In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (2005) Pope Benedict XVI, writing about Permanent Deacons says: “For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensible expression of her very being” (DC 25a) – as indispensible as nourishment on the Eucharist and on the Word of God. John Paul II, speaking to Permanent Deacons in the USA in 1987, similarly emphasised that while “…one or other of these (ie. ministry of word, altar and charity) may take on special importance in the individual work of a deacon, (nevertheless) these three ministries are inseparably joined in God’s plan for redemption”. The permanence and visibility of deacons thus provides and proclaims these inseparable and indispensable ministries as the very nature of the Church’s vocation. Embodying this three-fold ministry, deacons serve in often dramatically different ways, thereby indicating that “what they do” is less vital than “who they are” as icons of Christ the Suffering Servant who “came to serve and give His life in service for others”.

The second Sunday of each month sees the seminary [St Johns Seminary, Wonersh] transformed by the influx of an additional hundred or more people comprising 50 or so men in the 35-60 age range. Most of them come with their wives, along with priests, deacons, other members of the Formation Team, and visiting lecturers. The Southern England and Wales inter-diocesan formation programme for the Permanent Diaconate is a Southwark programme which others have bought into, now serving nine dioceses across Southern England and Wales (ie. Southwark, Cardiff and Westminster; Arundel & Brighton, Brentwood, East Anglia, Northampton, Portsmouth and, most recentlyPlymouth). It is the largest vocational training programme in Europe and, together with those in the propaedeutic (pre-study) period, comprises over half of the 125 men in formation for this ministry in England & Wales.

While each parish (or group of parishes) indispensably has a priest as Pastor and Leader (neither of these roles being diaconal), it is important to guard against any thought or appearance of deacons (or lay leaders!) replacing the distinctive role of priests while we presently have fewer of them. “Permanent deacons are not ’substitute priests’, nor are they intended to take the place of religious or lay ministers” (Irish Directory 2006).

Deacons help to discern, enable, encourage, animate and coordinate the lay faithful. They are “the bishop’s men” working in collaboration with him and with the priests. Those serving in this country exercise their diaconal ministry as chaplains to hospitals, schools, prisons, and seafarers; in diocesan chanceries, commissions and finance offices; on marriage tribunals, and Church administration; as Canon lawyers, pastoral advisors, academics, lecturers, directors of Catholic charities, and in a wide variety of other roles. The Catholic Church in England & Wales and Scotland has nearing a thousand Deacons (and Ireland is just starting their own diaconal formation programme) who work humbly and often unnoticed in the three-fold ministry of Word, Altar and, most distinctively, of Charity.

Fr Peter Edwards is the parish priest of St Joseph’s New Malden and Southwark Director of the Permanent Diaconate.