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EDITORIAL2 Ashley Beck and Tony Schmitz

National Assembly of Deacons in England and Wales and North European International Diaconate Conference, 24-26 June 2011THE DEACON IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

4 Address of WelcomePhilip Esler

8 Theological disposition for pastoral ministry Michael Hayes

16 The body of service: The social dimension of theEucharist and the DiaconateWilliam Cavanaugh

28 Homily for Saturday Mass of Our LadyKeith Patrick O’Brien

32 The Deacon in the Body of Christ: Messenger from the world to the Church Jozef Wissink

39 Homily at Vespers and BenedictionPaul Hendricks

41 Preparing the Sunday Homily Duncan Macpherson

45 Homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi Vincent Nichols

OBITUARY47 The Rt Revd Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia

John Morrill

DIACONIA OF ALTAR48 The Deacon and Holy Week

Terry Drainey

DOCUMENTATION / RETRIEVING THE TRADITION51 International Theological Commission

Chapter IV: The Sacramentality of the DiaconateTony Schmitz

DIACONIA OF CARITAS53 Deacons and the Euro II

Ashley Beck

Issue 7 November 2011

If you have enjoyedout first sevenissues and have notyet renewed yoursubscription, pleaseremember to do soon our website:www.idc-nec.org

has also played a big part in the establish-ment and development of this journal andwe wish him well in his new role asPresident of Mary Immaculate College inLimerick.

The five workshops were also a great suc-cess, but as you can imagine much of whatwas delivered in that setting did not takethe form of a written text; one of the work-shop leaders, Louisa Warren, has previous-ly written about Strengthsfinder in the thisjournal1. The workshop talk by Dr DuncanMacpherson is given here; the other work-shops leaders were Dr Anthony Towey (StMary’s University College, Twickenham),Dr Benas Ulevicius (Vytautas MagnusUniversity, Kaunas) and Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens2. A journal cannot record every-thing: one of the highlights was the ban-quet on the Saturday evening in the stun-ning Waldegrave Drawing Room. Togetherwith a speech from Professor Hayes wewere entertained by the our publisher,Ignatius Kusiak, and we are grateful to theTablet and The Pastoral Review for theirgenerous sponsorship

The theme of the assembly/conferencewas designed to deepen our ecclesiologicalunderstanding of the deacon. What is itthat the deacon’s ministry teaches usabout the nature of the Church? Ourthree keynote speakers addressed this inthe light of their own considerable pastoralexperience and theological vision, and wewere privileged that they were able toshare their insights with us. This visionwas complemented by the reflections ofthe bishops who were with us. Our hope isthat this issue of the journal, recording theproceedings of our gathering, will helppeople locate more firmly the diaconate inthe life of the Church.

There were some disappointments: farfewer participants came from outsideEngland and Wales than we had hoped. Iwould urge our readers in Scotland, Irelandand the rest of Europe to try and come to thenext such event, which should be in fouryears’ time. As on other occasions involvingpermanent deacons in England and Wales,it proved impossible to excite any interest inthe event from the Catholic press.

In the remainder of this issue we publish asecond article reflecting on the singleEuropean currency in the light of CatholicSocial teaching. The current crisis makesthis topic more urgent than ever, and dea-cons have an important role to play in dis-pelling myths and falsehoods. Bishop TerryDrainey is now the bishop in England andWales responsible for clergy formation,and we reproduce a paper he gave a yearago at our annual directors’ and delegatesconference in Leeds. We continue ourseries of newly translated extracts from theITC document on the diaconate, and wealso include an obituary of one of our edi-torial consultants, Bishop Michael Evans,who died in the summer. His address onthe diaconate at the last assembly inEngland (in Lowestoft in 2006) sparkedoff a lively debate about the diaconate inour sister journal The Pastoral Review(which some people dubbed ‘Deacons’Wars’) and his presence in the BishopsConference of England and Wales will besorely missed.

We do urgently need more subscribers ifthis journal is to survive. Please make sureyour subscription is up to date and do yourbest to encourage others to subscribe. �

Most of this issue of the New DiaconalReview is made up of papers and

homilies from the National Assembly ofDeacons in England and Wales and NorthEuropean conference of the InternationalDiaconate Study Centre, which took placeat the end of June at St Mary’s UniversityCollege, Twickenham. The assemblies,normally held every four years, have beentaking place for some years now; this wasthe first time the event was combined witha conference aimed at deacons from north-ern Europe. It was also the first time theevent took place in an academic institutionrather than a hotel. As the Principal of StMary’s points out in his thought-provokingaddress of welcome, the history andcharism of the university college, in termsof providing education for people from poorbackgrounds, is an important part of theheritage of Catholic education in theBritish Isles: this fits in well with the dea-con’s charism and his calling to ‘transformthe world according to the Christian order’and have a specialist knowledge of Catholicsocial doctrine.

Reactions suggest that the event was seen asa great success, and we are grateful to allthose who worked hard to ensure this, par-ticularly the staff of the university college. Itwas a privilege to welcome the leaders of theCatholic community in Britain, CardinalKeith O’Brien and Archbishop VincentNichols, who presided at our Eucharisticworship over the weekend, and the homiliesthey preached are published here. One ofthe auxiliary Bishops from the Archdioceseof Southwark, Bishop Paul Hendricks,stayed with us for the whole weekend andhis homily at Vespers is reproduced here aswell. The three keynote addresses, as youwill see, were profound and challenging(Professor Wissink from the Netherlandswas prevented from being physically presentbecause of the death of his brother a coupleof days beforehand, but his text was deliv-ered by Deacon Paul Wennekes). One of thekeynote lecturers, Professor Michael Hayes,

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Website www.idc-nec.orgBoard of the IDC–NEC

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1 ‘Developing Talents: how Diaconate Students have been developing their strengths’ New Diaconal Review issue 4 (May 2010).

2 Her workshop reflected research in her two publications, Partners in Solidarity and Care of the Deacons’ Widows.

about him when the prophet Samuel turnsup to anoint one of his sons. Havingunsuccessfully tried to anoint the othersix, Samuel asks in exasperation, ‘Arethese all the sons you have?’ (1 Sam16:11). So Jesse remembers he does havea seventh son, and David is summonedand duly anointed.

Yet one can easily miss just what is specialabout David. Let us reach for some help.On the 17th September last year, HisHoliness Pope Benedict XVI, opened hisvisit to England with a morning spent hereat St Mary’s. He spoke in this very Chapeland in two other places on campus. Thetheme of his visit was Cor ad Cor Loquitur,‘Heart speaks to Heart’, the motto of theBlessed John Henry Cardinal Newman,who was beatified in Birmingham duringthis papal visit.

At the time of Pope Benedict’s visit I wasfinishing the manuscript of a book on OldTestament narrative and grappling withthe presentation of David in 1 Samuel 16-17. I realised that here we had an OldTestament example of Cor ad cor loquitur.1

To see how let us go back a little earlier inthe narrative, to 1 Samuel 13. Having hadSamuel anoint Saul king, Yahwehbecomes dissatisfied with Saul and looksfor a replacement. He sends Samuel toSaul to say, among other things, ‘Yahwehhas searched out a man for himself afterhis own heart and designated him leaderof his people.’ This is David, of course, andin him Yahweh has found a match for

their thrones,He has exalted the lowly.’

‘He has exalted the lowly.’ In the Greekhupsosen tapeinous and in Jerome’s Latinexaltavit humiles.

That is the core of St Mary’s mission,exaltare humiles, to raise up the lowly, andI am sure it is close to the heart of all ofyou.

It is also a dominant theme in the OldTestament. Mary’s words in the Magnificat,after all, reflect those of Hannah in 1 Samuel2:7-8:

‘Yahweh makes poor and rich,He humbles and also exalts.He raises the poor from the dust,He lifts the needy from the dung-hill.’

But there is another Old Testament figureI wish to mention here – it is the youngDavid. David and Solomon are very muchon my mind this afternoon since ourdaughter is working on an archaeologicalexcavation in Gezer, an important sitesouth of Jerusalem, and yesterday the teamhit a layer very rich in finds in what may bethe street level of the city in the time ofSolomon in the late 10th Century BC.

Think about David in 1 Samuel 16-17. Heis the youngest of seven brothers and assuch he gets the nastiest job – the isolated,dirty and dangerous one of shepherd to thefamily’s flocks. He ranks so low in the fam-ily hierarchy that his father Jesse forgets

1 Esler, P.F. Sex, Wives, and Warriors: Reading Biblical Narrative with Its Ancient Audience(Wipf & Stock: Eugene, OR, 2011).

Good afternoon everyoneIt is extremely gratifying for me to be ableto welcome you here today, at the com-mencement of your conference. There areso many of you, this is such an importantevent (with participants from across theUK and Europe) and what you will be dis-cussing, reflecting and praying upon in thedays ahead is so close to our mission.

We are very proud to be the institution thathosts the diaconate formation programmecovering nine dioceses in southernEngland and Wales. We are also delightedto welcome colleagues associated with theInternational Diaconate Study Centre. Weare increasingly a place in the UK wherethe Church comes to think and you arevery welcome contributors to that role.

St Mary’s University College Twickenhamwas founded in 1850 as a college to trainteachers to teach the children of poorCatholic families. We started with six stu-dents. In the 1890s we were given into thecare of the Vincentian order, known fortheir effective love for the poor, and theyled us, for a hundred years, until 1992. Inthe 1920s St Mary’s moved to this peace-ful 36 acre site, which includes HoraceWalpole’s house that stimulated the

Gothic revival world-wide, and this beauti-ful chapel was erected in 1962.

Our mission is highly student-focused andis nourished by our Catholic ethos andChristian values. We aim to help our stu-dents have successful careers and flourish-ing lives. We assist them to develop intellec-tually, physically and spiritually, with thesethree aspects symbolized by the close prox-imity on our campus of library, chapel andrunning-track. We have excellent teaching,informed by increasingly world-classresearch and within six months of gradua-tion 95% of our students have jobs. Wehope that next year we will achieve univer-sity title and thus become the first Catholicuniversity in the UK since the Reformation.

Yet our original mission to the poor and themarginalized remains central to who weare and what we stand for. 25% of our stu-dents come from families that earn lessthan £15,000 per annum and 33% comefrom families earning less than £25,000.But these students graduate just as suc-cessfully as those from more advantagedbackgrounds.

I have no doubt that many if not most ofyou are involved in ministries to people likethese, people whom the Hebrew Biblecalls the anawim, the humble of the earthon whom God’s favour rests.

As I am a biblical critic, let me push intosome of the biblical dimensions of this mis-sion. This College is named in honour ofMary. You will recall her towering wordsfrom the Magnificat, in Luke 1:52:

‘He has pulled down the mighty from

Philip Esler

New Diaconal Review Issue 7 5New Diaconal Review Issue 74

The assembly/conferencebegan as participants

gathered in the chapel of St Mary’sUniversity College in the early evening ofFriday 24 June, the feast of the Nativity ofSt John the Baptist. This chapel had beenthe scene of an act of worship led by PopeBenedict XVI when he arrived at theuniversity college the previous September.The participants were formally welcomedto the university college by the Principal,Professor Philip Esler. He has beenprincipal since October 2010 and wasformerly Professor of Biblical Interpretationat the University of St Andrews.

Address of Welcome

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National Assembly of Deacons in England and Wales and North European Internation Diaconate Conference, 24-26 June 2011

himself in every place. We are Christ’sincense to God for those who are beingsaved and for those who are not.

Quite remarkably, Paul views the knowl-edge of God as a sweet smell and identi-fies that smell with us, with us who aresaid to be Christ’s.

This is very bold, for while a particularpleasant smell can have a potent impacton us, for example by transporting us backto some moment in our past life andreminding us of our identity, smells arealso variable in strength and evanescent.Paul is very far from suggesting that theknowledge of God in the world that wemight convey will land with hammerblows.

Nevertheless, he is insistent that as we goabout our ministries we have this potentialto affect the world. We will be, to quote

Paul again, ‘the first sweet smell of life thatleads to life’ (2 Cor. 2:16). This is a verysubtle view of the role of Christians in theworld, but one that well reflects Paul’sPromethean intellect and powers ofexpression.

And at the end of 2 Corinthians comes astatement that applies both to why StMary’s exists and why you are undertakingyour vital ministries: ‘In Christ, we speakwith sincerity, from God and in the pres-ence of God.’

On behalf of the staff, students andGovernors of St Mary’s, I wish you a suc-cessful conference and express the hopethat links forged in these next few daysbetween yourselves and St Mary’s will con-tinue to flourish in the years ahead.

Please remember us as a place where theChurch comes to think. �

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Address of welcome – Philip Esler

what lies in his, Yahweh’s, heart.

Fast forward again a few chapters toSamuel’s anointing of David. Why didYahweh instruct Samuel not to anoint theoldest son? Because ‘God does not see ashuman beings see; human beings look atappearances but Yahweh looks into theheart’ (1 Sam. 16:7). That Yahwehinstructed Samuel to anoint David showshe had looked into this young and insignif-icant shepherd’s heart and liked what hesaw, someone indeed after his own heart:Cor ad cor loquitur.

Consider the reality of that bond. Shortlyafterwards the Philistines invade Israel.This happens in 1 Samuel 17. The twoarmies draw up for battle on opposite sidesof a valley. A giant Philistine warriorGoliath marches out and challenges Israelto send a warrior out to him for singlecombat. This goes on for forty days and nota single Israelite is brave enough to volun-teer, not even King Saul, in spite of the factthat he stood head and shoulders tallerthan the rest of the Israelites (1 Sam. 9:2),which is one of the reasons why he waschosen to be king and lead them in battlein the first place.

Enter David, coming to bring provisions tohis big brothers in Saul’s army. He isaffronted at the shame Goliath is pouringon Israel and says: ‘Who is this uncircum-cised Philistine who dares to insult thearmies of …..’

At this point David could have said ‘armiesof Israel’, or ‘armies of Saul’, but insteadhe says, ‘armies of the living God.’ ‘Who isthis uncircumcised Philistine who dares toinsult the armies of the living God.’

This is the first time God is mentioned in1 Samuel 17.

Among all the warriors of Israel, it takes ayoung shepherd to do it.

It takes one of the lowly to put God into thepicture.

It takes one of the humiles to show his loy-alty and devotion to his God by expressingoutrage that he has been insulted.

And there is more. When Saul tries to dis-suade this young man from fightingGoliath, David replies, having recountedhis previous success at killing lions andbears who tried to devour his father’ssheep, ‘Yahweh who rescued me from theclaws of lion and bear will rescue me fromthe power of this Philistine’ (1 Sam.17:37). So David attributes his victories toGod. He is someone who lives with a richawareness of, and belief in, the reality ofGod’s saving presence. Yet this devotion tohis God is portrayed as unique in all Israel.God’s having Samuel anoint David kingwas no accident.

Cor ad cor loquiturAs we consider this superlative biblical pic-ture of what faith in God might be likeamong the lowly and how God regularlyacts in the Old Testament to raise themfrom their low estate, I find confirmationfor the St Mary’s mission.

I find a sense of our strong links with ourancestors in faith who produced thesetexts and lived out their insights.

I also find hope that these texts will sustainyour own, different and yet similar mis-sions and ministries.

