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

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Preface

tee organized a comprehensive study “to assess the extent to which the vision” for the diaconate had been realized. 23 The results of that appraisal were published in 1981 under the title A National Study of the Perma nent Diaconate in the United States . 24 The report acknowledged that the purpose of the diaconate and its integration into the life of the Church in the United States of America had not yet been fully realized. Building on that Study , the NCCB commissioned the revision of the 1971 Guide lines . In November 1984, new guidelines were published under the title Permanent Deacons in the United States: Guidelines on Their Formation and Ministry, 1984 Revision . 25 7 The committee approved and authorized the publication of a series of monographs as part of a structured national catechesis on the diacon ate. In collaboration with the committee, the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy issued the document The Deacon: Minister of Word and Sacrament, Study Text VI (1979), which was devoted to the liturgical ministries of the deacon. 26 A second monograph addressed The Service Ministry of the Deacon (1988), 27 and a third monograph, Foundations for the Renewal of the Diaconate (1993), offered an international and histor ical perspective on the theology of the diaconate. 28 In 1998, the com mittee sponsored the production of a video, Deacons: Ministers of Justice and Charity , which highlighted some of the diverse service ministries of deacons in the United States of America. 29 Permanent Diaconate: A Study for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 2014-2015 (Washington, DC: CARA/Georgetown University, May 2015). 23 Bishops’ Committee on the Permanent Diaconate, NCCB, A National Study of the Permanent Diaconate in the United States (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1981), 1. 24 Bishops’ Committee on the Permanent Diaconate, National Study , 1. 25 PDG (1984). The committee under the chairmanship of Most Rev. John J. Snyder began the revision. It was completed under the chairmanship of Most Rev. John F. Kinney. 26 STVI. 27 Bishops’ Committee on the Permanent Diaconate, NCCB, Service Ministry of the Deacon , written by Rev. Timothy J. Shugrue (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1988). 28 Bishops’ Committee on the Permanent Diaconate, NCCB, Foundations for the Renewal of the Diaconate (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1993). 29 Bishops’ Committee on the Diaconate, NCCB, Deacons: Ministers of Justice and Charity [video], ed. Dea con Richard Folger (1998).

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