The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and the Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States (Ascension)

Foreword Throughout the last decade of the twentieth century, the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Congregation for the Clergy devoted consid erable attention to the ordained ministries of priest and deacon. After the publication of the Basic Norms for the Formation of Priests and the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests in 1994, these two Congregations took up the same issues related to the ordained ministry of permanent deacons. In Febru ary 1998, they promulgated the Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons and the Directory on the Life and Ministry of Permanent Deacons . In a Joint Declaration and Introduction, the prefects of these two Congregations offered these documents as directives “of which due account is to be taken by the Episcopal Conferences when preparing their respective ‘Rationes.’ As with the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis , the Congregation offers this aid to the various Episcopates to facilitate them in discharging adequately the prescriptions of canon 236 of the Code of Canon Law and to ensure for the Church, unity, earnestness and completeness in the formation of perma nent Deacons.” 1 After years of extensive consultation and preparation, the National Di rectory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the Unit ed States received the recognitio from the Holy See on October 30, 2004. The National Directory was then officially promulgated by the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on December 26, 2004, the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. This Second Edition of the Nation al Directory went through extensive review and some meaningful revisions. It received recognitio from the Holy See on November 13, 2020. The date of official promulgation by the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is June 9, 2022, the Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church.

1 Congregation for Catholic Education and Congregation for the Clergy, “Joint Declaration and Introduc tion,” Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons/Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1998), p. 8.

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