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By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—A Council of Deacons has been formed in the
Archdiocese of Atlanta to serve as an advisory board and to provide
communication for the body of permanent deacons with the archbishop, the priest
community, and within the diaconate community itself.
The Council, which is an innovation locally, is potentially a
unifying process for the diverse group of approximately 142 ordained men, most
married, who serve the archdiocese as permanent deacons, Archbishop John F.
Donoghue said at a meeting this fall.
“Talents differ, personalities vary, interests diverge, and
as is the case with all human institutions, our wills and our prayers must be
engaged, if the unity the Lord wishes is to come about,” he said.
“This, in a nutshell, is what I see as the purpose of the
Council of Deacons—that from the great multiplicity of our gifts, unity of
purpose may be revealed, and the sole work of the Church, to save souls, may be
accomplished. How you do this must be in your own hands.”
The Council will be made up of nine elected members, one from each
of six geographic regions of the archdiocese and three representing years of
ordained service. The three will represent, respectively, deacons ordained less
than five years, deacons ordained five to 12 years and deacons ordained for
more than 12 years.
Active and retired deacons can serve as Council members. All
deacons in the archdiocese, including those who are inactive, are eligible to
vote for Council members who represent their region and years of ordination. In
addition, members of the diaconate community, including wives and family
members, can serve on committees appointed by the Council.
The voting process has been underway and the first Council will be
convened in January. The initial Council members will have staggered terms of
service, but following that, members will be elected to three-year terms and
may be re-elected. The Council will elect a chairman, vice chairman and
secretary annually. The chairman will normally run the meetings of the Council.
Service on the Council is strictly voluntary.
The archbishop will be the presider. Father David Talley, director
of vocations for the archdiocese, Deacon Loris Sinanian, director of formation
for the diaconate, and Deacon Alfred Mitchell, director of deacon personnel,
will be ex-officio, non-voting members.
Deacon Mitchell said he and Deacon Sinanian would work with the
Council to strengthen the diaconate program and community.
In the area for which he is responsible, the period of time
following ordination, Deacon Mitchell said he looks forward to the assistance
of the Council in planning continuing education and social events, in relating
better to the body of priests, and in responding to the specific issues and
concerns of deacons in ministry. He said he also looked forward to a greater
development of programs for wives and widows of deacons.
The Council was officially established Sept. 30 as permanent
deacons and their wives came to a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Donoghue at All
Saints Church, Dunwoody, and attended an assembly afterward.
At the Mass for the feast of St. Jerome, considered the greatest
Scripture scholar, deacons renewed their commitment to their ordained ministry,
with its emphasis on preaching the word of God, assisting at the liturgy and
ministering in Christian charity.
The archbishop’s homily emphasized the primacy of preaching,
particularly preaching the revealed truth of the Catholic faith.
While individuals have personal faith experiences, the archbishop
said, “too often the telling of our own stories, our own experiences does
not lead to certainty about truth.”
Instead he urged deacons to read and to study the deposit of
church teaching and to receive the knowledge the church has acquired and to
hand it on faithfully to others, particularly through preaching.
“To search for the truth, to understand what the Church has
to teach us about the truth, should be a primary preoccupation for all who
preach with the authority of the Church,” he said.
While the magisterium of the church has fallen under attack, he
said, the teaching authority of the church ensures that teaching is authentic
and teaching in line with the magisterium protects the unity of the church.
“Of the three duties of a deacon ... preaching, I believe, is
the one that has the widest effect and it is the one that requires the greatest
degree of certainty ... to err in the teaching of truth from the pulpit is to
plant in the minds and hearts of the faithful errors that are not very easy to
correct,” he said.
“Ask God to send His Holy Spirit upon us with great richness,
so that we are not only given to know by our own insight, but that we are also
given ample love, ample desire, ample curiosity, to find out what we do not
know.”
At the assembly which followed the Mass, the initial constitution
and by-laws of the new Council were outlined by members of the ad-hoc committee
working on the document in recent months.
The archbishop affirmed the creation of the Council, but also
jokingly reminded the assembly that such a Council’s purpose will not be
to tell the archbishop what to do. “I’m here to tell you, it
doesn’t work that way,” he said, to laughter from the group.
