Married Deacons
Our parish is about to get its first deacon, who I understand is married. I know that the church ordains married men as deacons, but do married deacons take a vow of celibacy as part of their ordination? I read that if a deacon's wife dies, he cannot remarry, so I assumed that they must promise celibacy in order to be ordained. It seems unacceptable and sacreligious for someone to continue to have marital relations and then assist at the altar or preach. Do a deacon and his wife have to promise to live as brother and sister?
Also concerning deacons, what kinds of things do they study in order to be ordained? Would it be OK to go to our new deacon with spiritual questions?
QUESTION from Martina on June 5, 2004
ANSWER by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM on June 7, 2004
|
Dear Martina: Well we first must address the issue of martial relations by clergy. There is nothing sacrilegious about this. Many early priests were married, and still today, in the Eastern Catholic Churches, married men are ordained to the priesthood (though bishops must be single). These men enjoy fully in the marital embrace. Whether married men can be ordained is purely a disciplinary issue that the Church can change at any time she wishes. This is not going to happen in the Latin (Roman) Rite in our lifetime, but technically, it is possible. I should clarify that a single man ordained to the priesthood or diaconate can NEVER marry. For a priest or deacon to be married they must have been married BEFORE ordination. This is also true for the Permanent Diaconate. Married men may be ordained Permanent Deacons, but single men ordained as Permanent Deacons cannot ever marry. If a married man is ordained to the Permanent Diaconate and his wife dies, then he cannot re-marry. There is one exception. The bishop may allow a Permanent Deacon to re-marry when there are young children in the household. Thus, a married man ordained to the Permanent Diaconate must make a promise of future celibacy should he lose his wife. A single man ordained to the Permanent Diaconate promises celibacy until death. In terms of the training of deacons, that can vary from diocese to diocese, but generally they must undergo 4 years of seminary training. Deacons are spiritual leaders of the parish, under the priest, of course, and are in the clergy state, not the lay state. As for approaching a person about spiritual questions, the person you ask does not have to be a priest or deacon. Any knowledgeable laity, which includes Religious brothers and sisters who are lay, may answer spiritual questions and may be Spiritual Directors.
God Bless, |