The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the
United States.71
The directory is a comprehensive guide to the human, spiritual, sacramental, formational and
functional aspects of the permanent diaconate. In many dioceses across the nation the permanent
diaconate is a vital part of local parishes. In fact, in a study, A Portrait of the Permanent
Diaconate, presented in May of 2015, to the USCCB by the Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate of Georgetown University, it estimates that in 2015, there were over eighteen
thousand permanent deacons in the U.S. of which 97% were married or widowers .72 The
permanent diaconate is growing at a much larger rate than the priesthood in the U.S. Besides
71
Keenan B. Osborne, OFM, The Permanent Diaconate: Its History and place in the sacrament of Orders
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2007), 93.
72
Mary L. Gautier, Ph. D. and Thomas P. Gaunt, Ph.D., A Portrait of the Permanent Diaconate. Center for Applied
Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University. Accessed June 11, 2018, http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-
teachings/vocations/diaconate/upload/Diaconate-Post-ordination-Report-2015-FINAL.pdf.
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