Two more dioceses to begin deacon formation

Two more dioceses to begin deacon formation December 20, 2013

From the Catholic Register in Canada:

The permanent diaconate is moving west. Two of the four dioceses in Saskatchewan will begin training men to become permanent deacons in 2014 and the other two are mulling it over.

As metropolitan bishop of Saskatchewan, Regina Archbishop Daniel Bohan has asked all the Saskatchewan dioceses to consider launching programs that would lead to ordination of permanent deacons. Bohan has hired staff to train deacons and begun promoting the diaconate in parishes around his diocese. The diocese of Prince Albert is all-in with Regina. In Saskatoon Bishop Don Bolen has initiated a diocese-wide discernment process to consider whether or not to ordain deacons. Under Archbishop Murray Chatlain, the archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas is considering the question.

With Vancouver and Victoria recently deciding in favour of permanent deacons, the movement towards deacons in Western Canada is now firmly entrenched. Bishop Luc Bouchard restored the permanent diaconate in the bilingual Alberta diocese of Saint Paul in 2003.

Since Toronto and Montreal began ordaining deacons in the early 1970s, deacons have flourished in central and eastern Canada. Most dioceses in Quebec have deacons. Across Canada there are nearly 1,200 permanent deacons.

Though the restored diaconate is no longer the radical sounding notion it was at the end of the Second Vatican Council, that doesn’t mean everybody immediately embraces the idea, said Brett Salkeld, the archdiocese of Regina’s theologian in residence.

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