Permanent Deacons

One of the things that is very evident in the Panamanian church is the very active presence of a large number of permanent deacons. Archbishop McGrath - a North American bishop of Irish descent who was bishop of Panama City around the time of the Second Vatican Council returned from the council as an enthusiastic implementer of many of the decisions of the council. One of the first things he did was to establish the permanent diaconate in his diocese - what began as something small and uncertain has become a major element of the local church here.

Most parishes have a permanent deacon. These are men, normally married, who present themselves for formation and ordination to the diaconate, they are accepted into a formation programme by the diocese and proceed to be ordained as deacons to serve in the various parishes of the diocese. These are all men who already have a full-time job - their service as deacons is something extra that they take on to serve their community. Many of these are teachers or professionals, but the diaconate is by no means restricted to such people - there are also many who are mechanics, plumbers, electricians, farmers, bus drivers and, as you can gather, from all sorts of backgrounds, social groups, and educational situations.

Last Sunday I found myself in a parish for two masses. At one of the masses I had two deacons and, I have to say, it was overkill - we were falling over each other. However, in many cases the deacons are very effective and lead their communities in services such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, Sunday and weekday services, catechesis, administration, and, of course, visiting the sick and burying the dead.

I have heard some criticism from some of the priests regarding some of the deacons but, as far as I can see, there is the same variety of willingness to work and ability among the deacons as is to be found among the priests. Although one things seems certain - for the permanent diaconate to work properly, the deacons need to be given space to develop their ministry. If the deacons only work where there is already a very active priest, the deacon will have difficulty finding a space to be anything other than a helper: if the deacon finds himself in a situation where there is often no priest available, he has much better chance of developing a ministry that is more meaningful not only for himself, but also for his community.

As dioceses in Ireland are beginning to explore the permanent diaconate as one of the ways to address the fall in the number of priests available for ministry, they could do a lot worse than look at the experience of the Panamanian church. I wonder, however, if they would be willing to accept that the Panamanian church has much to teach - I am of the opinion that it has.