Yet I would like to end this afternoon withsomething from the New Testament, fromSt Paul, which is very relevant to the min-istries of all of us.

At one point in Second Corinthians, towardsthe end of Chapter 2, Paul says that:

through us God is spreading thesweet fragrance of knowledge of

New Diaconal Review Issue 76

Address of welcome – Philip Esler

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eviewRThePASTORAL

Good evening and I would like to addmy welcome to you to St Mary’s for

this National Assembly of Deacons andIDC North European Conference on ‘TheDeacon in the Body of Christ’.

Thirty two years ago on 16th April 1979 Iwas ordained a deacon by the lateArchbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin. WhileI was clear that my ordination was part ofa threefold ministry of deacon, priest, andbishop, it was very much a transitionalministry as part of and a step towardspriestly ordination which happened inJune 1980. My own diocese of Southwarkfirst ordained permanent deacons in thelate 1970s and so when I began my pas-toral ministry as a priest 31 years ago Iencountered for the first time permanentdeacons. But I am no expert on the per-manent diaconate and I make no pretenceat that here either. I have been, however,editor of The Pastoral Review for the lastseven years, and it is for that reason that Iam probably here this evening.

The Pastoral Review published here inLondon by The Tablet Publishing Company(TPC) aims to help people integrate theo-logical study with day-to-day experiences inparishes and other pastoral settings. Thejournal understands that the task ofattempting to interpret pastoral concerns isnever simply a search for answers butalways carries with it the demand to dis-cern the working of God’s Spirit. Thismeans, as the author of the Book of

Revelation suggests, ‘if anyone has ears tohear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Rev. 2.7). TheChurch is always engaged in the process oflistening and responding, for She is alwayscalled to present, in every time and place,the eternal Word uttered in the beginning.And so The Pastoral Review has establisheda good reputation in recent years for help-ing clergy and laypeople in this process, inaccordance with the history and traditionsof the journal.

Important articles about the diaconatehave been published in The Pastoral

Review in the last few years. These beganin the July/August 2006 edition with anarticle by Bishop Michael Evans of the dio-cese of East Anglia ‘The Deacon: An Iconof Christ the Servant’ which focused onthe ministry of charity as having primacyamong the deacons’ roles of service. That


Michael Hayes

The first keynote lecturewas given in the evening of

Friday 24 June. Michael Hayes is a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark and isnow President of Mary Immaculate College,Limerick, in the Republic of Ireland. Prior to this October he was Vice-Principal of St Mary’s University College, Twickenham,and Professor of Catholic Theology.

article sparked off an important debateover many editions on the role and pur-pose of the permanent diaconate. The dis-course has been further advanced, in myview, with an article in the January/February 2011 edition by a former doctor-al student of mine, Bridie Stringer, ‘ThePermanent Deacon – social intermediaryand minister of the threshold’. This articleis a summary of her significant doctoralthesis on the same topic. Dr Stringermoves the debate from focusing on anunderstanding of the permanent dia-conate based on an interpretation of ser-vice in Acts 6 to a focus on the deacon’srole as a social intermediary and sets thisin the context of public witness within thecommunity of the faithful at the celebra-tion of the Eucharist.

The world wide International DiaconateStudy Centre (IDC/IDZ), based inGermany and under the care of theBishops’ Conference of Germany, has inrecent years been trying to devolve itsactivities to increase the ways in which itcan support permanent deacons, thoseinvolved in the formation of deacons, andothers working in ‘diaconal’ ministry.Consequently a number of local regionalnetworks have been established and in2006 one such group was set up for north-ern Europe (NEC), to include Britain andIreland, and countries in northern Europewhere a high proportion of people canspeak or read English. One of the primaryaims of this network was to publish a the-ological journal on the diaconate, partly todisseminate to Anglophone readers mater-ial (including items from the official IDCjournal, Diakonia Christi) originally writ-ten in German, Dutch, French, Italian,

Spanish and other languages. A partner-ship was established between the IDC-NEC and The Pastoral Review and it wasagreed that a new journal, the NewDiaconal Review, would be publishedalongside The Pastoral Review twice ayear. As the permanent diaconate hasbecome an important part of parish life inmost of Europe and North America, thepartnership of the two journals reflectsthis and the need for proper theologicalreflection about the diaconate and thesharing of good pastoral practice. Otherthan two ‘popular’ journals devoted to thediaconate in the United States, the NewDiaconal Review is the only academicjournal on the diaconate in the world inEnglish.

The Pastoral Review and the New DiaconalReview both aim to be a resource for theChurch, to help clergy and laypeople toreflect theologically on the way the Churchmakes known the message of Christ in the21st century, and to try and build people’sconfidence in their different forms of min-istry. The diaconate is an important anddeveloping part of this picture.

My interest is in pastoral theology and thisacademic curiosity is not so much on whatpeople do pastorally – although I am veryinterested in this – but more so on the dis-position of the practitioner. In other words‘who’ is it that is ‘doing’ the work and whatis their theological disposition – what is thetheology that is informing their ministry.What is the theological under-pinning oftheir ministry? So I am interested in theframework – theologically – which contex-tualises the ministry of pastoral practition-ers whether they are clerical or lay.


‘who’ is it that is ‘doing’ the work and what istheir theologicaldisposition – what is thetheology that isinforming theirministry? What is thetheological under-pinning of theirministry?

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Theological dispositionfor pastoral ministry

I want to now share with you what I con-sider are three key characteristics whichinform a theological disposition for pas-toral ministry. For this purpose I am draw-ing on the works of David Tracy, AndrewGreeley, Thomas Rausch and some othercommentators. You may well be familiarwith broad ideas I am going to share withyou, but perhaps not the approach that Iwill take in presenting these ideas.

Sacramental imaginationI carry in my role here at St Mary’s, interalia, the international portfolio. This hasrequired a considerable amount of overseastravel in the last three years. Earlier thisyear, in February, I was in Colombia wherewe have begun the process of recruiting stu-dents. I had also, as part of my visit there,been invited to give a lecture on Leadershipin Catholic Education in Barranquilla a portcity in the north of Colombia. The lecturetook place in the Chapel of MarymountSchool where this stained glass is in the win-dow above the altar.

It is by the Colombian artist AlejandroObregón (1920-1992), who incidentallyspent his childhood in Barranquilla andLiverpool! What are the images that strikeyou about this stained glass?

And so my first characteristic is sacramen-tal imagination.

The sociologist Andrew Greeley hasobserved that Catholics have a deep reli-gious sensibility with regard to ‘holy things’such as statues, rosary beads, holy pic-tures, stained glass, candles and the like.He says ‘these Catholic paraphernalia aremere hints of a deeper and more pervasivereligious sensibility which inclinesCatholics to see the Holy lurking in cre-ation. As Catholics, we find our houses andour world haunted by a sense that theobjects, events, and persons of daily life arerevelations of grace.’1 He refers to thisCatholic imagination as sacramental.Others have used the term ‘analogical’ imag-ination, for it emphasises the metaphoricalnature of creation2. It is to see the whole ofcreation as a revelation of the divine pres-ence of God. In theological terms thisspeaks of an incarnational theology; it is tosee the world and all within it as revealingof God.

Human beings live in a world where every-thing is received through the operation ofthe senses. Sight, smell, touch, hearingand taste enable the person to relate tocreation, and the person constructs anunderstanding from the mass of data soperceived. The Catholic insistence is thatsuch data also conveys something of theorigin and foundation of all such creation.It communicates something of God, andthat not simply as information, but also aspresence. It is in that sense that we cancall creation ‘sacramental’. The perhapsclassical, even if banal, example is of abeautiful sunset which speaks of transcen-dence to the observer.

Blessed John Henry Newman, challengingthe rationalising world-view of his time,argued that people came to faith not pri-marily through intellectual reasoning, butthrough more informal and experiential


Theological disposition for pastoral ministry – Michael Hayes

music or ponder their works of art or mar-vel at their wordsmith use of language.

Elgar’s great choral masterpiece, his orato-rio, Opus 38, the setting of Newman’spoem ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ comes tomind here. This work can be perceived asan example of sacramental imagination. Ithas an uncompromising Catholic sacra-mental vision of life and death, and was ill-received by many on that account at itsfirst performance. Nonetheless its popu-larity – and influence, theological as wellas musical – has endured. In a movingscore with highlights including the invoca-tion by the priest to Gerontius – as part 1ends to ‘go forth, Christian soul’ (Proficiscere,anima Christiana, de hoc mundo); or, in part2, the moving plea of the Angel of theAgony for the souls of the faithful: ‘Jesu!spare these souls which are so dear toThee.’ Elgar uses his musical genius toexpress Newman’s theological vision.Newman tells in an imaginative way thestory of the journey of a soul (Gerontius –an old man) after death and provides aRoman Catholic theological meditation onlife after death.

When the sixteenth century Reformers –and their subsequent and contemporaryfollowers – railed against statues and pro-cessions, against wall paintings and elabo-rate polyphony, and the like, they did sobelieving them to be obstacles put betweenthe living God and God’s people.Sacramental imagination, however, sug-gests that in the hands of a skilled crafts-man or craftswoman and an artistic geniusthese are channels of God’s self-communi-cation. When we use the word ‘inspired’ ofsacred scripture it is because it speaksGod’s word to us; when we use the word‘inspired’ of Newman or Elgar or Obregón,we are recognising that here too God isspeaking, for this too communicates thedivine.

channels. He writes: ‘the heart is com-monly reached, not through the reasonbut through the imagination…’3 It is noteducation in a formal sense that bringspeople to faith, but the experience of theworld in all its many facets that mayexpose them to an awareness of the divinewhich through reflection may lead to faith.

Events, times, places and objects havethen the possibility of revealing this deep-er character, and Catholic theology insiststhat human beings can discover in theseindications of the divine presence. (SeeRomans chapter 1, Wisdom chapter 13,Vatican I: Dei Filius.) This convictionunderpins the whole sacramental life ofthe Catholic Church. Actions, words, ele-

ments, gestures and objects communicatefrom within this world-view.

Artists have always had the task of takingmatter and using it to express theirinsights and perceptions at a deeper leveland in a more explicit manner. Whenartists who have a religious allegiance cre-ate works of art they can imbue thoseworks with their vision, and appeal direct-ly not only to the aesthetic taste of therecipient, but also communicate their reli-gious insight.

Those who classify themselves or are clas-sified as religious artists, such as AlejandroObregón, bring this sacramental imagina-tion to life for those who listen to their



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As Catholics, we find ourhouses and our worldhaunted by a sense that the objects, events, andpersons of daily life arerevelations of grace

1 Greely, A. The Catholic Imagination (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001) p. 1.2 See Tracy, D. The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Cultural of Pluralism

(London: SCM, 1981). 3 Newman, J. H. The Grammar of Assent (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1901) p. 94.

translated as ‘fellowship’, ‘participation’, ‘soli-darity’ or even ‘intimacy’. These other wordsindicate strongly that communion is some-thing active not passive, it is something con-sciously built up within the Church in its lifeof liturgy, service, witness and proclamation.

Theologically koinonia refers to the partici-pation of the Christian in the life of God andto the communal life it creates. The Churchunderstands – and expresses – herself as acommunion. This is not a minor truth to beheld. When the Extraordinary Synod ofBishops met in 1985 to reflect on the signifi-cance of Vatican II they made a profound

assertion in their final document: ‘The eccle-siology of communion is the central and fun-damental idea in the Council’s documents’.The climax of this communion is life in God– a participation in the life of the Trinity. God‘in whom we live and move and have ourbeing’ (Acts 17.28), draws the individual intocommunity, into a sharing in the divine life,where the Christian calls out ‘Abba Father’and prays with Jesus in the Spirit.

What the Christian community shares incommon, its koine, is the reality of God’sintervention in Christ and made known inthe great narrative transmitted over timeand experienced daily in many and variedgraces of ordinary living. It is the sharing ofthis story and its lived expression in thelives of countless members, which enables

the Church to grow and flourish and tofacilitate for those who participate in herlife, the reality of integration with God andothers which is communion.

In one of the Sunday Prefaces of the litur-gy of the Eucharist, the priest prays:

You gather them into your Church,to be one as you, Father, are onewith your Son and the Holy Spirit.You call them to be your people,to praise you in all your works.You make them the body of Christand the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.4

HierarchyThe third characteristic is hierarchy. Andhere I want use a second image – that ofan orchid!

Orchids are epiphytes – theyare plants that grow onanother plant without beingparasitic. If they were para-sitic plants – mistletoe forexample – they would derivetheir sustenance from anoth-er plant without rendering itany service in return. Orchidsare organisms that grow onanother plant while givingsustenance to that plant – they give serviceto that which gives them life.

The social psychologist Abraham Maslow’sidea of a hierarchy of needs is sometimescriticised as being too much based on anindividualistic view of the human person;it can, however, be a useful mechanism forengagement with the concept of humanneed. His hierarchy of need describes, inthe layers of a pyramid, an ascending orderof human needs with the most basic need,physiological, at the bottom rising throughsafety, love/belonging, to esteem and final-



CommunionThe second characteristic is communion.I am not going to show an image for this aseach of us experience communion in avariety of different settings, including thisone this evening. Communion is definedin the dictionary as:

1a The action or fact of sharing orholding something in common withothers; mutual participation; the condition of things so held,mutuality, community, union.

b The fact of being associated or linked;association, connection.

2a The fellowship or mutual relationshipbetween members of one church, orbetween bodies which recognize eachother fully as branches of theuniversal Christian Church;membership of a church.(Oxford English Dictionary)

Group analysis as a form of group psy-chotherapy was founded in the 1940’s byS.H. Foulkes who was responding to theneeds and problems of large groups of sol-

diers returning to England after WorldWar II. Foulkes had trained as a psychoan-alyst in Vienna and had become a refugeein England in the 1930s. After the war themethods of group analysis were developedand broadened to offer an understandingto individuals of their relationship ingroups in order to assist in human integra-tion. Group psychotherapy combines boththe insights of psychoanalysis and an

understanding of the social and interper-sonal functioning of human beings. A valu-able insight that Foulkes discovered wasthat a group grows by what it shares and itshares what it has in common. Thatinsight can help explore the Mysterywhich is the Church.

As human beings we are social beings – itis of our nature to belong to one another, torelate to one another. A key element inChristian theology which expresses that isthe doctrine of communion – the idea thatpeople are one in union with – in unionwith one another and with God. In con-temporary culture where there is a strongfocus on the autonomy of the individual,this can sometimes meet resistance in dif-fering ways, as people may fear that theywill lose their personal identity. However,the Vatican II document on the Church,Lumen Gentium, in a very strong and clearstatement affirms: ‘(God) has, however,willed to make people holy and save them,not as individuals, without any bond or linkbetween them, but rather to make theminto a people who might acknowledge himand serve him in holiness’ (no. 9). It is notthat Christians happen to think alike, orprefer to get together as some sort of ‘club’– it is that by being drawn by God,Christians are thereby drawn together.

St Paul in his writings is adamant in insist-ing on this aspect of the Christian reality.Time and again he emphasises the way inwhich the members of the communitieshe addresses belong together. His mostpowerful image affirming this is that of the‘body’ where each individual is a memberof the whole body – which is Christ. Indeedhe refers 62 times in his writings to thatimage which offers an understanding ofthe community of believers as the body ofwhich each is a part.

