Deacons in the Catholic Church are challenged to look at what they do in life and ministry and ask: “What am I doing and how and I doing it?” They are also challenged to ask: are they building up or tearing down?
So said Deacon Bill Ditewig, of America, a guest speaker at an event attended by more than 40 people in Blacktown on 15 March 2025.
Deacon Bill was concluding his Australian tour after visits to Melbourne, Adelaide (for the National Deacons Conference) and Cyclone-affected Brisbane.
The Diocese of Parramatta organised the event and had deacons and wives and those in formation in attendance. There were also other members of the diaconate community of NSW and Canberra present.
Deacon Bill unpacked how the diaconate as a permanent order was restored by Vatican II. Some of the motivation came from priest survivors of the Dachau concentration camp who saw the diaconate as helping ensure such an atrocity could not happen again.
Vatican II aimed to extend the reach of the Church into new areas with the restored diaconate. As such, Bill calls deacons ministers of “connect the dots.” He quoted one of his university professors who said: “Vatican II didn’t reform the diaconate because of a shortage of priests, but because of a shortage of deacons.”
Bill advocated that all deacons should be competent in service of the Word, liturgy and charity.
Men should not be able to pick and choose which bits they want to be involved in, he said.
Bill then addressed four key topics he was asked to speak about.
Topic 1: The story of the US diaconate and what can we learn from this experience for Australia.
There are now 196 dioceses in the United States and 19,833 deacons but only 14,287 (75%) are active. Of those inactive, the largest number (20%) are retired.
Worldwide there are 52,000 deacons.
The numbers in America are staggering, compared to those in Australia. Bill mentioned he was once the director of the diaconate in a diocese with 300 deacons. Australia currently has about 200 deacons!
He believed the growth of the diaconate in the United States came from many bishops wanting to implement as much of Vatican II as they could. A centralised, national diaconate office was one a key factor. The priests who directed programs also became drivers of its growth.
A key challenge now in the United States is that 75% of all deacons are more than 60 years of age. It is seen as a vocation to undertake in retirement – but that is not what the vision of Vatican II was.
Bill said catechesis on the diaconate was required (but not always given) before the diaconate in introduced to a diocese (including to the presbyterate). This should start in the seminary, given that seminarians will be ordained as a deacon on the path to the priesthood. However, most seminaries offer little or no formation on the diaconate.
He advocated all dioceses funding the cost of formation (including theological education) for those training to be deacons (as happens for seminarians), as deacons should have diocesan as well as parish responsibilities. Studies in the mid-90s showed people thought deacons were parish-based ministers whereas priests were diocesan ministers with a parish role. Now about 70% of deacons have a diocesan appointment as well as a parish appointment – in charities, chaplaincy, administration or other areas.
Some dioceses do not have their own Catholic higher education institutions, so some of the larger ones have institutions that can support surrounding dioceses.
In terms of the involvement of wives, there are different models, ranging from little involvement to wives attending university classes along with their husbands. Bill said the bottom line, though, was that it is a nightmare when husbands and wives do not grow together during the formation process.
To learn more about Diaconate Program, visit the Diocese of Parramatta website.
