Deacons to wear the collar in Madison—UPDATED

From The Catholic Herald: 

In an effort to help permanent deacons in the Diocese of Madison become more easily identified as they minister, Bishop Robert C. Morlino has given permission that all permanent deacons in the diocese will be permitted to wear a grey clerical shirt and white collar when actively engaged in diaconal ministry.

The permission is effective January 23.

“In my interaction with the permanent diaconate formation program in the Diocese of La Crosse, I learned that many dioceses have adopted guidelines for permitting deacons to wear clerical attire when they are exercising their ministry in an official capacity,” said Fr. Michael Radowicz, director of the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Madison.

“People often respond to you differently when they see the collar, and that is especially so when the setting is pastoral, such as in a hospital, nursing home, or prison,” said Father Radowicz.

According to paragraph 89 of the National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Each diocesan bishop should . . . specify the appropriate clerical attire if it is to be worn.”

“Priests are traditionally identified with a black clerical shirt and collar. In order to clearly distinguish permanent deacons from the clergy of the diocese, we elected to permit the color of grey for the permanent deacons,” explained Father Radowicz.

Read more.

I’m going to give the good Father Radowicz the benefit of the doubt and believe that he just misspoke. As director of the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Madison, he surely knows that deacons are clergy. Right?  RIGHT? I’m sure what he MEANT to say was “In order to clearly distinguish permanent deacons from the OTHER clergy of the diocese…”

Right?

UPDATE: A deacon reader received an email from Fr. Radowicz, which says in part:

That was a bad on my part – I should have used different language to make that distinction, and that’s my fault… I appreciate your letting me know. If you do communicate with those in the blogosphere, please extend my apologies for the poor terminology used. We most certainly ascribe to the fact that deacons are indeed clergy. Mea culpa.  Perhaps I’ll write a “letter to the editor” and clarify that statement in the next edition of the newspaper.

Image: The Catholic Herald