The Greek word employed in the NewTestament for the Church as a communionis koinonia (Acts 2.42) which can also be



It is not that Christianshappen to think alike, orprefer to get together assome sort of ‘club’ – it isthat by being drawn byGod, Christians are therebydrawn together

Foulkes discovered ...that a group grows bywhat it shares and itshares what it has incommon. That insight canhelp explore the Mysterywhich is the Church

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4 Preface VIII for Sundays – Roman Missal

on earth his holy Church, the communityof faith, hope and charity, as a visibleorganisation through which he communi-cates truth and grace to all people.’ (LG 8).

In the Pauline letters the image of theChurch as the body of Christ, dulyordered, and with Christ himself as thehead, is foundational in any understandingof the nature of the Church. The pictureof a body, like the picture of a pyramid, isan attempt to make accessible a moresophisticated concept. When what is beingexplored belongs not simply to the order ofhuman institution, but at the same time tothe order of the sacred principality – asThomas Aquinas states it – great careindeed is required.

The ministry of Christ was marked by ser-vice for the kingdom, in the power of theSpirit. Such too will be the marks of theChurch hierarchically structured. To fail toperceive that – and indeed for the hierar-chical Church to fail to reveal that – is tofail to recognise the true nature of theChurch of Christ. The Liturgy of theChurch herself makes the purpose ofthose called to hierarchy abundantly clear(from the Preface of Priesthood):

‘Christ gives the dignity of a royalpriesthood to the people he has madehis own. From these, with a brother’slove, he chooses men to share in hissacred ministry by the laying on ofhands.He appoints them to renew in his namethe sacrifice of our redemption as theyset before your family his paschal meal.He calls them to lead your people inlove, nourish them by your word, andstrengthen them through thesacraments.Father, they are to give their lives inyour service and for the salvation ofyour people as they strive to grow in the

likeness of Christ and honour you bytheir courageous witness of faith andlove.’5

In conclusion I would like to recall some ofmy opening remarks. Our focus for thisconference is diaconal ministry in theBody of Christ. As is clear from the articlespublished in The Pastoral Review and else-where, there are different understandingsof the provenance and focus of this min-istry. I am sure all of you are aware of awide-ranging interpretation and expecta-tion of your own ministry – and I suspectthat within this room there might be great

divergence of views. It is one of the tasks ofthe contemporary church to explore fur-ther the nature and scope of the perma-nent diaconate – it is also the task of everydeacon to reflect upon that calling andarticulate it theologically. In this lecture Iam suggesting that such a reflection; suchan exploration will include a serious con-sideration of these three characteristics ofCatholic understanding: sacramentalimagination, communion, and hierarchy.In doing this, in developing a theologicaldisposition rooted in such features, thosecalled by the Church to diaconal ministrywill ensure that their pastoral ministry willbe both firmly founded and authenticallyCatholic.

Thank you! �



ly to self-realisation as the top layer in aschematic attempt to understand the rela-tionship of different kinds of needs.Maslow uses the word hierarchy to denotea consistent order within the field he isdescribing. The same word hierarchy is ofcourse used in many contexts. Financialmanagement will speak of a hierarchy ofratios and a hierarchy of action. The theol-ogy from the Second Vatican Councilintroduced the idea of a ‘hierarchy oftruths’ in the Christian faith (Decree onEcumenism Unitatis Redintegratio 11).In many areas of life and many differentinstitutions, the idea of a hierarchy is to befound. It is because the word and conceptof hierarchy is so useful that it has beenadopted in so many fields since theEnlightenment, but its origins are mucholder.

In the late 5th century Pseudo Dionysiusdeveloped the idea when he wrote a text:De Coelesti Hierarchai (CelestialHierarchy) on angelic orders where hedescribes hierarchy as ‘order, knowledge,and action’. Thomas Aquinas in the middle

ages in his Summa Theologica wrote aboutthree orders of angels and describes hier-archy as ‘a “sacred” principality’, where‘principality includes two things: theprince himself and the multitude orderedunder the prince.’ (S.T. 1. q108.) The ori-gins of the word then hold a double refer-ence: to the organised structure of aninstitution and to that which is of thesacred. That, of course, is how it is usedwithin Christian understanding, and hasbeen developed especially within theRoman Catholic Church.

When Maslow adopted the model of apyramid to explore human needs, andwhen Pseudo Dionysius used the sameidea in ranging nine levels of angels in theheavens, they presented a very easilyunderstood image which enables humanminds to grasp how different aspects of acomplex structure are related. When thismodel is used of the Church it again givesan easily-grasped picture. However, thepicture is not a true one unless carefullynuanced. The origins of hierarchy havetwo referent points: order and sacred. InLumen Gentium, the Constitution on theChurch, the Second Vatican Councilapplied to the Church by analogy, the dualnature of Christ: truly human and trulydivine (LG 8). It is one of the tensions ofChristology that both natures of Christmust always be held together. There is asimilar tension when seeking to under-stand the nature of the Church.

The language of control, rule and power iseasily applied to any human institution,and even when the language is avoided,the reality can be recognised, whether theinstitution be church or state. Whether inthe describing of authority within theChurch, or in the exercising of it, suchperceptions may be real but cannot beallowed to be the whole picture of howhierarchy is understood as a truth of faith.It is true that the Church is structuredhierarchically as an institution, but it iseven more true that it is Christ’s church.At the end of John’s gospel Jesus is seen asconferring authority on Peter as shepherd,but it is very clear to whom the sheepbelong: ‘Look after my sheep ... feed mysheep’ (Jn. 21.17). The origin of the wordultimately comes from the Greek word forpriest or high priest; the author of theLetter to the Hebrews knows of only onetrue High Priest: Jesus Christ (Heb. 4.14).Before it explores the hierarchical natureof the Church, Lumen Gentium makes thesame emphatic point: ‘The one mediator,Christ, established and ever sustains here



5 Preface of the Priesthood – Roman Missal

It is true that the Church isstructured hierarchicallyas an institution, but it iseven more true that it isChrist’s church

The ministry of Christ wasmarked by service for thekingdom, in the power ofthe Spirit. Such too will bethe marks of the Churchhierarchically structured T

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It is perhaps not a coincidence that themiddle of the twentieth century saw the

revival in the Latin rite church of both thepermanent diaconate and theologicalreflection on the social dimension of theEucharist. The latter movement, as exem-plified in the work of Henri de Lubac, hascome to see that the Eucharist is not con-fined to the altar, but is a movement thatmakes a social body. And it is precisely thedeacons that serve as a vital conduitbetween the liturgy and service, diakonia.The deacon’s job is, in a sense, to bring theEucharist to the world.

In this essay I want to offer some reflec-tions on the relation between the liturgyand service. In particular, I will discuss thesocial dimension of the Eucharist andrelate it to the service that the deaconoffers to the Church and to the world.What I hope to do in this essay, using vari-ous biblical and patristic writings, is toshow that the liturgy does not simply teachus about social justice or form our affec-tions, but creates a new type of social real-ity. In the first section, I will examine howthe Eucharist makes the Body of Christ. Inthe second section, I will show how theBody of Christ is not a private, sacredspace but a fully public social body. In thethird section, I will discuss what kind ofpublic body the liturgy makes by discussingdiakonia, the service that the Churchoffers to the world. I will conclude withsome reflections on what this means forthe diaconate today.

I. The Eucharist makes the Body of Christ

There is a burgeoning field in theologytoday – commonly known as “liturgy andethics” – that attempts to overcome thegap between the theory and practice of theliturgy and the social concerns with whichChristians are engaged. This is clearly anissue of importance to any theology of thediaconate, given that deacons are giventhe three-fold charge by Lumen Gentiumwith bringing together ministries of word,sacrament, and charity. There are prob-lems, however, with the way that “liturgyand ethics” is often approached.

I was once asked at a liturgical conferenceto address the topic of the “social meaningof the Eucharist.” The first thing I told myaudience was “If I tell you what the socialmeaning of the Eucharist is, you have topromise me you won’t stop going to Mass.”

What I mean is that there is a problemwith trying to distill the liturgy down to a“meaning.” It is a problem that sometimesbedevils efforts to connect the Eucharist toethics or service or social justice. We sensethat there is a yawning gap between whatwe do in church on Sunday and the vari-ous worldly social causes and charitableworks that we are involved in the rest ofthe week. We sense rightly that that gapought not to be. So we go looking to “read”the Eucharist for its meaning, to see it as a“model” for social action, and to translatethat meaning into language better suitedto social justice concerns. So, for example,we note that the ritual of presenting ourmonetary offerings to the altar is animplicit recognition that all wealth belongsto God. If human economic activity and


William Cavanaugh

The second keynotelecture was given on

the morning of Saturday 25 June.Professor William Cavanaugh is SeniorResearch Professor in the Center forWorld Catholicism and InterculturalTheology in DePaul University,Chicago. Prior to that he was AssociateProfessor at the University of StThomas, St Paul, Minnesota.

wealth is thus sanctified, we should beconcerned about being good stewards ofthe earth’s wealth. The Eucharist thenbecomes a weekly – or daily – reminder ofour responsibility to pursue just economicarrangements, though the policy detailsneed to be worked out elsewhere, outsideof the church. But how many remindersdo intelligent people need? Once we’vegrasped the meaning of the liturgy, and ithas been drummed into us by repetition,do we really need to keep at it? Wouldn’tour Sunday mornings be better spent giv-ing of our money and time to the service ofthe poor, rather than sitting in a pew beingreminded yet again to pursue justice forthe poor? (This is the kind of argumentone hears from clever teenagers who havelearned that the “church is boring” gambitdoesn’t work on their parents.)

The problem is not the connectionbetween Eucharist and service; as I hopeto show, the connection is deep and intrin-sic. The problem is with Gnosticizing theEucharist, making it about meaning that

individuals digest in church and then goout into the wider world to translate intosocial action. One often reads statementssuch as “our common worship is a greatteacher”1 and the liturgy is a “school forcompassion.”2 But if the liturgy is aboutmeaning, then that meaning can always belearned somewhere else. And if the liturgyis about learning meaning, then it tends tobe individualized. Christians learn aboutsocial justice through the liturgy inchurch, and then go out into the world asindividuals to make their mark on theworld.

This kind of cognitive approach to liturgy isnot the only way people tend to talk aboutliturgy and ethics. Those who write onliturgy and ethics also talk about the litur-gy as shaping the participants’ affections,character, dispositions, motivations, and soon, for the purpose of changing the waythe individual acts in the world.3 Like thecognitive approach, this emphasis on theformation of affections and dispositionshighlights an important aspect of the litur-gy that should not be neglected. The prob-lem with both of these approaches, howev-er, is that they tend to speak of individualsinternalizing the liturgy, then acting on itin the world. The church body as a com-munal body is only a place of formation, aschool to be left behind once one “gradu-ates” to attending to social justice in the“real world.” I don’t think this instrumen-


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1 Pecklers, K., Worship (London and New York: Continuum, 2003), p.164.2 Saliers, D., Worship as Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994),

pp.126-7.3 For example, Saliers, D., ‘Liturgy and Ethics: Some New Beginnings’ in Liturgy and the

Moral Self: Humanity at Full Stretch Before God, ed. E. B. Anderson and B.Morrill(Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1998), pp.15-35.

If I tell you what thesocial meaning of theEucharist is, you have topromise me you won’tstop going to Mass

The body of service: The social dimension of the Eucharistand the Diaconate

In our day, Eucharistic piety has oftenforked into two seemingly different pathsthat in fact have much in common. One isthe “conservative” type of piety thatemphasizes the individual’s sanctificationby the Eucharistic elements. The other isthe “liberal” type of piety that sees theEucharist as a teacher of truths aboutsocial justice. The former sees theEucharist as a miraculous exception toreality, while the latter tends to see it as adidactic symbol that teaches us about real-ity. Though both the “conservative” and“liberal” approaches preserve importanttruths, they tend to have in common anemphasis on the individual as the one thatbenefits from the encounter with Christ inthe Eucharist. Both see the Eucharist as“charging our batteries.” The sanctified orenlightened individual is then sent out toact as a leaven in society. The Church itselfis not an actor in the social realm, butforms individuals to join other social bodies.

For the early church, by contrast, what wascrucial about the Eucharist was the for-mation of a new social body, the body ofChrist. The liturgy was not a teacher aboutanother reality, but made reality present,that is, what is really real, creation as Godsees it, redeemed in Christ. And redemp-tion was a matter not of the right ideas orright affections but of being gatheredtogether. In the Didache we find theEucharistic prayer “As this broken bread,once dispersed over the hills, was broughttogether and became one loaf, so may thychurch be brought together from the endsof the earth into thy kingdom.”8 Here theearly church is simply echoing the themeof salvation as gathering, prominent in

Israel’s theology, especially since theBabylonian Exile.9 Sin is scattering, abreaking of bonds among humans andbetween humans and God; as De Lubac’smagisterial work Catholicism showed – abook Pope Benedict XVI has called themost important book of Catholic theologyin the 20th century – salvation in scriptureand for the early church was understoodas a gathering of disparate individuals intoa covenanted unity.10 For the church in thewake of the Resurrection, the gatheringnow has a specific locus in the Body ofChrist.

Paul brings this theme to a special promi-nence and focuses it on the Eucharist. Inthe Eucharist “we who are many are onebody, for we all partake of the one bread” (ICor. 10:17). And the body that we are isthe Body of Christ (I Cor. 12). The individ-ual believer does not simply absorb mean-ing from the Eucharist, but is in factabsorbed into Christ. Participation in theEucharist is a real participation of thehuman person in the reality of Christ.Furthermore, one cannot speak ofautonomous individuals once the HolySpirit has made us one. Each person doesretain her or his proper dignity and differ-ence in the body. In Paul’s image in ICorinthians 12, the hand and the eyeremain different, and the body cannot beall eye without ceasing to be the body(12:17). Diversity is crucial. But preciselybecause the eye cannot say to the hand “Ihave no need of you,” (12:21) the individ-ual can have no life detached from theunity of the body. Individualism is death;unity is salvation.

Paul believes this so strongly that he warns


The body of service: The social dimension of the Eucharist and the Diaconate – William Cavanaugh

talization of the church is very soundecclesiologically. I also think that it funda-mentally misunderstands what the “realworld” is.

The key to our topic is not what theEucharist means, but what it does, morespecifically what it makes. What it makes,in Henri de Lubac’s famous phrase, is thechurch. Putting it this way helps makeclear that the Eucharist is not a passiveobject to be read or otherwise internalizedby people, but is an action that arrangespeople into a certain order. It affects bod-ies externally, as it were, not only internal-ly. It is an enacted drama. The liturgy doesnot simply energize and inform individualsto go out from the assembly and find socialbodies to join. The liturgy makes a body inwhich social life – including what we callsocial justice – is lived. As Louis-MarieChauvet puts it, “The liturgy is not a mat-ter of ‘ideas’ but of ‘bodies’”4 I would add,it is about a social body, the Body of Christ.

De Lubac’s famous formulation wasdirected against a certain pre-Vatican IItendency to reduce the Eucharist to a pri-vate devotion, an encounter between thesolitary individual and the mysteriouspresence of Christ in the Eucharistic ele-ments. As Orthodox theologian AlexanderSchmemann comments “In the study ofthe Eucharist, theological attention wasfocused exclusively upon the question:what happens to the elements, and howand when does it happen? For the earlychurch, the real question was: what hap-pens to the Church in the Eucharist?”

