy,and works of charity which, in their turn, are carried into dailylife. Mission includes witness to Christ in a secular profession oroccupation.” 14 Further, “neither should the prospect of the mission adgentes be lacking, wherever circumstances require and permit it.” 15 Inits renewal the Order of Deacons is permanently restored as “a livingicon of Christ the Servant within the Church.” 164. Following the closing of the Second Vatican Council, PopePaul VI formally implemented the renewal of the diaconate. In hisapostolic letter Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem, he reestablished theOrder of Deacons as a permanent ministry in the Catholic Church. 17The apostolic constitution Pontificalis Romani Recognito promulgatednew liturgical rites for the conferral of the Sacrament of HolyOrders upon bishops, priests, and deacons in the Latin Rite. 18 Theapostolic letter Ad Pascendum established norms concerning theOrder of Deacons. 19 The apostolic letter Ministeria Quaedamaddressed the suppression in the Latin Rite of first tonsure, theminor orders, and the subdiaconate; established norms for entranceinto the clerical state; and instituted the ministries of reader andacolyte. 20II. The Diaconate in the United States5. Since the Second Vatican Council consigned the decision ofthe restoration of the diaconate to individual episcopal conferences,the bishops of the United States voted in the spring of 1968 to peti-