Our local archdiocesan newspaper, the Chicago Catholic, printed an article which provides brief profiles of the 19 men ordained to the permanent diaconate last month. The sketches are here, if you're interested.
As the profiles tended to follow similar formats, I took a few minute to compile them into categories. Here is my roll-up, not rigorously scientific but possibly reasonably accurate, of new deacons in one diocese in one year.
Marriage status: 18 of the 19 are married. One didn't mention a spouse so I assume he is unmarried (bachelor, divorced or widower all are possibilities)
Average number of children: 2.5. Two deacons didn't mention children so I assumed they had none. The distribution is as follows:
- No children: 2
- One child: 2
- Two children: 6
- Three children: 4
- Four children: 3
- Five children: 2
Age: Not all of them gave their age, so I had to make semi-educated guesses on several of them, based on other biographical details such as length of marriage, as well as studying their headshots. The distribution is as follows:
- 30s: 1
- 40s: 2
- 50s: 12
- 60s: 4
Work status: 2 are retired, 17 are working. I defined "working" to include those who stated they are working, as well as any who seemed to be below retirement age; the assumption was that either those are employed now, or are actively seeking a job if currently unemployed.
The jobs listed cover a wide range: custodian, musician, account manager, manager, recruiter, accountant, elevator constructor, company owner (a landscaping company and a construction company respectively), county public health operations director, software engineer and electrical engineer. One listed two jobs, the second being a school bus driver, which typically is part-time work. Two didn't give their specific job or profession but stated they worked for Pepsi and AT&T respectively. At least some of those who didn't mention work status may be employed by the parish to which they belong, either part time or full time.
Race/ethnicity: 10 are Latino, nine are Caucasian. None gave their race or ethnicity explicitly; I made these judgments myself, based on names, headshots and biographical details. These judgments are not clear-cut so perhaps should be taken with a grain of salt. One whom I listed as Latino was born in the US of parents who are immigrants from Mexico.
The priest who was the vicar of deacons for the first decade or so of my own ministry used to estimate that the Chicago Archdiocese was half English speaking and half Spanish speaking, so the racial/ethnic split of these new deacons may be pretty representative of the local church as a whole.
Of the 10 whom I identified as Latino, 8 stated they are natives of Mexico, and another is a native of El Salvador. The Salvadoran stated that he immigrated to the US in 1980 to flee the war.
As best as I could discern, none are Black in this class. If that's accurate, then it's a shame. My own cohort included four men whom other people might identify as Black: two of African American heritage, one a Jamaican immigrant and the other an immigrant from Cameroon.
City vs. suburban: 6 city dwellers, 13 suburban dwellers. This is based on the towns the deacons report they live in. It's worth noting that some suburbs have characteristics that seem urban (e.g. dense housing, public transportation), and some parts of the City of Chicago can seem suburban in some ways.
This ratio of urban to suburban probably matches the Chicago diaconate as a whole reasonably well. I happen to think the church in this local area is doing better in the suburbs than in the city. The city surely needs more gifted and dedicated deacons to minister within its borders.
The archdiocese includes two counties, one of which (Cook) has little or no rural presence, but the other (Lake) has some farms and rural areas, especially in the parts farthest from Cook County. Based on the towns listed for each deacon, I assume that none of them are living a rural lifestyle.
Ministries: Most of these new deacons mentioned the ministries they expected to be doing. A few didn't mention any ministries; they may genuinely not have discerned yet what they'll be called to do. I wasn't completely sure, either, when I was ordained; and over the course of my ordained ministry, I've taken on a few new roles and dropped a few others.
The ministries these men will be doing strike me as typical parish-based ministries. I didn't see any interesting outliers - for example, over the years here, there have been deacons who invented a truck-stop ministry to minister to truckers how are passing through. I didn't see anything like that listed. Here are the categories I came up with, together with the number of deacons who mentioned them:
- Charismatic renewal/spirituality: 3
- Catechesis/religious education: 6. This could be for children or adults
- Liturgy/devotions: 8. This could include roles in such things as eucharistic adoration and Benediction, as well as coordinating liturgical ministries like lectors or eucharistic ministers
- Prayer/spirituality: 1. This could be small groups or one-to-one spiritual direction
- Human Concerns: 1. This can mean different things at different parishes; at our parish, it embraces everything from hospital and nursing home visits to prison ministry to Christian Family Movement
- Marriage Prep: 3
- Baptism Prep: 2
- RCIA: 2
- Bible Study: 1
- Renew My Church: 1. This is the archdiocese's program for groups of parishes to discern whether they should share resources, merge or close (these decisions ultimately are made by the diocese). It's not clear what this deacon's role is in the process.