5

This is not to say that the sense of sacra-

mental realism – that the elements were infact the body and blood of Christ – was anyless prevalent in the early Church. To thecontrary, Enrico Mazza locates an almostexcessive and physicist realism amongsome of the great mystagogies of the fourthcentury.6 Nevertheless, for the earlyChurch, the elements were never isolatedfrom the liturgical action by which theChurch, and not merely the elements, wastransformed into the Body of Christ. As deLubac documents, for the early Church,the Church itself was the corpus verum,the true body of Christ, while the conse-crated elements were the corpus mys-

ticum, the mystical body. By the twelfthcentury, the terms had been inverted, sothat the Church was the mystical body andthe elements were the “real” body. Thepresence of Christ in the Church thenbecame focused on the elements, to thedetriment of the sense of Christ’s reality inthe life of the Church. The Eucharist wasnot so much an action as an object. Thesense of Christ’s reality in the visible, sociallife of the church suffered, as the churchbecame the “mystical” body, and “mysti-cal” came to take on connotations of “inte-riorized” or “less real.”7


The body of service: The social dimension of the Eucharist and the Diaconate – William CavanaughThe body of service: The social dimension of the Eucharist and the Diaconate – William Cavanaugh

The key to our topic isnot what the Eucharistmeans, but what it does,more specifically what it makes

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4 Chauvet, L-M., Editorial: ‘Liturgy and the Body’ in Concilium 1995/3, ed. L-M. Chauvet andF.K.Lumbala (London: SCM Press).

5 Schmemann, A., ‘Theology and Liturgical Tradition,’ in Worship in Scripture and Tradition,ed. M. Shepherd (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), p.177.

6 Mazza, E.,The Celebration of the Eucharist: The Origin of the Rite and the Development of itsInterpretation, trans. M.J. O’Connell (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999), pp.147-8.

7 De Lubac, H., Corpus Mysticum: The Eucharist and the Church in the Middle Ages (NotreDame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), especially p.249.

8 Didache, 9, in M. Staniforth, trans., Early Christian Writings (Harmondsworth: Penguin,1968), p.231.

9 Mazza, op.cit., pp.81-3. Also see Lohfink, G., Does God Need the Church?, trans. L.Maloney(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999), pp.51-60.

10 De Lubac, H., Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, trans. L.C. Sheppardand Sister Elizabeth Englund, OCD (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988), pp.29-34.

of Christ more strongly than the followingfrom one of Augustine’s sermons:

If you want to understand the body ofChrist, listen to the Apostle telling thefaithful, “Now you are the body of Christand individually members of it” (I Cor.12:27). So if it’s you that are the body ofChrist and its members, it’s the mysterymeaning you that has been placed onthe Lord’s table; what you receive is themystery that means you. It is to what youare that you reply Amen and by so reply-ing you express your assent.14

Another Augustinian sermon puts it thisway:

You are on the table and you are in thechalice, you along with us are this. Weare this together. We are drinking thistogether because we are living thistogether… Since what is realized is onereality, you too must be one by loving oneanother, by keeping one faith, one hope,one indivisible love…15

The bond among persons and between thechurch and Christ is not merely a moral orpsychological bond, but an ontological one,a bond in their very being, a bond of lovewhich is the act of the Holy Spirit. As JohnZizioulas points out, for the patristic writ-ers, people do not exist separately first,and are then drawn into communion withothers. Rather, we receive our being incommunion and as communion with eachother in Christ. To be separated from thiscommunion is to lack being.16 For this rea-son, Augustine notes with approval that incertain Punic dialects, the word for theEucharist is simply “life.”17

II. The Body of Christ is a“public” body

I could multiply examples from the biblicaland patristic materials, but I hope thatwhat we have seen so far is enough toestablish that the Eucharistic liturgy ismuch more than meaning or formation ofdispositions for the individual Christian.The liturgy does not simply representsocial meaning, but makes a social body, abody that challenges dichotomies such assecular/sacred and public/private. Wesometimes think of what we do in theliturgy as something sacred, as opposed tothe secular world, and therefore as some-thing private which must be translatedinto neutral language before it can becomepublic. Thus we may talk about the sacri-fice of Christ in the Eucharist, but whenwe move out into the secular world to dosocial justice, we must translate our culticactions into neutral language, such as thelanguage of human rights.

The problem is that, despite the genera-tion of ideas and meanings that can maketheir way into the public realm, the Bodyof Christ itself remains quarantined in theprivate. If our allegiance to the Body ofChrist is ultimately private, then we willinevitably be formed in more determina-tive ways by our public allegiances, espe-cially the nation-state and the market. Infact, the public world we inhabit is not sec-ular. When we pledge allegiance to the flagor shop till we drop, we are engaged indeeply formative ritual actions that threat-en to eclipse the formative effect of theliturgy if the liturgy is not seen as forminga fully public body. We do not leave churchto meet others on neutral public ground.Rather, we act as church in a public con-



the Corinthians that the Eucharist may bekilling them because of the divisions andfactions in the community (I Cor. 11:18-19). Specifically, the rich are refusing toshare with the poor in the community’sfeasts. Each one goes ahead with his or her“own supper,” (11:21) while others gohungry. For this failure to “discern thebody” (11:29) they are “answerable for thebody and blood of the Lord,” and somehave paid with illness and death (11:30).Most scholars agree that Paul makes nodistinction here between the sacramentalbody and the ecclesial body of the Lord.11

Failure to “discern the body” is not put inthe context of doubting the real presenceof Christ in the bread and the wine, butcontradicting the very nature of Christ’sbody by rending its unity. To eat one’s “ownsupper,” to turn the Eucharist into a pri-vate affair, is to refuse life and persist indeath. So for Paul there simply is no dis-tinction between the sacramental buildingof the Body of Christ and the diakonia offeeding the hungry.

Paul’s insight into the identification of thesacramental body and the church bodywas taken up and expanded upon by theearly church fathers. The Eucharist wasnot simply a didactic representation ofanother reality but a participation in thereality of Christ. The language of type andantitype already appears in the NewTestament. As used by Paul and the pas-toral epistles, the type is a heavenly modelto be imitated. Hebrews (9:24) introducesthe word “antitype” to describe earthlyworship as a copy of the heavenly model.The church Fathers explained this usingPlatonic categories, such that the antitypeis a real ontological participation in theheavenly type. The language of participa-tion indicates that the two share the same

being, but are also different. TheEucharist is not merely a ritual model, butis an identification with the type.12 Cyril ofJerusalem, for example, says

It is therefore with complete assurancethat we share as in the body and blood ofChrist. For it is in the type of bread thatthe body is given to you and in the typeof wine the blood, so that, having partic-ipated in the body and blood of Christ,you become a single body and a singleblood with Christ. As a result, webecome ‘Christophers or Christbearers,’since his body and his blood spreadthroughout our members. In this way webecome, as Blessed Peter says, ‘sharersin the divine nature.’”13

Here the realism of human participationin Christ comes across strongly. It would beeasy to focus on the sanctification of theindividual in this passage, the sendingforth of individual Christbearers into theworld. To do so, however, would missCyril’s emphasis on the singleness of thebody and blood of Christ. The body ofChrist only is what it is insofar as it is uni-fied. Participation in Christ’s being isnever, therefore, the pouring of Christ’spower into individual vessels, like thepouring of Christ’s blood into those awfulindividual communion shot glasses thatsome churches use. The pouring out ofthe Spirit of Christ on all flesh is not thefilling of individuals, a power for me to use,but the eschatological gathering of alltogether. The movement of participation istoward Christ; the small self does not pullChrist into the self, but is rather pulledinto the larger reality of Christ.

No passage emphasizes the identificationof the sacramental body and ecclesial body



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11 Tillard, J-M-R., Flesh of the Church, Flesh of Christ, trans. M. Beaumont (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001), p.27.

12 Mazza, op.cit., pp.90-2.13 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 4.3.

14 Augustine, Sermon 272, in Edmund Hill (ed) Sermons of St. Augustine, vol. 7, pp.300-1.15 Sermon Denis 6, quoted in Tillard, op.cit., p.43. Tillard notes that some question whether

this sermon was in fact from Augustine himself, but it is certainly Augustinian in flavor.16 Zizioulas, J., Being as Communion (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985),

pp.27-65.17 Mazza, op.cit., p.158.

of creation is the material of the liturgy.What the Eucharistic liturgy makes is notritual meaning for the edification of indi-viduals, but it makes the world what it ismeant to be – and already is – in God’seyes.

III.The Body of Christ is asacrificial body

Now that we have seen that theEucharistic liturgy makes a social body, andthat that body is not confined to the pri-vate, sacred, sphere, we need to look moreclosely at what kind of a social body theBody of Christ is. Here I will try to showthat the Eucharist makes a sacrificial body,that is, a body of service. The category ofsacrifice speaks volumes about what themission of the church in the world is about.The kind of body that the Eucharist makesis an other-centered body, a body focusedon mission, the sending of the church outof itself into the world for the sake of theworld. The emphasis on sacrifice makesclear that the church is not an end in itself,but is a self-emptying for the sake of others.Again, sacrament and service are not twoseparate movements, but one.

The language of sacrifice has fallen intodisrepute for its association with eitherappeasing a bloodthirsty God for the sins ofhumankind or bribing a stingy God to getsouls out of purgatory. As Augustine usesthe term, however, sacrifice simply meansbeing united to Christ’s offering in Christ’sbody. Augustine writes

true sacrifices are works of mercy to our-selves or others, done with a reference toGod, and since works of mercy have noother object than the relief of distress orthe conferring of happiness, and since

there is no happiness apart from thatgood of which it is said, “It is good for meto be very near to God,” it follows thatthe whole redeemed city, that is to say,the congregation or community of thesaints, is offered to God as our sacrificethrough the great High Priest, whooffered Himself to God in his passion forus, that we might be members of thisglorious head, according to the form of aservant.22

Since to be a sacrifice is to be united toothers in Christ, sacrifice involves serviceto others. And Augustine proceeds to linkthis sacrifice explicitly to the sacrament ofthe Eucharist: “This is the sacrifice ofChristians: we, being many, are one bodyin Christ. And this also is the sacrificewhich the church continually celebrates inthe sacrament of the altar, known to thefaithful, in which she teaches that sheherself is offered in the offering she makesto God.”23

We have already seen that the term lei-tourgia has service as its root meaning.Cesare Giraudo notes the close relation-ship as well of the term diakonia or serviceto the Eucharist, arguing that for the earlychurch at least, horizontal service to oth-ers was the true criterion of vertical ser-vice to God.24 The sacrifice of theEucharist was intimately bound up withservice to others. As Schmemann notes,

In the consciousness, in the experienceand in the practice of the early Church,the eucharistic sacrifice was offered notonly on behalf of all and for all, but by all,and therefore the real offering by each ofhis own gift, his own sacrifice, was a basiccondition of it. Each person who came



text where other public liturgies such asthose of the nation-state and the marketalready stand in tension with our alle-giance to Christ.

Alexander Schmemann argues that thequarantining of the liturgy is a profounddistortion. The division of the world intosecular and sacred is a result of sin, notsimply the way things are meant to be. TheEucharist, says Schmemann “is not a ‘reli-gious’ or a ‘cultic’ act, but the very way oflife.”18 The Eucharist is the natural way ofcreation, not merely a supernatural actthat hovers above some profane remain-der. All of creation is ”material for the oneall-embracing Eucharist”19 at whichhumanity presides as priest. TheEucharist is the enactment of Christ’swork of breaking down the barriersbetween the sacred and the profane. Whatthe church does in the Eucharist is toenact the new humanity, to realize theBody of Christ, a social body based on rec-onciliation and not violence and division.The church is not meant to be a separatecultic institution, a reservation of thesacred in a secular world, but is meant tomake visible what a transformed creationlooks like. There is no aspect of creationthat is not transformed by the Spirit ofChrist. The church in the Eucharist is thepassage of the old creation into the newcreation; what is transformed is not justthe church itself but all of creation.

This overcoming of the barriers betweenthe sacred and the profane helps explainthe early Christians’ choice of the term“leitourgia,” from which we get our termliturgy. The Greek original comes from twowords meaning “people” and “work.” Theword was not originally associated with a

cult, but referred instead to public projectsdone for the sake of the community; it istherefore related to diakonia. Eventuallythe word “leitourgia” became associatedwith all kinds of service, including thatdone for friends and neighbors. In theNew Testament the word refers to the wor-ship of the church at Antioch (Acts 13:2),but also to the civic function of public ser-vants (Rom. 13:6), Christ’s sacrificialoffering (Heb. 8:2), and Christians’ offer-ing of themselves (Rom. 15:16).20 That theChristians used the word leitourgia fortheir Eucharist indicates that they did notsee it as a private affair, but as a publicwork, done on behalf of the whole city.This sense of the liturgy received its high-est expression in the “stational” liturgiesprevalent from the fourth to the seventhcenturies, in which, on certain Sundaysand feast days, entire cities would be trans-formed into liturgical spaces by a series ofservices in churches and public places,linked by processions.21

The liturgy should not have to be translat-ed into other terms in order to be relevant

to charity or social justice. The liturgy isitself an action that creates a new kind ofsocial body, a public space that participatesin Christ’s redemption of all creation. Thematerials of the works of mercy – work,money, time, politics, soil, and so on – arenot separate from the liturgy, for the whole



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What the Eucharistic liturgymakes is not ritual meaning forthe edification of individuals,but it makes the world what italready is – in God’s eyes

18 Schmemann, A., For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press,1988), p.15.

19 Ibid.20 Pecklers, op.cit., p.13.21 Ibid., pp.53-6.

22 Ibid.23 Augustine, The City of God 10.6, trans. M. Dods (New York: Modern Library, 1950), p.310.24 Giraudo, C., ‘The Eucharist as Diakonia: From the Service of Cult to the Service of Charity’

in Pecklers, K.,(ed.) Liturgy in a Postmodern World (London and New York: Continuum,2003), pp.102-32.

ic. Many of the most vibrant forms ofChristianity today encourage the choice ofJesus and of a church on the basis of howwell they meet one’s spiritual needs, howinspiring and meaningful they are. In theLord’s supper, however, the person doesnot consume Christ, but is consumed byhim. Augustine hears the voice of God say“I am the food of the fully grown; grow andyou will feed on me. And you will notchange me into you like the food your flesheats, but you will be changed into me.”26 Inturn, the Body of Christ realized in theEucharistic assembly becomes food forothers. The central social act of theEucharist is to create a body that is con-sumed, that is, broken and given away tonourish a hungry world. This is the truesense of mission that comes to its summitin the Eucharist: to be made Eucharist isto be sent out from oneself, to be de-cen-tered, and to be sent into the world to befood for the world. In the Eucharist, theact of consumption is turned inside outinto an act of kenosis, or self-emptying.Participation in Christ’s Body is not only anascent to the Father, it is at the same timea descent with Christ into the brokenhuman condition, a self-emptying into the“form of a slave” (Phil. 2:7).

