A congress of deacons

In July, I spent a week in New Orleans for the 2018 US National Deacons Congress. I’m glad I went and had the chance to see a good friend again, meet some deacons, and hear some good presentations.

The venue was the Marriott and Sheraton hotels – rather pricey for me. So I stayed at a hotel at almost half the price and walked to and from the congress, about thirty minutes each way.

The last time I was in New Orleans I was with a group from Ames, Iowa, helping in some house repair after Hurricane Katrina. The first visit played an important part in my decision to come to Honduras. I wrote a short reflection when I first got there. 

New Orleans is a totally different place today and I probably wouldn’t visit again. Too expensive and too much of the culture of pleasure and wealth. I’m spoiled by living in Honduras.

There were about 2700 people at the Congress, mostly deacons and their wives from the US. I was a real anomaly – a celibate deacon, ordained outside the US, working in a poor country.

Yes, there are deacons who serve the poor and the sick, some of them doing marvelous work. But I felt somewhat out of it, witnessed by what I wrote in an earlier post.

Several of the speakers were very good.

Several themes emerged over the course of the congress.

In one of the first presentations, the archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymand, spoke of the deacon as “the conscience of the church to find those in need. If we neglect them, we call you to be our conscience.” As Deacon Greg Kandra noted we are called to “think first of those whom others think of last” or, in the words of Deacon Bill Ditewig to “make [us] aware of needs not being met,” of the persons who are “invisible.”

In the early church, the deacon was called to be the eyes and ears of the bishop, mostly especially the poor and the sick.

This is central to my diaconate, accompanying the poor. Even this blog is a way to make known the needs of the poor and the poor church.

Deacon Bill Ditewig referred to the role of the priests imprisoned in Dachau during the Second World War in the revival of the diaconate. This was very important for me, as I have written in another post. 

Several priests in Dachau saw the need for men involved in the “world” to bring this to the church so that the church would be able to respond more clearly to evils like the Nazi regime.

As Deacon Bill Ditewig said, “What we do at the altar finds its expression in the street and we bring the street back to the altar.” Thus, “the liturgy must have concrete consequences in the world.” The deacon may be able to mediate this and become a driving force for the diakonia of the whole church.

There were other insights that I gleaned from the meeting and I met a number of committed couples. This helped me understand more that ministry of married deacons.

So, I understand better why does the church need married deacons, continuing to work in their “secular” professions.

They are needed to show that holiness is deeply tied to the altar but it is also lived out in the world and to sanctify and strengthen the holiness of everyday life which becomes, in the married working deacon, a sacramental sign, a sign of Christ the servant in the world and in the church.

For this reason, I believe that the recent Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate, is a very diaconal message – not merely urging the church to service but calling all to live holiness in the details of everyday life. As Pope Francis wrote (¶14):

To be holy does not require being a bishop, a priest or a religious. We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case. We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves. Are you called to the consecrated life? Be holy by living out your commitment with joy. Are you married? Be holy by loving and caring for your husband or wife, as Christ does for the Church. Do you work for a living? Be holy by laboring with integrity and skill in the service of your brothers and sisters. Are you a parent or grandparent? Be holy by patiently teaching the little ones how to follow Jesus. Are you in a position of authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing personal gain.