REPORT | 2018 NATIONAL DIACONATE CONGRESS, JULY 22-26, NEW ORLEANS
Gathering of deacons celebrates and challenges the ministry on the 50th anniversary of its restoration
By Deacon Michael Weaver
Special to the Herald
“You are the leaders of the New Evangelization, standing at the nexus of the church and the world. You are pioneers of the civilization of love!”
With these challenging words, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to the United States, opened the 2018 National Diaconate Congress on July 22 in New Orleans. Taking the theme “Christ the Servant: Yesterday, Today, and Forever,” the five-day gathering of more than 2,000 deacons and deacon candidates and their wives — including a delegation of nearly 80 deacons, wives, candidates and family members from Hawaii — was convened in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the diaconate in the United States.
The weeklong conference, which one deacon called “a week of beignets (a square of dough, fried and sprinkled with sugar) and blessings,” was a time of both celebration and challenge, with numerous general sessions and daily workshops focused on practical, pastoral, and personal reflection and renewal for the deacons and their wives.
Joining the deacons were Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, the first general session speaker; and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Galveston-Houston and the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cardinal DiNardo celebrated the congress’ closing liturgy.
Many bishops from around the country, including our own Bishop Larry Silva, joined the gathering for liturgical celebrations throughout the week. Members of the Hawaii delegation noted with affection and appreciation that Bishop Silva attended the entire conference, indicating again his commitment and support for the diaconate in our diocese.
Among the presenters were prominent members of the diaconate, including Deacon Jim Keating, author of numerous books on the diaconate including “The Heart of the Diaconate” and “A Deacon’s Retreat”; Deacon Greg Kandra, Emmy Award-winning journalist and blogger (“The Deacon’s Bench”); and Deacon Bill Ditewig, internationally known authority on the history and theology of the diaconate and current visiting instructor for the Hawaii deacon formation program.
Each of the deacons celebrated their ministries and those of their fellow deacons, while also challenging the gathering. Deacon Keating called on deacons to be “less American and more Christian,” removing ourselves from the popular cultural influences of our day. Deacon Kandra asked the deacons to use social media in more positive and productive ways as he urged the assembly to be “the vanguard of the New Evangelization.”
Deacon Ditewig exhorted the deacons to be “envelope pushers” and “risk takers,” “fishers of men, not caretakers of the aquarium.”
If there was a common thread of emotion among those who attended the Congress in New Orleans, a city celebrating its 300th birthday this year, it was the feeling of the celebration of, and commitment to, their ministries. One could feel it at Morning Prayer in the Grand Hall as 3,000 voices joined as one in glorious praise. It could be heard in the laughter of friendships, new and old, in the hallways and hotel lobbies, at restaurants and pubs around The Crescent City.
What was once only a theoretical, perhaps abstract, understanding of the community and fraternity of the diaconate, had become a very real, very poignant, heartfelt sense of who we are as deacons, called to act in the image of Christ the Servant as ministers of Word, charity and liturgy.
Together with our wives and our families, and in solidarity with the more than 18,000 deacons and their wives across the nation (50 percent of all the deacons in the world, by the way), we left New Orleans renewed, refreshed and radiant with the energy of the Holy Spirit, ready to be pioneers of the civilization of Christ’s love for the world.
Michael Weaver is a deacon at St. Anthony Parish in Kailua.