As Louis-Marie Chauvet points out, theessence of bread is only realized in beingconsumed. It is bread-as-food, bread-as-meal, bread-broken-for-sharing thatreveals the true being of bread. This isespecially the case in the Eucharist. As inJesus’ appearance in Emmaus, the pres-ence of Christ is revealed in the breaking ofthe bread. Christ’s presence in theEucharist is not a thing to be grasped, butas Chauvet says, “Christ’s presence comesforward through the mode of being open.”27

It becomes real in being poured out, bro-

ken, given away for others. The being ofChrist is being as gift. The substance(ousia) of the Eucharist is always our daily(epiousion) bread; it is offered anew inevery Eucharistic act. Like manna, it can-not be hoarded. We must constantlyreceive our being anew from the HolySpirit, and in turn give it away in mission.

What we have, then, is a vision of the litur-gy that is considerably more grand thanthe liturgy as reminder of certain truthsthat the individual takes out into the socialrealm. The liturgy calls us into a new socialreality, the Body of Christ on earth. Butthis grand vision doesn’t seem to accordvery well with life back home. “We areidentified with Christ? We are the first-fruits of the new creation? Have you everbeen to my church?” This vision of thechurch as the Body of Christ can seem toput too much confidence in the church; itsmacks of triumphalism. But this is a mis-understanding. The biblical and patristicwriters were not dealing with a betterbunch of Christians than the motley col-lection of foolish, sinful, and mediocrepeople like us that line our pews. Thewhole reality of the Body of Christ is anabsolute and radical dependence onChrist, and not on our own efforts.Everything the church is and does itreceives in Christ through the Holy Spirit.And the reality of being Christ’s sacrificialBody induces not ecclesiastical narcissismbut self-emptying for the life of the world.

This vision of the church as Christ’s Bodyis not a call to heroism, but should ratherencourage communities of Christians toput what in many cases they are alreadydoing into a larger cosmic context. Eachcongregation’s small attempts to visit thesick and imprisoned, to operate a soup



into the gathering of the Church broughtwith him everything that, ‘as he hasmade up his mind’ (2 Cor. 9:7), he couldspare for the needs of the Church, andthis meant for the sustenance of the cler-gy, widows and orphans, for helping thepoor, for all the ‘good works’ in which theChurch realizes herself as the love ofChrist, as concern of all for all and ser-vice of all to all.25

This practice is preserved in my parish bythe children bringing gifts of food for thefood bank to the altar at the offertory.

It is fairly standard to think of the goodChristian, sanctified by the Eucharist,being of service to others. What radicalizesthe Christian vision of charity, however, isthe way that the Eucharist confuses theboundaries between those who serve andthose who are served. The Eucharist doesnot simply motivate us to do good thingsfor poor people; it questions the very dis-tinction between us and them.

We have already seen how the Eucharistmesses with our sense of identity, over-coming the fiction of individual autonomyand incorporating us into Christ. If we lookmore closely at the strange economy of theBody of Christ, we see that we are notmerely assimilated to the strength ofChrist but also to his wounds. If we look tothe vision of the last judgment in Matthew25:31-46, for example, we see that Christidentifies himself not with those blessedwho serve (the word used in Mt. 25:44 is aderivation of diakonia, diekonesamen);Christ identifies himself with the hungry,the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, thesick, and the prisoners. What is most radi-cal about Matthew 25 is not that we will berewarded for doing good to the downtrod-den, but that the downtrodden are in factChrist. The further implication is that, as

we too are assimilated to Christ, the differ-ence between “us” and “them,” the differ-ence between those who serve and thosewho are served, is radically effaced. Wefind this same idea in Paul’s vision of theBody of Christ in I Corinthians 12. Thereis weakness in the Body of Christ (I Cor.12:22), but the weakest members aretreated with more honor (12:24). Theirsufferings are taken on by the whole body,such that every member of the body suf-fers and rejoices together (12:26).

In this vision, the distinction between“charity” and “justice” (or “social justice) isalso radically redrawn. The standard defin-ition of justice that comes to us fromAristotle through Aquinas is expressed inthe phrase reddere suum cuique: to renderto each person his or her own. Justice aspursued by the law of the state has this asits very ideal – to sort out what is mine fromwhat is yours. In the Body of Christ, how-ever, what is mine and what is yours is rad-ically relativized by the participation of allin the same body. Social justice then is notabout distribution among individuals incompetition for scarce goods. Sorting outwho deserves what is an impediment toseeing the world as God sees it, as it reallyis. In the Body of Christ, all belongs to God,and none claims absolute ownership ofGod’s abundance. Social justice is not sim-ply a matter of benevolence, but of sharingthe fate of those who suffer, and so sharpdistinctions between charity and social jus-tice, or love and justice, become an imped-iment rather than an analytical tool.

What the Eucharist does is to de-centerthe person by turning the act of consump-tion inside out. We live in a consumer cul-ture where the individual is trained to viewlife as a series of choices to be madebetween competing goods. The religiouslife is by no means immune to this dynam-



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25 Alexander Schmemann, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom, trans. Paul Kachur(Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988), p.107.

26 Augustine, Confessions, trans. H. Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.24[Book VII, §16].

27 Chauvet, L-M., Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of Christian Existence,trans. P. Madigan and M. Beaumont (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995), p.407.

Catholic life. Much has been written onthe diaconate as rooted in service to theneedy, but there are dangers in making ofdeacons merely ecclesiastical social work-ers. Controversy has attended the work ofJohn N. Collins, who argues that theemphasis on the diaconate as service tothe needy is a creation of 20th centuryGerman scholars, and not the point ofview of the early church. The meaningthat diakonia held for the biblical andpatristic writers, according to Collins, wasnot primarily humble service to the poor,but service to the bishop, that is, beingsent to fulfill the mandate of the overseerof the church.30 Regardless of the situationin the early church, there is a danger withidentifying service to the poor too closelywith the ministry of the deacon, lest char-ity be delegated to him, letting the rest ofus off the hook for leading lives of charity.

The controversy over Collins’ work, how-ever, seems to depend on a divide betweenservice to the needy and building up theChurch that a properly Eucharistic eccle-siology can help to overcome. As OwenCummings writes, “If service in terms ofthe diaconate is construed too narrowly,then Collins’s strictures are well taken.But service in terms of building up theChurch which, in turn, is building up theworld toward greater and more awarecommunion with God is what not only thediaconate but the Church itself is allabout.”31 In other words, if the Eucharistmakes the Church into a body that is inservice to the world, then there is no need

to choose between building up the Churchand service to the world. The diaconatemakes this visible to the world with its vitalrole of linking the liturgy and charity.

The kenotic movement of the Eucharist forthe world is exemplified in the kenoticpower of the diaconate. As the Directory forthe Ministry and Life of PermanentDeacons says, “The primary and most fun-damental relationship [of the deacon] mustbe with Christ, who assumed the conditionof a slave for love of the Father andmankind. In virtue of ordination the dea-con is truly called to act in conformity withChrist the Servant.”32 This kenosis is madeeffective in Jesus’ giving of his own fleshand blood in the Eucharist for the life ofthe world. So, at the institution of theEucharist at the last supper in Luke, Jesusidentifies himself as ho diakonon, the onewho serves. The kingdom of God that thenew community serves is one of service atthe table of God’s banquet. And it is pre-cisely the rooting of service in theEucharist that prevents the deacon frombeing seen as the one who does service,while the rest of us are exempt. Kenoticservice is the life of the whole church. Thediaconate simply makes this service visible.The diaconate is an effective sign of thewhole Church’s service. As John Paul IIhas said, “The service of the deacon is theChurch’s service sacramentalized.”33 �



kitchen free of consideration of whodeserves what, to care for women in crisispregnancies, to raise the voice of God’s“no” to war – all these small efforts aretaken up into the grand cosmic drama ofsin and reconciliation enacted in the litur-gy. We see that our works are not just nib-bling at the edges of a massive structure ofinjustice, but are in fact at the hopefulheart of God’s work on earth. We are notresigned to be idealists in the face of theworld’s supposed “realism,” but rather wewitness to the way things really are in theeyes of God. At the same time that we arefilled with hope, we are also relieved ofresponsibility for making history come outright, knowing that history in God’s hands.It is this crushing sense of responsibilityfor the world’s injustice that turns activistsbitter, and turns countries towards war.

This vision of our work taken up into God’swork in the liturgy can do a great deal atthe local level to put together the scatteredpieces of a congregation’s life. The liturgycommittee and the social justice commit-tee can work together on the assumptionthat the liturgy committee is doing morethan simply trying to find better remindersof what the social justice committeealready knows. This vision also has thepotential to bring so-called “conservatives”together with so-called “liberals.” Theenactment of the Body of Christ in theEucharist, as we have seen, is a very tradi-tional theological theme, and sounds reas-suringly old-fashioned. At the same time,the implications for the church’s missioncan be quite radical.

Let me just mention two examples. In mybook Torture and Eucharist I told the storyof how, in General Pinochet’s Chile, tor-ture was used to atomize and individualizethe body politic through mutual suspicion

and fear. The Church’s role in resistingtorture was to be a social body, the onlysocial body capable of countering thisatomizing effect by providing social spacesfor people to gather and reimagine a bodypolitic, the Body of Christ. The Churchprovided spaces for people to gather, toshare information about the disappeared,to share food and job skills and solidarity.The Eucharist provided a key site forreclaiming this social imagination, in thepublic excommunication of torturers,among other ways.28

Under very different circumstances, mymiddle-class parish in the U.S. supports –along with other Protestant and Catholiccongregations – a cooperative of familyfarmers who practice organic farming andsustainable agriculture. Parishioners orderfood directly from the farmers, and thechurch serves as a drop-off point. Thefarmers benefit from cutting out middle-men, and parishioners benefit from goodproduce and a closer connection to theland.29 There is certainly much in theEucharistic celebration to symbolize andremind us of this connection, e.g., the“fruit of the vine and the work of humanhands.” What matters, however, is that thecommunity gathered by the Eucharist cre-ates a social space in which a kind ofEucharistic economy can take place, aneconomy based not on competition but onthe membership of all in the same body.The Eucharist is not simply a reminderbut an enactment of a certain kind of com-munal space.

IV.Deacons in the Body of Christ

I want to conclude with a few commentson how the restoration of the permanentdiaconate accords with the reclaiming ofthe social dimension of the Eucharist in



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28 Cavanaugh, W.T.,Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Oxford:Blackwell, 1998).

29 More information can be found at http://www.wholefarmcoop.com.

30 Collins, J.N., Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1990) and Deacons and the Church: Making Connections Between Old and New(Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2002).

‘31 Cummings, O., ‘Theology of the Diaconate: State of the Question,” Proceedings 2004:Annual Convention and Business Meeting of the NADD (2004): p.21.

32 Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons, §47,http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_31031998_directorium-diaconi_en.html

33 John Paul II, Papal Address to the Permanent Deacons,http://www.usccb.org/deacon/adus.shtml

In priestly ordination the Bishop callsdown God's power upon the candidatesfor ordination. As a collaborator with hisBishop the priest will proclaim the Wordof God, administer the sacraments, andabove all celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

And it is in episcopal ordination that thefullness of the Sacrament of Holy Ordersis conferred upon a priest – with the manbeing ordained as successor of the apos-tles and entering the College of Bishops.Together with the other Bishops and thePope he is from now on responsible forthe entire Church with the Churchappointing him to the offices of teaching,sanctifying and governing.

Each is a specific vocation within the onesacrament of Holy Orders – and one mustbe fully aware of the uniqueness of eachvocation. We might think of those words ofBlessed John Henry Newman when hestated: ‘I am created to do or to be some-thing for which no one else is created: Ihave a place in God's counsels, in God'sworld, which no one else has’. We eachanswer God's call in our own particularways – and we are called upon to serve himas he wishes and indicates to us.

I think it is essential for us all to remem-ber – whether deacon, priest or bishop –that call to service which should bring abasic joy to our lives. I thank God for theway in which he has given me joy in myliving out of my various vocations withinthe Sacrament of Holy Orders. When Iwas called to be a Bishop and met theApostolic Nuncio, who was representingPope John Paul II, and asked if I would bethe next Archbishop of St Andrews and

Edinburgh I did indeed reply ‘yes – if it isGod's will for me’. And when asked whatwords I would choose for my motto I indi-cated that I wished some words abouthappiness and joy in service. It was rela-tively easy then to think of those beautifulwords from psalm 99 which the priestrecites so very often from his breviary:’Serve the Lord with gladness!’

The Sacrament ofMatrimonyWhen considering the Sacrament ofMatrimony we must first of all think as tohow this Sacrament comes about. TheSacrament is conferred through apromise made by a man and a womanbefore God and the Church, which isaccepted and confirmed by God and con-summated by the bodily union of the cou-ple. Because God himself forms the bondof sacramental marriage, it is bindinguntil the death of one of the partners. It isobviously essential that the Sacrament isconferred only if there is marital consent,that is, if the man and the woman entermarriage of their own free will, withoutfear or coercion, and if they are not pre-vented from marrying by other natural orecclesiastical ties.

As far back as the second century the Latinecclesiastical writer Tertullian wrote of thehappiness of marriage when he stated:

‘How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church? How wonderful the bond between twobelievers, now one in hope, one in desire,one is discipline, one in the same service– and divided in spirit and flesh, truly twoin one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one


It is indeed a privilege for me being herewith you today.

One of the great privileges of a Bishop isto celebrate the Sacrament of HolyOrders. Over these months I have hadthe privilege of such celebrations in vari-ous ways. Just last weekend, I was in StPaul's Basilica in Rome ordaining sevenmen from the Pontifical Beda College tothe Diaconate, prior to their eventualordination to the Priesthood. On return-ing home to Scotland last Sunday, I wasordaining one man to the PermanentDiaconate in his Parish of St Michael's inLinlithgow, with his wife and family beingpresent at the celebrations. As you mayknow, I was due to ordain one of my dea-cons from the Beda to the Priesthood inmy own Cathedral in Edinburgh on theFeast of Ss Peter and Paul, 29 June 2011during this week which lies ahead – butbecause of Graham's sudden illness thatordination has been postponed and now,hopefully, will take place at the end ofOctober this year. I have already ordainedto the Episcopacy in mid-May, the firstAfrican Bishop of Bauchi in NorthernNigeria – and am now looking forward tothe Episcopal Ordination of the nextBishop of Aberdeen, one of the Suffragandioceses in my own Province in Scotland,on 15 August 2011.

And among the other magnificent cele-brations at which I have been present

recently, there was the wedding, the RoyalWedding, which was recently celebratedin Westminster Abbey between PrinceWilliam of Wales and Miss CatherineMiddleton, now the Duke and Duchess ofCambridge and in Scotland known as theEarl and Countess of Strathearn.

The Mass today is a Votive Mass of Our Lady– when we are reminded in the Gospel ofher great YES at the Annunciation. Initiallyin my words to you today I would like tothink of each of these sacraments and thedifferences between them, namely theSacrament of Holy Orders and theSacrament of Matrimony – and then pre-sent some thoughts to you on their greatsimilarities – both involving our YES to Godour Father and to Christ in others, followingthe example of Our Blessed Lady herself.

The Sacrament of Holy OrdersWe speak of that one Sacrament of HolyOrders and yet there are what we mightspeak of as the ‘degrees’ within that onesacrament.

And when we do speak of these degrees ofthis Sacrament, we remember the differ-ent roles of deacon, priest and bishop inthe Church.