- Outreach: 1. This is the term used in our parish to cover ministries such as St. Vincent de Paul, homeless shelters and soup kitchens. This particular deacon stated that he will work with homeless persons
- Young Adult ministry: 1
- Social concerns: 1. Not entirely sure what is meant by this; it could cover anything from Habitat for Humanity to Pax Christi to Plowshares
Interesting, sounds like you had a nice cross section of newly ordained deacons. We had, I think, 9 in our archdiocese this year. I can only remember one single guy who was ordained a permanent deacon. He was a religious brother and didn't want to go on to the priesthood. There was another single guy who bailed out two weeks before ordination. Turns out he had met someone and didn't want to rule out marriage. Too bad (that he had to bail out), he would have been a good deacon. There was another deacon candidate whose wife died during formation. He rushed (it seemed) into a second marriage, which had problems. He ended up dropping out of the program. It just seems to me that the requirement that a deacon can't marry (or remarry as a widower) once he is ordained creates some unnecessary problems.
ReplyDeleteWe had one unmarried (divorced) classmate. Within days of our ordination he moved halfway across the country and I haven't heard anything about him since then, except that someone told me he had left the ministry.
DeleteWe had a second single guy in our formation class but he dropped out (or was dropped) a year or so before ordination. No explanation ever was provided to us - he was just gone one day.
There was a lot of focus on spouses and marriage during our formation. Maybe the single guys were made to feel like odd ducks.
The single guys probably do feel like odd man out. They probably also are reluctant to close off their options.
DeleteThe church struggles a lot with issues of ontology, marriage, Holy orders, not to mention sexuality in general. Some of it goes with the territory. Some of it they could fix.
Thanks Jim, for putting this together. Seems to be a very diverse group in terms of backgrounds, and interests. Looks pretty healthy to me.
ReplyDeleteIn our dioceses and some others there has been greater emphasis that deacons serve the bishop and the diocese, and so that is no guarantee that you will serve your parish. Obviously if a deacon and a parish agree upon a need, the bishop should think twice before assigning a person elsewhere. How is that working out in Chicago?
Hi Jack it is true that the deacon's "attachment" is to his bishop, not the pastor of his home parish. That said: nearly every permanent deacon is assigned to his home parish, at least as his first assignment. Most never get another assignment.
DeleteDuring Cardinal George's time as head of the archdiocese, he made an attempt to reassert the reality that the deacon's service is to the bishop - and in fact he tried to pry us loose from our home parishes. His motive was to establish the precedent that we could be reassigned - and many of us would be. The policy was that deacons would be assigned to a parish for a single 10 year term. If the deacon was less than 62, he would be given a new assignment. To avoid this, the deacon would have to justify why he was so indispensable in his current assignment.
This policy was extremely unpopular with the deacons and their wives and families. Nearly all deacons come to the diaconate from parish life and with the pastor's active support. Many deacon candidates have been in their parish for decades before they discerned a call. The parish pays for the deacon's formation. Then they are assigned to the same parish after ordination. These guys are established, rooted, happy and have no desire for a change. Furthermore, in the view of the deacons, this reassignment policy never had been part of the deal when they signed up.
Another huge factor in all this was that George apparently hadn't reckoned with the wives. He may have assumed- it's surprising how many priests assume this - that the wife would meekly and obediently go wherever the husband (or his bishop) decreed. That's the sort of thing that induces much merriment when deacon couples get together.
At any rate, George's policy was never really "received ". I don't know any deacons who were given new assignments under the policy. Of course, some deacons do get reassigned at various times, for various reasons- usually, I daresay, because he doesn't get along with a new pastor.