When I was a young girl I remember my Cuban grandfather—a refugee to the United States—often talking about el reino de Dios. His heartfelt belief in the reign of God withstood political upheaval and having to flee his native Cuba under threat of violence. He persisted in believing in God’s dream for humanity in which everyone has what they need to flourish, and all understand that we are brothers and sisters of one human family loved by God.
I credit my grandfather for planting in me the seeds of my commitment to participating in the Catholic Church’s mission of diakonia, which calls upon all the baptized to make manifest the reign of a God who came not to be served but to serve and who demonstrated in the life of Christ a preferential love for the poor and marginalized.
As a Catholic laywoman, I have served in diaconal ministry for decades in Catholic parishes that accompany immigrants, the homeless and hungry, the formerly incarcerated, and children whose low-income parents seek better opportunities for their children.
Pope Francis has proclaimed 2025 to be a Jubilee Year in which we are invited to renew our faith by reflecting on how we can be pilgrims of hope in a world where too many people are feeling despair. I recently journeyed to Rome for the Jubilee of Deacons alongside deacons, their spouses, priests, bishops, religious, and laity. We gathered to deepen our understanding of the mission and the role of a deacon at this time in history following the Catholic Church’s three-year journey through the Synod on Synodality.
Paragraph 73 of the Final Document of the Synod, which Pope Francis has incorporated into his ordinary magisterium, notes that “deacons respond to the specific needs of each local church, particularly reawakening and sustaining everyone’s attention to the poorest in a church which is synodal, missionary, and merciful.” To move towards these lofty aspirations of greater participation, mission, and mercy, all the faithful will need to support the renewal of diakonia in our local churches and throughout our continents. Deacons can play an essential role in revitalizing the church’s mission to accompany those on the margins in their struggles for abundant life.
In his prepared Jubilee remarks to deacons, Pope Francis observed that deacons are like “sculptors” and “painters” of the merciful face of the Father by becoming “apostles of forgiveness, selfless servants of our brothers and sisters, and builders of communion.” By animating the Catholic faithful to go out to the peripheries, said the Holy Father, the mission of deacons is a strong contrast to a world that only feels hatred towards its adversaries, which would doom it “to endless war, divisions, and vendettas.”
While in Rome, I met many deacons from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States who share a concern regarding the rise of governments around the world that seem to be giving up on the common good. Central to our Christian ideas of the common good and the reign of God is the call to uphold the dignity of each person as Jesus taught us. It is a core tenet of our faith that is meeting resistance by governments that are tempted to treat migrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and the poor and outcasts ever more harshly. Deacons can help to animate all the faithful to be present on the peripheries—at migration detention centers, in prisons, at hospitals and hospice facilities, at homeless shelters, or in accompanying youth in mental health crises.
Given their call to serve as ministers of the word, liturgy, and charity, deacons provide the link from the Eucharist to the street—and what deacons hear from being present to those most in need can be brought back to the altar in prayer and to the ambo in preaching. Deacons also are accountable to their bishops and can serve as important bridgebuilders by bringing the concerns heard at the peripheries back to the attention of their local bishop.
The Catholic Church needs a lot of deacons—there are so many needs in our communities. However, following Vatican II, the 1967 renewal of the diaconate as a permanent order for married or unmarried men is still in its infancy. While there are more than 50,000 deacons worldwide (40 percent in the United States), its reception has been uneven. There are some 75 countries whose bishops still have not restored the diaconate as a permanent order in their dioceses. The question of women’s access to the diaconate also is part of the universal church’s ongoing discernment of the role of a deacon, as paragraph 60 of the Synod’s Final Document affirmed.
In the United States and beyond, there is a temptation to think about deacons as substitute or assistant priests, which misconstrues the heart of the diaconal vocation and ministry to animate the faithful to go out to the margins. By not giving up on those who find themselves at the peripheries, deacons help all of us to reaffirm God’s merciful heart at our shared table of the Eucharist. And during these fragile and fragmented times, we can revitalize our belief once again in the common good and Jesus’ dream that all may be one.
Work to restore a robust diaconate is something that can happen on the parish level as well. This may differ according to each parish’s unique needs and resources. But whatever the nature of your parish community, this Jubilee Year is a particularly good moment to reflect on the diaconate and to discern how to animate the mission of diakonia and to ask how you can make the kingdom of God manifest in your community. This formation tool, designed for deacons and their wives, can also guide a fruitful conversation in the Spirit at parishes or diocesan gatherings of deacons, clergy, religious, and laity.
In a synodal, missionary, and merciful church, the call to animate the mission of diakonia is not simply a personal journey but one that unfolds within the life of the parish. For a parishioner sensing this call, it may begin with active engagement in ministries that serve the young, the poor, the sick, or the imprisoned—places where people in need intersect with the church’s mission to accompany and walk with those at the margins. As we embrace Pope Francis’ invitation to be pilgrims of hope in this Jubilee Year, may we work together to strengthen the ministry of deacons, supporting their efforts to animate the entire People of God in the service of the gospel.
Image: WIkimedia Commons/Thomon, Deacons processing at Lourdes
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