In diaconal ordination the candidate isappointed to a special service within thesacrament of Holy Orders. He representsChrist as the one who came, ’not to beserved but to serve, and to give his life asa ransom for many’. As we pray in theliturgy of the ordination: ’As a minister ofthe Word, of the Altar, and of charity, thedeacon will make himself a servant to all’.


Keith Patrick O’Brien

Homily at the Saturday Mass of Our Lady8At noon on Saturday 25

June the assemblygathered in the chapel of the UniversityCollege for a Saturday Mass of OurLady. The Principal Celebrant was HisEminence Cardinal Keith PatrickO’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews andEdinburgh and President of theBishops’ Conference of Scotland. Hewas also present for the conferencebanquet later that day.

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And he indicated that the beatitude offaith has its model in Mary the Mother ofGod. The Pope also reminded us of StPeter himself, filled with spiritual enthu-siasm, pointing out to the newly baptisedthe reason for their hope and their joy. Hestates the fact as he writes: ‘You rejoice,you love him? and even though you donot see him now, you believe in him andrejoice with an indescribable and gloriousjoy, for you are receiving the outcome ofyour faith, the salvation of your souls’.

I am sure you can see the comparisonwith the exalted view of marriage byBishop Chartres as being with marriagebeing centred on love and service; whilePope Benedict XVI at that beatificationcelebration reminded us of the celibatelove of Pope John Paul II which reachedout in his own spiritual enthusiasm andjoy to all peoples in the world.

It was quite amazing being reminded atthe Beatification ceremony of BlessedJohn Paul II of the pastoral work whichhe had undertaken as Pope: 146 pastoralvisits in Italy; visiting 317 of the 332parishes in Rome; making 104 apostolictrips throughout the world. He wrote avariety of primary documents to thewhole Church as well as five differentbooks. He presided over 147 beatifica-tions, declaring 1338 beatified, and 51canonisations, proclaiming a total of 482saints. He officiated in nine Consistories,creating 231 Cardinals and presided at sixPlenary Reunions of the College ofCardinals. He called 15 Assemblies of theSynod of Bishops – and it is reckoned thatthe number of pilgrims at his WednesdayGeneral Audiences (more than 1,160Audiences) came to over 17 million pil-grims – as well as those special audiencesat other religious services which attractedmillions from all over the world.

In the prayer which they composedtogether in preparation for their wedding

day the Prince and his bride wrote amongother things: ‘In the business of each day,keep our eyes fixed on what is real andimportant in life and help us to be gener-ous with our time and love and energy’.

I am sure that those words could equallyhave been written by Pope John Paul 11 onhis ordination day or on the day when hewas installed as Pope to live a life of service.

Perhaps also those permanent deaconswho also live in the Sacrament ofMatrimony could think of the importanceof those words both as they live out theSacrament of Matrimony and theSacrament of Holy Orders.

ConclusionYes, much indeed has to be written on thepermanent diaconate and on marriage andfamily life. Much has still to be written onthe comparison of these two sacraments –and on the wonderful way in which theyare lived out by our permanent deacons inour countries at this present time.

Perhaps I can remind you of those wordsagain: ‘In the business of each day, keepour eyes fixed on what is real and impor-tant in life and help us to be generouswith our time and love and energy’.

Each sacrament is a reply to a wonderfulcall by Almighty God. No one can surpassthe wonder of the YES given by our BlessedLady to that call which she received fromGod. And no one will ever be able to com-prehend the graces and blessings whichshe received to fulfil her vocation.

In living out our sacraments hopefully wewill be more humbled in the sight ofAlmighty God realising the greatness of hisgoodness and the greatness of his love for usand the joys which he gives us in our serviceof him and of others in the Sacraments ofMarriage and of Holy Orders. �


Homily at the Saturday Mass of Our Lady – Keith Patrick O’Brien

also is the spirit’.1

The Permanent Diaconateand Marriage and Family LifeFollowing on from what I have alreadysaid these two sacraments – of HolyOrders and of Matrimony – are indeedinstruments of joy for those who receivethem or administer them to one another.

However I am sure that much could bewritten about the relationship betweenthe Sacrament of Holy Orders as in thePermanent Diaconate and the Sacramentof Matrimony as also lived out by so manypermanent deacons.

We all need aids to our spiritual develop-ment and to our academic formation.Perhaps a very considerable aid here in ourcountries in the United Kingdom is theNew Diaconal Review which I personallyreceive regularly and enjoy reading. In oneof the recent issues in the very considerablelist of book reviews there is a review of thebook entitled: ‘Deacons: Ministers of Christand of God's Mysteries’. This book we aretold ‘contains nine insightful, well crafted,short and easily read essays’, to extend thecatechesis on the Permanent Diaconate inIreland. However the reviewer speaks of thebenefit which would come to this book froman ‘additional essay on the permanent dia-conate and marriage and family life’. Andhe wisely goes on to state: ‘As the age profileof men presenting and being accepted intoformation programmes continues to fall,the relationship between both sacramentsrequires honest and candid attention, notjust by married deacons, diaconal aspirants,their wives and formators but also by theChurch at large’. He states also: ‘This too ispart of the maturation that Vatican II callsfor and would bring a further richness tothis already excellent, thought provoking,inspiring and highly commendable book’.

I propose for your thought at our Masstoday a comparison between two eventswhich followed one another very closelyhistorically – events that I was able toattend personally in Westminster Abbeyand then outside St Peter's Basilica inRome. I am obviously referring to the mar-riage of Prince William of Wales and MissCatherine Middleton in Westminster Abbey– and the Beatification of Blessed John PaulII, who lived out a life of celibate love.

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres,delivered what has been described as avery beautiful sermon to the young cou-ple on the meaning of marriage remind-ing them of the service of one another fol-lowing on their exchange of vows. On theother hand Pope Benedict XVI outside StPeter's Basilica in Rome spoke of the celi-bate love of Pope John Paul II whichstretched out literally around the wholeworld and embraced all of humanity.

A comparison between the sets of words ofthe Bishop and the Pope bears comparison.

Speaking of married love, BishopChartres stated: ‘The spiritual life growsas love finds its centre beyond ourselves.Faithful and committed relationshipsoffer a door into the mystery of spirituallife in which we discover this: The morewe give our self, the richer we become insoul, the more we go beyond ourselves inlove, the more we become our true selvesand our spiritual beauty is more fullyrevealed. In marriage we are seeking tobring one another in to fuller life’.

At the beautiful beatification ceremony ofBlessed John Paul II in Rome Pope BenedictXVI spoke before hundreds of thousands ofpilgrims gathered before him and to manymillions throughout the world. He spoke ofthe late Pope being ‘blessed because of hisfaith, a strong, generous and apostolic faith’.


Homily at the Saturday Mass of Our Lady – Keith Patrick O’Brien

1 Ad uxorem 2.3.6-7, PL 1412-1413.

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Introduction I would like to start by telling you about anencounter with a group that has played agreat role in the development of my thinkingabout the office of the deacon in theChurch. After that I shall develop somethoughts about the situation our society is inand the challenge which that situationoffers to our Church, and especially deaconsin the Church.

Meeting the Calama-teamIn 1979 I was appointed to be the ViceRector of the Ariënskonvikt, the newlyerected house for students for the priest-hood studying at the theological facultywhere I am now teaching. I served there for8 years. In the beginning of that service, in1979, two members of the group known asCalama visited our house to talk with therector and me about the priesthood and theoffice of deacon.

Calama was a group, originally of priests,who had worked in Chile in different parish-es. These priests had individually decided toleave their parishes to become priest-work-ers in factories. There they discovered eachother and decided to become a team, sothey moved to a city in the desert with cop-per mines, applied for jobs there and startedtheir work together.

Now their motivation for working in the cop-per mines is theologically very interesting.They did not intend to be of service as mes-sengers of the faith for the workers or to beof service as help for the needs of the poorworkers. They wanted to change places and

to take the point of view of the workers andto fight for justice with them, but they didthis in order to read the reality of the work-ers theologically and to bring their messageto the Church. It was their conviction thatthe Holy Spirit manifested himself in thestruggle for justice of the workers and thatthe Church should listen to this Spirit andreceive this message. The Church had lis-tened more than enough when right-winggenerals of some army had taken overpower in a country; why should she, for achange, not support justice?

The final theological move was that theyconceived this task of bringing to theChurch the message of the Holy Spirit fromthe world outside of the Church as the read-ing of the signs of the time (as Vatican II hadspoken about it) and as the diaconal missionof their team. As Catholic priests they werealready ordained deacons, so they decidedto take up the task of this ordination and puttheir priesthood in the refrigerator. One oftheir founding fathers, Jan Caminada, evendid a dissertation under Karl Rahner aboutthe office of deacon, to account for this con-cept of the diaconical office.

One of the problems the Calama team metwas that when you have left the ecclesiasti-cal system it is very difficult to enter it again– certainly when you enter it with a messagethat is not directly welcome. Therefore theycame to the Ariënskonvikt: they hoped thatpeople who were starting a new priestly edu-cation would care for the Gospel and for theChurch and that they would be openenough to receive them and their message.It lead to a fresh start for a Platform ofDiaconical Ecclesiology, where we met dea-cons, people involved in missionary work in


Jozef Wissink

Jozef Wissink is a priestof the Archdiocese of

Utrecht and Professor of PracticalTheology at the University of Tilburg.He was for many years involved in theformation of permanent deacons in thearchdiocese.

the Third World and people working indiocesan service institutions for pastoralministry. Together we tried to understandwhat was the importance of the views of theCalama team and how we could implementparts of this vision. For me it was the begin-ning of an adventure: because of them I exposed myself to work in a factory, whereI had got a job via an employment centre. Iwent to their groups in the Philippines andworked with poor farmers on their fields.Grown up as a theologian, who had becomean expert in Karl Barth and ThomasAquinas, I began to understand what libera-tion theology was about: that the poverty aswe meet it in the Third World is a shameand that the poor have legitimate questionsfor the Church.

I am not here to make propaganda for theCalama-team. On certain points I still donot agree with them: for example I did notbuy into the Marxist position they hadtaken. But I admired their commitmentand I think they had some theologicallyvery valid points. By the way, my rejectionof Marxism does not deny that Marxistanalysis still can be very illuminating, e.g.with regard to the actual economic crisis.And mind you, the reasons for the cominginto existence of Marxism are still there,especially in the Third World, and not onlythere. But for the moment we shouldreturn to the valid theological insights Ilearned from them.

The relation of the Churchto profane life in economicsand politics, social life and cultureI start with the question of the relation ofthe Church to the profane worlds of eco-

nomics and politics, social life and culture..Since Vatican II we have called this thequestion of ‘the Church and the world’. Butthis question of ‘the Church and the world’is embedded in the greater questions of‘faith and world’, ‘God and world’.

The answer, which is given mostly in ourmodern culture, that faith is a private ques-tion for every individual, is theologicallyimpossible, because God is the Creator of alland everything and being a Christian is tolive in all things and everything in a way thatfits in with Jesus Christ. Faith can never bereduced to questions of individual identity:every human being is created as a socialbeing, body and mind, intended to love God,neighbour and oneself. And this love cannotbe played off against justice: love wants jus-tice to be done. Perhaps more than justice,but never less than justice. (Of course weshould not push our denial so far, that wedeny that faith is a very personal questionand has real bearing on the question of per-sonal identity. Faith is a ‘love’ question: Godis asking every single person the basic ques-tion: may I have this dance with you? Butnow the important thing is that faith shouldnot be reduced to that.)

So the answer that faith and God havenothing to do with economics, politics,social life and culture is excluded. Butanother answer should be excluded: thatfaith and Church have a direct authorityover these domains or, the reverse, thatthese domains have a direct say over theChurch and faith. The last is partially true:in fact our states have a say over theChurch. The Church is under the author-ity of civil justice, so a criminal priest willbe tried at a civil court. When the Church


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Structures to build up the ChurchBut then, let the relationship between theChurch and the profane world of politics,economics, social life and culture be theoret-ically clear: what do changing circumstancesmean for her way of dealing with these areasof life? What challenges are implied for herstructures, so that she can respond ade-quately to what happens around her?

The Church always has the obligation tostructure her offices and pastoral planningin such a way that she can fulfill her mis-sion: that is, on the one hand to announcethe Gospel and to arouse, foster and feedfaith, hope and love in people, and on theother hand to permeate society with justiceand mercy, that it may become a more justand merciful society (Second VaticanCouncil, Decree on the apostolate of thelaity, Apostolicam Actuositatem 5). In theMiddle Ages Church and society were somuch one ‘whole’ that no special institu-tions were necessary to connect the differ-ent areas of life. The most important thingat that time was not to be reduced to a merefunctioning part of the stable polity of theHoly Roman Empire. The great battle aboutwho should appoint and invest bishops isabout that matter. In the Netherlands from1870 till 1960 we as Catholics – like theSocial Democrats and the Dutch ReformedChurch- had a pillar of Catholic organiza-tions, which connected the Church to everysingle aspect of life. So we had a Catholicpolitical party, a Catholic union, but also anassociation of Catholic employers, Catholicschools and a Catholic university, Catholichospitals and Catholic football clubs, anassociation of Catholic farmers, Catholicscouting, etc. Within this pillar there was anatural soil where the seeds of the socialdoctrine of the Church were expected,received and bore fruit.

I give you this picture not because of somenostalgia and also not because I want toblame my parents. This Catholic pillar was

a good solution to some problems and itcaused others. On the one hand it gave theChurch a splendid isolation from the rest ofthe country: dealing with other Dutch peo-ple was the task of Catholic leaders: thebishops of course, but also the leaders of theCatholic political party and so on. Likewisea socialist and Dutch Reformed pillar werebuilt up. So a unified block of Catholics wasbuilt up, taken care of by their leaders. Thissocietal formation also allowed DutchCatholics to make real their emancipationwithin Dutch society: Catholic educationwas developed, completed by the erectionof a Catholic university. But what I want tostress now is, that in this pillar-formationwe had a system, covering the whole of life,from politics to sports. This way the Churchand faith were connected to all joys and allproblems of the whole of life – though ofcourse only the whole of life of Catholics.

This pillar has crumbled down for the mostpart. As I said, I note this without nostalgia:the Catholic pillar was a good social forma-tion for the Dutch situation from 1870 till1960. I think that the decisive factor behindthis process of crumbling down was the indi-vidualisation of society. I wish to stress, thatI use this word ‘individualisation’ here in thesociological sense and therefore it does notmean that people become more egoistic, butrather that people are lesser parts of collec-tivities and gain the responsibility to makemore decisions about their lives themselves.Our society is educating us to individualise:the goal of schools is to educate children tobecome able to build up their own lives andso to be able to become responsible mem-bers of society. So individualisation is a socialphenomenon. We here ourselves are alsopart of it. For example, most of us have cho-sen our partners ourselves; she or he wasnot appointed by our parents. I intentionallychose this example, because it shows a) thatwe are greatly individualised people our-selves and b) that we substantially subscribeto many moral issues implied by this. In thisculture the pillar can no longer keep all


The Deacon in the Body of Christ: Messenger from the world to the Church – Jozef Wissink

wants this priest also to be tried at anecclesiastical court, then that is acceptableto the state in the sense that it does notbother them. But what I intend to state isthat the Church could never conceive ofherself as a function of a state or of anypolitical formation. State churches are inthe temptation of wanting authority overeverything or subjecting themselves com-pletely to the will of the State. When theChurch succeeds in getting authority overeverything, that fact itself has the dangerof secularization as consequence, becausethen the Christian faith normally is identi-fied with the culture the Church has created.

