There was a need for these ministers in the Church , and as the name deacon ( from the Greek diakonos , “ to serve ”) itself suggests , it was oriented toward service . Some five centuries later , the diaconate faded in the Latin Church until its restoration in the 20 th century by Pope St . Paul VI .
In early 1968 the Bishops of the United States petitioned the Holy See for permission to restore the permanent diaconate . This was in direct response to the Council ' s stipulation that the decision of the restoration of the diaconate in each country should be left to individual episcopal conferences . In August , 1968 , Pope Paul agreed to their request . Today , fifty years after the restoration , there are more than 18,000 permanent deacons in the U . S . and more than 15,000 worldwide , with growth on every continent .
For his thesis in the M . A . program , recent CDU graduate John P . Kramer chose as his topic , “ The Historical , Ecclesial , and Theological Development of the Permanent Diaconate .” He provides a detailed assessment of the permanent diaconate , but he also answers the important question of what was reestablished . As John writes ,
What was reestablished , was the order of deacons as a part of Holy Orders . Men of the Diaconate are ordained into the ministry of the Church , to share in some of the sacramental duties of the clergy . What led to this reestablishment of this order ? Not as some have suggested , as an answer to the declining number of men called to the priesthood , but instead as an answer to the question : What can the Church contribute to the shaping and building of the world ?
Matthew E . Bunson , PhD
Faculty Liaison and Editor of Digital Continent Catholic Distance University