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

NDPD

The Ministry and Life of Deacons

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Resignation and Retirement 111 Norms should be established in each diocese regarding the age, health, and other matters that need to be considered regarding a deacon’s resig nation from a ministerial office or his retirement from ministerial duties. Norms (The number[s] found in parentheses after each norm refer[s] to the appropriate paragraph[s] in this Directory .) 1. It is incumbent on the diocesan bishop to provide for the pastoral care of deacons of the diocese. This is discharged personally and through the Director of the Permanent Diaconate, who must always be a cleric. (43) 2. The principal criteria for the assignment of a deacon are the pastoral needs of the diocesan Church and the personal qualifications of the deacon, as these have been discerned in his previous experience and the course of his formation. (44) 3. When the permanent diaconate is being newly implemented in a diocese, a catechetical introduction to the diaconate should be given to the priests, religious, and laity. (45, 57) 4. Deacon assignments ought to provide ample opportunities for an integrated exercise of the threefold diaconal ministry: word, liturgy, and charity. (46) 5. A program for newly ordained deacons during the first five years of their ministry is to be coordinated and supervised by the Director of the Permanent Diaconate. (48) Under the diocesan bishop’s authority, periodic meetings should be arranged between priests, deacons, reli gious, and laity involved in pastoral work “to avoid compartmental ization or the development of isolated groups and to guarantee coor dinated unity for different pastoral activities in the diocese.”105 The ongoing formation continues throughout the deacon’s earthly life. (48)

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