With all these denials we are approachingthe right relationship between Church andpolitics, economics, social life and culture.Economics, politics, social life and cultureare dimensions of society with a relativeautonomy, not over against God, but overagainst the Church. The Church shouldnot wish to dominate these areas of life,though she has much to say about themon the moral level. The Church has for-mulated many values and norms in hersocial teachings, but she cannot enforceher morals on politics in a political way,because that would secularise her into apolitical party. Next to morals the church-es also play an important role when theysignal injustices or neglect with regard tothe poor. But within these areas of life theChurch has no direct influence unless it isby the mediation of her members, who arealso citizens of their states, participators inthe economy, social life and culture. Andwhen Church members are participatingin these areas of life, they should do soguided by their conscience.

This insight in the right relationshipbetween the Church and the different lifeareas is a modern insight, forced upon usby modern developments. That could leadto the thought that we are dealing with apragmatic question, but I think this is not

the case. Now that this relationship is clar-ified, we can see its origins already in theearly Church, for example in the beautifulLetter to Diognetus. The thoughts of JohnHenry Newman on the development ofdogma are applicable to our question too.

Until now I have talked about the theolog-ical meaning of politics, economics, sociallife and culture in terms of their beingcreatures or created realities. But this istheologically not sufficient. If this is so weremain within a hierarchical system ofhigher things which are serious and lowerthings which are less so by nature: in theChurch the more important things arehappening, such as the eternal salvation ofthe souls, in the world only the distributionof food and ideas are at stake. Ergo, theyare not the real thing. Now I do not wantto deny that in the Church importantthings happen and the eternal salvation isnot a small thing. But I want to stress thatwe are expecting too little from our worldwhen we expect to find there only natureand sin and not grace. God’s grace is alsoworking in our world. The prophet Jonahhad to discover that, when he pronouncedGod’s message to Nineveh that theyshould convert ... and they did. Theprophet Deutero-Isaiah recognised in KingCyrus a Messianic Saviour, a servant of theMost Holy, though Cyrus had never heardof that God. And Jesus himself meets theSyro-Phoenician woman, who knows howshe can persuade Him to cure her daugh-ter – by a faith so great that he had not metin Israel before. When Vatican II in theconstitution Gaudium et Spes talks aboutthe signs of the times, it wants to direct ourintention to happenings in the world,trends in our culture, which could be thecalling of the Lord towards His Church;that she should rejoice about the justicewhich is done by people ouside, or that sheshould be ashamed that others have had todo the dirty work, because we were lackingor that action was called for because noone else was seeing the problem.



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someone who is ordered by a bishop and/or acommunity to take charge of people in need.My plea for new connections between faithand different areas of life is a plea for ‘go-between’-people to make these connections.

My second reason presupposes that theChurch is ordaining as deacons mainly peo-ple who are married and have jobs in the nor-mal world. In that way their life-situationalready has something which can connectdifferent areas of life with faith and theChurch. The Church should look for workersand union-members, for artists, for dedicatedteachers, for people in political parties whoare motivated by their Christian consciencein their politcal work, for people in the soacialservices who also have that kind of motiva-tion. If they bring their active life into theirfaith and their faith into their active life andif the Church then listens to them, this couldhelp the Church in many ways to redicoverthe relevance of her biblical message.

Concrete ways of makingthe connectionsI have given some fundamental reflectionsabout the necessity of what I have called the‘Gaudium-et-Spes-deacon’. I want to endwith some more practical examples of howto make the connections.

A colleague from the city of Utrecht, a pro-fessional pastoral worker, had been appoint-ed to a poor quarter of the city. When he hadmade acquaintance with the people, he hadseen mostly grey and bald heads. He wasvery keen on developing the diaconal side ofthe parish, but after seeing this elderly con-gregation, he decided that he could not askthese people to join all kinds of diaconalactivities. Now it was his custom to partici-pate in the life of the quarter – when it hadnothing to do with the parish, at least itseemed to have nothing to do with theparish. So when there was a meeting aboutthe high rents, or about the provision ofgreen spaces, or about dialogue with Islamicinhabitants, or the problems people had

with them, he was present. Now to his sur-prise at all these meetings he met parish-ioners who were participating fully in the lifeof their city area. They were not too old fordiaconal activities – they were alreadyinvolved in it, but the pastoral leader did notknow it. So my colleague discovered that hehad to make the connections. He started tomake an inventory of what all the parish-ioners were in fact doing within broadersociety and started to call them together inorder to talk about everyone’s experience.This in itself was already something whichenergised the parish. He talked with themabout their motives and the often hiddenspiritual power in it. He told them that they were anonymously, but no less really exercising the mission of the Church (cf. AA5, already cited). He also invited them tobecome active in the intercessions at theEucharist, in order to bring into the prayerof the community the needs of the people inthe area. This pastoral worker was not adeacon, but he did what I present to you asa special challenge for deacons.

Another example is on a more diocesanlevel; in the Prelature of Infanta (in thePhilippines) the Calama-team was veryactive in the organisation of land labourunions, small organisations of fishermenand in support of Justice and Peace groupswithin the Church. In that diocese the bish-op, Mgr. Labayen, every second year organ-ised a meeting of what I would call ‘inner-ecclesial’ workers, such as priests, lay cate-chists and lay volunteers on the one handand people from societal organisations. Inthese meetings the two very different groupshad many questions for each other, but aftersome years also much mutual inspiration.In the meeting it came to the surface that aChurch in a poor Third World country canbe alienated from the ordinary life of herpeople, because the routines of the parishsystem can make people so busy with allkinds of tasks that they do not see the mis-ery of the lives of people who are not in thecentre of the system any more.



Catholics together. I remember how I myselfin 1967 became very angry when ourCatholic party took the side of the neo-liber-als and left the coalition with the social-democrats – in the election I moved my redpencil to our Labour party. I was leaving ahouse, a totality of culture. It felt likeAbraham, moving away from the city of Urof the Chaldeans.

There we see another of the disadvantages ofthe pillar: the Church can be completelyidentified with the culture of the pillar. Iremember how, when I was a young priest, ayoung man who helped me in youth pastoralwork one day said to me that he would con-sider himself dishonest if he remained work-ing with me. I asked what the matter was.He said he could no longer could stay in theChurch because he no longer believed in thepolitics of the Catholic party. Of course hewas very astonished, when I told him, that Imyself had left that party some years earlier.

I told you that this pillar connected theChurch organically to all areas of life. Perhapsonly to all areas of the lives of Catholics, butat least to all areas of life. Now that the pillarhad crumbled down, what happened to theseconnections between faith and ‘profane’ life,between the Church and the world of poli-tics, economics, social life and culture? I donot want to over-dramatise my case: ofcourse most Catholics were also good citizensand they had shops or jobs. And when I talkto serious believing people I see that theywant to connect things in their lives withtheir living faith. But that should not obscurethe fact that nowadays we are painfully miss-ing the necessary connections.

This is not just an organisational problem,although it is partly that. It is also a spiritualproblem and it is threatening our faith.Sociologists talk about the privatisation offaith and they connect religion predominant-

ly with the buidling up of personal identity ofindividuals.1 But when that becomes all thereis to our functioning as Church, we see acomplete spiritualisation of faith – and here Iuse the word ‘spiritualisation’ in a negativesense, that the body is forgotten, that ordi-nary life disappears from faith and thereverse. When St. John in his first letter saysthat there are three witnesses, the Spirit, thewater and the blood (1 John 5:8), then theemphasis is on the third witness, the blood.When that witness is forgotten, we haveenthused baptised Christians, without bodiesand without the Cross, who think that the oldman has already completely been replaced bythe new glorious and pious humanity. That isgnosticism, not Christian faith.

DeaconsConcern for the connections betweenfaith and ordinary life, between faith andthe world of politics, economics, social lifeand culture is entrusted to the whole peo-ple of God. But for the organisationalstructures to ensure that these connec-tions are taken care of on all levels of theChurch the bishops are responsible. And Iwould recommend that they call deaconsfor this task. I would like to call these dea-cons ‘Gaudium-et-Spes-deacons’.

I am not saying that all deacons should havethis task or that only ‘Gaudium-et-Spes-dea-cons’ should be ordained. My thesis is thatevery diocese should have at least some‘Gaudium-et-Spes-deacons’. Why deacons?

My first reason is that to make connections isthe essence of the office of deacons. At one ofyour conferences John Collins was one ofyour speakers. He has convinced me that theword diakonein has many meanings but thatthe fundamental meaning is something like‘go between’. So the deacon can be a mes-senger, an ambassador of the bishop or of acommunity, a herald or a catechist and also



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1 See Giddens, A., The Constitution of Society: outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press 1984) and his many other works.

years I’ve come across some curious misun-derstandings about the diaconate. I’ve metpeople who feared that deacons would takeover the teaching role of lay catechists. To methis sounds ridiculous, but then some priestsfeel threatened by having an active laity intheir parish. That’s ridiculous too, but it’s anattitude which certainly does exist.

One way of approaching the diaconate mightbe by relating it to our baptismal calling. Allthe baptised are called to be prophets, priestsand kings (where to be a king means being aleader or shepherd). What can we say aboutthe particular way the deacon is a prophet,priest and king – distinctively from lay peopleand presbyters?

How is the deacon a prophet? That’s fairlyobvious: preaching by word and example.But what about the way in which a deaconpreaches? What’s distinctive about this, itseems to me, is that he’s speaking out of aparticular experience, which will be differentto that of the priest. He probably has a ‘dayjob’, or if he’s retired he has the memory of alifetime’s experience of the workplace. Hewill probably, though not necessarily, be ahusband and a father. He will normally be aparishioner of the church where he serves –not someone sent there for a few years butsomeone who has been part of the commu-nity for many years.

I suppose we could see the words of theshort reading this evening as a theme run-

ning through this conference. ‘The breadwhich we break, is it not a participation in thebody of Christ? Because there is one bread,we who are many are one body, for we all par-take of the one bread.’

When I was a child I used to think of being aCatholic as rather like being in a club or asso-ciation: you gain certain benefits at the cost ofobeying the rules. But of course being amember of the body of Christ means some-thing very different. You’re not just one of agroup of individuals who happen to havesomething in common. What I didn’t realisein those days was that ‘member’ could alsomean being part of a living body. Whatseemed to me at the time like a set of rules isreally more like the conditions necessary fora cell to flourish within the living organismthat is the body.

So if we’re considering the Deacon in theBody of Christ, one obvious question is wherein the Body of Christ? This hasn’t been easyto pin down. Theology puts into words thefaith we already have – a faith that is alreadyexpressed in a way of life. That has been theproblem with the diaconate. When it was re-established as a permanent ministry, therewasn’t any recent experience on which todraw. We knew the fundamental principles,but at that time, without the lived experi-ence, it was almost like a skeleton, with noflesh upon it.

Over the years, theologians have made greatprogress in articulating the theology of thediaconate, but we have to admit that there isa long way to go before this percolatesthrough to the person in the pew. Over the


Paul Hendricks

On the Saturday eveningthe conference gathered inthe University College chapel to begin theliturgical celebration of the feast ofCorpus Christi by celebrating Vespersand Benediction. The celebrant andpreacher was the Right Reverend PaulHendricks, titular Bishop of Rosemarkieand Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark (withspecial responsibility for the southwestern part of the archdiocese).Formerly he was Professor of Philosophyat St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, andParish Priest of Peckham

Homily at Vespers and

BenedictionSaturday 25 June 2011

Perhaps you will permit me to tell you onething from my own pastoral experience. I amparticipating in an organisation in Utrecht ofpeople who have a right to allowances fromthe social services because they have losttheir jobs or become ill for whatever reason.They gave consultancy services to fellow-suf-ferers. I offered myself to them to participatein their work, but they and I discovered soonenough that they knew much more aboutnew laws on social security than I did. So Imade representation on their behalf to peo-ple in official positions and I helped them byleading the meetings in which they talkedabout the advice they gave to the ‘clients’ andabout their own group dynamics. That issomething in which I was competent. Butthen it happened that I had to give a sermonon Mt. 20:1-16: the workers in the vineyard,or rather, the ones who were waiting all dayfor work, and I told some stories I had heardin the organisation of jobless people. During

the week following six people telephoned totalk about their being without work. They hadnever talked about it in connection with theChurch, because everyone is succesful thereand they felt ashamed. The parish had triedonce to call together unemployed people butthey had not signed up for these reasons. Andnow, suddenly, they had been touched. I havegathered them together and now it is more apart of parish life.

ConclusionI have given some theoretical reflections onthe necessity of the ‘Gaudium-et-Spes-dea-con’, but I hope that at the end you will get afeel for the very concrete things I meanwhen I talk about the connections betweenfaith and economic, social, political and cul-tural life. Of course I hope that some of yourecognise your vocation to this field of action.

Thank you very much. �



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National Assembley of Deacons in England and wales and North European International Diaconate Conference, 24-26 June 2011

I once read the story of an African womanwho was mocked by her neighbours for

always carrying her Bible with her. One dayshe knelt down holding the Bible above herhead and said: ‘I carry this book alwaysbecause it is the only book that reads me!’ Ifthe Bible is to be allowed to read those wholisten to preaching, preachers must firstread themselves. They must then read theircongregation. Each preacher has a uniquebiography and personality and each homilyengages a specific congregation. In a worldof joys, sorrows and bewildering change theword in Scripture is broken so as to bringalive the message of Christ, offering mean-ing, encouragement, challenge and empow-erment, inviting radical conversion of life forthe individual, the Church and society. Ouraim is to involve the congregation in whatthey hear; inviting a response to the disclo-sure of God’s love seeking to share his lifewith each one of his children.

Teach, delight andpersuadeIn book four of his De Doctrina ChristianaSt Augustine advocates that the preachershould aim to “teach, delight and per-suade”. Augustine believed that in order tobring the message alive the preacherneeds to develop the skills of rhetoric. Butthis is not just a technical skill. For thegreat classical teacher of rhetoric Aristotlethe art of rhetoric involved persuasionthrough ethos, pathos, and logos

1. Ethos means ‘character’ and it is essen-tial because people are only persuaded by

a credible speaker

2. Pathos refers to the ability to connectwith the feelings and emotions of the audi-ence who are persuaded by an argumentonly if the words they hear are directed totheir experience and needs

3. Logos, literally ‘word’, brings us to thereasoned content of the argument. Wheresuch reasoning is strong the hearers arelikely to be persuaded by the argument.

We shall now look at each of these threeelements of rhetoric and see how theyapply to the preacher who breaks the Wordin the context of the Sunday Liturgy.

1. Ethos: the preacher read by the Word

When the deacon is ordained the Bishophands him the book of the Gospels with thesewords: ‘Believe what you read, teach whatyou believe and practice what you preach’.People are persuaded by a credible speaker.Unless the preacher sounds as though he ishimself persuaded of the message, it will fallon deaf ears. Pope Saint Gregory the Greatsaw this clearly: ‘When I speak, it is myselfthat I am reproaching. I do not preach as Ishould nor does my life follow the principlesI preach so inadequately’1.


