United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Appendix A. Glossary • 509

DEISM: A worldview that admits that God created the world but denies that he has any further providential care or concern for it. (See also “Providence.”) DEPOSIT OF FAITH: The heri tage of faith contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, handed on in the Church from the time of the Apostles, from which the Magisterium draws all that it pro poses for belief as divinely revealed. DEVILS: Angels who, in pride, turned away from God and have fallen from grace are named demons or devils, and they tempt human beings to sin. DEVOTIONAL PRAYER: Devotional prayer refers to the numerous forms of personalized prayer that have grown up outside, but complementary to, the liturgical prayer of the Church. (See Chapter 22 on “Sacramentals and Popular Devotion.”) These devotions include the rosary; the Stations of the Cross; pilgrimages to shrines in the Holy Land and Rome, Marian shrines, and those dedicated to saints; novenas; litanies; and similar expressions of faith.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published an indult (Prot. 1589/96/L) giving to each diocesan bishop in the United States of America the right to allow for the presence of the cremated remains of a body at the full course of Catholic funeral rites. Each dio cesan bishop has the right whether or not to allow this practice. DEACONS: Men ordained by the bishop to serve. They receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders but not the ministerial priesthood. Through ordination, the deacon is conformed to the Christ who said he came to serve, not to be served. Deacons in the Latin Church may baptize, read the Gospel, preach the homily, assist the bishop or priest in the celebration of the Eucharist, assist at and bless marriages, and preside at funerals. They dedicate themselves to charitable endeavors, which was their ministerial role in New Testament times. -D

DECALOGUE: Another name for the Ten Commandments.

DISCIPLE: Name given in the New Testament to all those men and