Diaconate Formation

The Office for Diaconate Formation (ODF) provides distinct ministry preparation for Catholic men discerning a vocation calling to the permanent diaconate. The ODF counsels, guides and forms men who through adult formation programs, advanced theological education or some other experience encounter Christ and seek a deeper, permanent response to a perceived call to be servants of God's people through ministry in the Church.

Diaconal ministry works hand in hand with both priestly and lay ministry as a sacrament to bring about the kingdom of God. Deacons are men with a charism and a calling to radical availability for service to the People of God, the Church. The deacon’s vocation calls him to collaborate with the bishop and the priests in an exercise of a ministry that is not of their own but the Word of God — calling all to conversion and holiness. It is a ministry of reconciliation, of outreach to the most marginalized and those most in need of care, of education and justice.

The Diaconate was not re-instituted because we have a shortage of priests or lay ministers but to relieve the shortage of ordained deacons. It was restored as “a living icon of Christ the Servant within the Church...a visible sign or sacrament of the Lord Christ himself.”

For more information about the diaconate, please read our brochure (English, Español).

Para leer la información de esta página en español vaya aquí.