“You are ministers who are called to serve people,” he
continued, asking them to focus as a Council on “how can I best serve the
people I am called to serve.”
“I know that’s what you will do,” he said,
“but I thought I better remind you.”
In addition to Father Talley, Deacon Mitchell and Deacon Sinanian,
the ad hoc committee working on the Council constitution and by-laws included
Deacon Ray Egan, Deacon Hilliard Lee, Deacon Whitney Robichaux, Deacon James
Stewart and Deacon Jim Stone.
“This should be an asset in our joint work in proclaiming the
Kingdom,” said Deacon Robichaux. “This is not a pet project of the
few, but an instrument of the whole. If the community doesn’t take an
active role, it will be wasted effort on the part of us (on the committee) and
those of you who gave us very good feedback.”
The purpose of the Council, he pointed out from the document, is
to provide guidelines for deacons as they strive to pattern their lives on
Christ; to provide for deacons’ spiritual and educational needs; to
strengthen and preserve the community of deacons; to be a channel of
communication with the archbishop and the presbyterate; to support deacons with
preparation for their ministries; and to support the diaconate office and its
leaders.
The six regions were created, Deacon Egan said, to include diverse
cultures and areas in each region, “to expand our knowledge of the
differences” in various parishes and neighborhoods of the archdiocese.
Active deacons are assigned to the region where they minister; retired deacons
are assigned to the region where they live.
The Council was welcomed by deacons and their wives who attended
the assembly.
“I really feel the document itself is a very strong step in
the right direction,” said Deacon William Lakin from St. Joseph Church,
Athens. “The ad hoc committee had an horrendous task. They did one
fabulous, tremendous job.”
Regional representation on the Council was lauded by Deacon Jim
Gaudin, who has been serving at the University of Georgia for over 13 years.
For those who are outside I-285 and a good distance away from Atlanta,
“the regional representation makes a lot of sense.”
“In addition to that, (the Council) has given us a
structure,” to speak with Father Talley, Deacon Mitchell and Deacon
Sinanian on matters of concern to deacons, he added.
Elaine Gaudin and Joan Lakin said they believed greater attention
needed to be given to clarifying the role and presence of deacons’ wives
in the parish community, a topic they believe the new Council will be able to
address.
“It is very difficult to be a model for marriage in the
community when only one person is up there,” Elaine Gaudin said. She added
that the ad hoc committee “deserves a big thanks” for developing the
concept of the Council.
“In actuality, we really have been kind of fragmented,”
commented Deacon Joe Anzalone from St. Philip Benizi Church, Jonesboro.
“While voices are heard, they are not really voices of the entire
diaconate community. It is good to have a platform to express our voice as a
diaconal community. I like it.”
Judy Anzalone said, “I think it’s long overdue.”
In other matters presented to deacons at the assembly, Deacon
Sinanian, who oversees the formation program and other aspects prior to a
deacon’s ordination, apprised the group that the formation program for new
deacons will now be a five-year program, with the first year a year of
aspirancy. The archdiocese is continuing to respond to a recent Rome directive
and norms for the ministry and life of permanent deacons. The U.S. bishops are
applying the Rome directive locally, but their document is still in draft form,
he said.
During the aspirancy year, men will study the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, and have prayer and discernment about the possibility of
entering the diaconate. At the end of the year, if accepted, they will be
officially instituted as candidates for the diaconate. Currently that step
takes place at the end of four years of formation, just prior to ordination.
Each candidate will be required to have a deacon who serves as a mentor as well
as a priest spiritual director, Deacon Sinanian said. Several deacons will be
chosen to serve as deacon mentors.
A large part of the former Village of St. Joseph facility in
Atlanta will be restructured to serve as the site for diaconate formation, he
added.
Deacon Mitchell, whose responsibilities include all
post-ordination matters, including assignments and reassignments, said that
Archbishop Donoghue had given permission for a truck stop ministry to be
established in the archdiocese.
“It is a fascinating ministry,” Deacon Mitchell said,
noting that although he was, at times, outside his comfort zone in seeing this
ministry at work, “Jesus went where people were.”
“There are seven million truckers out there every day,”
he commented. “Our evangelical brothers are way ahead of us on this.”
Deacon Mitchell also said that Father Bill Donovan, author of a
book on diaconal spirituality, will lead the upcoming retreat for deacons.
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