Duncan Macpherson

Ordained by CardinalBasil Hume in 1992,Duncan is a Doctor of Ministry inPreaching, who taught Theology at StMary’s University College from 1967 to2000. He is Features Editor of ThePreacher and a tutor of the College ofPreachers. His publications include TheSplendour of the Preachers (Saint PaulPublications, London: 2011) and ThePilgrim Preacher Palestine, Pilgrimageand Preaching (Melisende: 2004)

Preparing the Sunday Homily

At the same time he works closely withpriests and shares their pastoral perspective.In many ways he ‘speaks the same language’as the priest, in a way that lay people perhapsdon’t quite do – at least, not in the same way.

So we might say that a deacon has a foot inboth camps, so to speak. When he preaches,he speaks to the people as one of them, butalso as one who has a wider perspective tooffer.. I think something rather similar wouldalso apply to the way in which the deaconlives out his life – a life which, like all the bap-tised, he offers to God – and so expresses thepriestly aspect of his baptismal calling. Heexercises his ministry largely in the parishsetting, but he also offers to God his life in theworkplace and amongst his family. Whatevermore obviously ‘churchy’ things he does, hedoes it against this background. This is wherehe’s coming from, so to speak.

Because the deacon has more in commonwith the parishioners, being in a sense onehimself, perhaps he is in a better positionthan a priest to help people see how they canfulfil their priestly calling in the world – in thewords of St Paul, offering themselves as a liv-ing sacrifice to God.

Finally, what can we say about the kinglyaspect of the deacon’s calling? As he exercis-es a ministry based on various forms of ser-vice, you might think that there would be noplace for kingship. And yet we have toremember the words of Jesus himself: ‘Mineis not a kingdom of this world’ and ‘the lead-ers of this world lord it over them ... this is notto happen among you’. Cardinal O’Brien’swords about the Magnificat brought to mindsimilar words of St Paul at the very beginningof his Letter to the Romans: ‘Paul, a servantof Jesus Christ’. Many scholars would saythat ‘slave’ would be a better translation than‘servant’ – and of course ‘Christ’ means ‘theanointed one’, in other words, the great king.So Paul is a slave, totally at the disposal of hismaster, with nothing that truly belongs tohim: not money, possessions, or even time.

And yet he has the greatest master possible,the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Asthe Cardinal said, there is a joy in service –particularly serving such a master – despitethe inadequate nature of the service we offer.

So the leadership we offer, as bishops, priestsor deacons, has to be seen very much as aservice. Often it isn’t easy, since the momentyou take a lead in any aspect of parish life,you’re liable to get shot down by someone orother. It often involves very delicate negotia-tion in order to lead people who don’t reallywant to move from where they’re alreadycomfortable.

And in case you think it’s any different for abishop, let me tell you that in my experiencethe one greatest drawback of the job is thatpeople think you can do more than you real-ly can. It’s very rarely that you’re in a positionto lay down the law – much more a questionof doing what you can with the limitations ofthe situation. My suspicion is also that thehigher up you go in the church, the worsethis gets!

I’d like to finish by encouraging you toreflect on your experience as deacons andto share the fruits of this with others.When I was in a parish, I used to do a lotwith the Knights of St Columba. Every sooften they would ask to speak at theSunday Masses, to ask for new members. Iused to tell them that it wasn’t going toinspire the people if they just spoke in theabstract about what the Knights did. ‘Tellthem,’ I said, ‘what it means to you to be aKnight. What have been the most reward-ing experiences for you, in all those years?’

I believe it’s very similar with the Priesthoodand the Diaconate. After you go away fromhere, do continue to think about your ownexperience of being a deacon in the Body ofChrist which is the Church. Explaining toothers is an important, even a vital witness –and it can also help you to understand yourown calling more clearly. �


Homily at Vespers and Benediction Saturday 25 June 2011 – Paul Hendricks

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1 (Homilies on Ezekiel 1.11.4-6) appointed as the second reading for the Office of Readings onthe feast of St Gregory the Great on 3 September.

word of God to the sacramental celebra-tion and the life of the community, so thatthe word of God truly becomes theChurch’s vital nourishment and support’6

In an important document on preaching7,the American bishops identify the preach-er as ‘the mediator of meaning, represent-ing both the community and the Lord’ andfrom knowledge of the congregation, thepreacher will be able to voice its concerns‘by naming its demons’ and by pointing ‘tothe signs of God’s presence in the lives ofhis people’ To relate to such strugglespreachers need to adapt the contents anddelivery of the homily both to the congre-gation and to the wider society in whichthey live. Methods of teaching should be‘adapted to the needs of the times – toanswer, that is the difficulties and ques-tions that man finds most burdensomeand distressing8’

Homileticist David Buttrick advocatesworking from the experience of the peoplerather than from the contents of the mes-sage. The content of the message may beclear to the preacher, but the readiness ofthe congregation to hear it is another mat-ter. For this reason it is important to try toestablish imaginative empathy with thehearers of the message.9

Buttrick’s advice is echoed by the US bish-ops 1982 document: ‘After the human sit-uation has been addressed, the homilistcan turn to the Scriptures to interpret thesituation, showing that God is present andactive in our lives today… only whenpreachers know what a congregationneeds to hear will they be able to commu-

nicate what a congregation needs to hear.’

Logos: the contents andstructure of the homily The reality of the Trinity should providethe content and the structure of the mes-sage. The Good News we preach is thatGod the Father is revealed to us throughthe Incarnation of his Son, that he recon-ciles us to himself through Christ’s deathand resurrection and that his Holy Spirit isnow poured out into our hearts.

The content of our preaching is the LivingGod revealed in the incarnation, life, deathand resurrection of Christ. In the scripturereadings, explained in the homily, God isspeaking to his people ‘opening up to themthe mystery of redemption and salvation,and nourishing their spirit’ and ‘Christhimself is present in the midst of the faith-ful through his word’.10

Preachers ‘need to build sermons so thatour listeners can step securely from imageto image, from story to story and thusclimb into the truths of lives.’ Lowry sug-gests a five parts methodology for “the ser-mon as preached” (oops, ugh, aha, whee,and yeah – or conflict, complication, sud-den shift, good news, and unfolding).Sermons, like stories should have plot,tension, and climax.11

Any worthwhile homily makes the connec-tion between gospel and life. This connec-tion can be made immediately in the formof a ‘hook’ or introductory image rooted inthe experience of the congregation. It mayalso happen in the way in which the goodnews is unfolded and applied to life in the

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Preparing the Sunday Homily – Duncan Macpherson

Like a good actor the preacher has toabsorb and ‘become the message’. Highdrama is evident not only in good preach-ing but also in the Scriptures themselvesand preachers, like actors, can interpretthe scripture texts to provide quality per-formance for the powerful drama of ourredemption. The preacher, like any goodmethod actor, is willing to live the storyand to take a chance on what ‘God’s livingword may actually be about for us in thismoment’2.

Each preacher has what Americanhomiletician Joseph Webb calls ‘hub sym-bols’. These comprise a distinctive person-ality and background; with prejudices andenthusiasms derived from psychologicaland social factors based on individualexperience.3 Unless the preacher is awareof these hub symbols he may easily substi-tute his own message for God’s and thatwe preach not ourselves but Christ cruci-fied and that we are only the earthenwarejars that hold the treasure, to make it clearthat such an overwhelming power comesfrom God and not from us. (2 Corinthians4:5-7).

2. Pathos: Reading thecongregation and the timesPreachers are likely to preach in a way thatbest suits their own character type, butthis must correspond to the character typeof the congregation. A mismatch meansthat preaching falls on deaf ears. In thefilm ‘Four weddings and a funeral’, nobodywas listening to the Reverend Mr. Bean4 .Interpreting the congregation is arguablyjust as important as the interpreting thetext. The more we learn, the more werealise that each sermon is what the

American homileticist Eugene Lowry calls‘an event in time’.

If this ‘event in time’ is to be significant itmust have a clear purpose. In the words ofBlessed John Henry Newman: ‘As amarksman aims at the target and its bull’s-

eye, and at nothing else, so the preachermust have a definite point before him,which he has to hit… Talent, logic, learn-ing, words, manner, voice, action, all arerequired for the perfection of a preacher;but ‘one thing is necessary’ – an intenseperception and appreciation of the end forwhich he preaches, and that is, to be theminister of some definite spiritual good tothose who hear him… as a marksmanaims at the target… the preacher musthave a definite point before him, which hehas to hit5.’ Engaging restless hearts, it is tothe heart of God that the message mustlead – or, in the words on Newman’s tomb-stone, ex umbris et imaginibus in veri-tatem – ‘from shadows and imaginings intothe Truth’.

Pope Benedict sets out a clear definition ofwhat the homily should be aiming to do:‘Generic and abstract homilies should beavoided. In particular, I ask these ministersto preach in such a way that the homilyclosely relates the proclamation of the

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2 Childers, J. and Schmidt, C. J. (eds). Performance in Preaching: Bringing the sermon to life,(Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2008)

3 Webb, J. Hub symbols: A new approach to effective interpersonal evangelism (Malibu: TheCenter for the Study of Christian Communication, 1982).

4 David Parrot, ‘Engaging with the Congregation’, The Preacher 138 (July 2010), p. 7.5 The Idea of a University (1852 and 1858) 2:6

6 Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, (2007), 139-40.7 Bishops Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry Fulfilled in your hearing: The Homily in the

Sunday Assembly (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1982)8 Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops, Christus Dominus, 13.9 Buttrick, D, Homiletic: Moves and Structures (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987) 14210 General Instruction on the Roman Missal 55 and Sacrosanctum Concilium 711 Lowry E. L., The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon as Narrative

‘one thing is necessary’ – an intense perception andappreciation of the end forwhich he preaches, and thatis, to be the minister of somedefinite spiritual good

concluding part of the homily. Frequently aliterary device known as inclusio makes athematic link between both the openingand the conclusion

To conclude, I will set out a check listwhich may prove helpful in preparing ahomily for a Sunday liturgy.

Organising PreachingPlans: Sunday LiturgyThe one sentence or “big idea”based on the Gospel readingFirst read and meditate on the Gospel pas-sage or one of the other appointed read-ings. Before you consult any commen-taries or homiletic notes identify one keymessage that speaks directly to you andthat you think will form the main aim ofyour homily. Summarise your target in onesentence.

Trinitarian perspectiveNow set it into a Trinitarian perspective sothat you will be proclaiming the risenChrist who is the way to the Father andthrough whom we receive the Holy Spirit.

The world in front of the textNext consider the specific needs and ethosof the congregation who will be present atthe Mass at which you will be preaching.Consider also the events of the weekwhether local, national or international.How can the message be tailored to theconcerns of your hearers and to the back-drop of what is happening around them?What interpretative approach will be mostappropriate for the text ‘to answer… thedifficulties and questions that man findsmost burdensome and distressing’

The world of the textNow consider what insights can obtainedfrom reading commentaries that illumi-nate the original context and meaning ofthe text on which you are preaching (Thismay sometimes lead to a radical revision ofwhat you have prepared so far).

Other insightsIt may now be helpful to read and medi-tate on the other readings and to considerwhether they include elements in themwhich can reinforce the message of yourhomily (The first reading is always intend-ed to link with a theme in the Gospel).

Insights may also be gained from thinkingabout what readings precede and follow inthe lectionary and where this Sunday’sreadings figure in the liturgical year. It willalso be helpful to see each reading in thecontext of the Bible as well as of the lec-tionary. Sometimes the significance of atext may not emerge clearly otherwise.

Preaching plot adoptedNow devise a structure to the homily thatwill engage the interest of the congregationproviding ‘plot, tension, and climax’.

Application to liturgy and lifeFinally, the homily needs to point to theway in which the word of God can chal-lenge, console and change our lives andhow we can relate ‘the proclamation of theword of God to the sacramental celebra-tion and the life of the community’—howthe biblical message can read both us andthe times in which we live. �



‘Ite missa est’: the dismissal proclaimed at the end of Mass by the deacon – at

least when the priest (and even the occa-sional bishop) doesn’t forget to let him!

Of course, this proclamation doesn’t reallystate that the Mass is ended, rather that whatwe’ve celebrated in the Church isn’t confinedby the walls of any building. No, theEucharist is carried ‘outside’ through themission given to us all.

What is this mission? It is the very mission ofChrist. From every Mass we are sent out tobear – actually to be – the loving presence ofJesus into the world. But how, in particular,do deacons participate in this mission whichflows from our sharing in the body and bloodof Christ? Corpus Christi is a fitting celebra-tion at which to reflect further on this ques-tion.

I’d like to do so with the help of threemoments of the Corpus Christi celebrationwhich Pope Benedict VXI highlights in ahomily for this Feast, and will also draw sig-nificantly on Deus Caritas Est andSacramentum Caritatis. The three momentsthe Pope highlights are: gathering around thealtar of the Lord to be together in his pres-ence; then walking with the Lord in theEucharistic procession; and thirdly, kneelingbefore the Lord in adoration at theEucharistic blessing

However, to appreciate comprehensively themeaning of today’s feast for the Diaconate wemust still hold present last Sunday’sSolemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. For theEucharistic mystery, the Sacrament ofCharity, is fundamentally a Trinitarian mys-tery proceeding from Love itself.

When Jesus tells us ‘I am the living bread’, healso tells us that he is sent by the livingFather. He is the true bread from Heavenwhich the Father gives; the bread that giveslife to the world. He is the Son sent by theFather, who, by the Holy Spirit, assumed ourflesh and blood. In that same Spirit, Jesusoffered himself lovingly on the Cross to theFather and the Father raised Him up in theSpirit. Sent by Jesus, the glorified Lord seat-ed at the Father’s right hand, it is the HolySpirit who gathers us around the altar of theLord to be together in his presence. Indeed, itis by the working of the Holy Spirit that thebread and wine are substantially changedinto the body of Christ broken for us and theblood of Christ poured out for us, so that inChrist we may have eternal life – raised up toshare in the Communion of Father, Son andHoly Spirit.

Drawn into the intimacy of this Communionwe are also bound to our brothers and sistersin faith. Our communion with the body andblood of Christ means that, though we aremany, we are one body. I am drawn out ofmyself to become one with the Lord and thusone with all who receive him. Yet – and this isso important – this being gathered together asone around the altar of the Lord is in no waya clique.

Our being taken up into Trinitarian love is atthe same time a being turned outwardstowards the whole of humanity. OurEucharistic communion must pass over into


Vincent Nichols

The final event of theconference was Masson Sunday 26 June, the feast of Corpuset Sanguis Christi, in the Chapel of theUniversity College. The PrincipalCelebrant and preacher was the MostReverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishopof Westminster (in whose diocese thecollege is situated) and President of theBishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

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Homily for the feast of Corpus Christi

Insights may also be gainedfrom thinking about whatreadings precede and followin the lectionary and wherethis Sunday’s readings figurein the liturgical year

our ministry of charity unfolds. We bow downin awe and wonder before the God who firstbent over us, like the Good Samarian, to healour wounds; we receive the blessing of hewho stooped down to wash our dirty feet;who emptied himself on the cross to fill uswith heavenly riches, with God’s life. In ado-ration of the Blessed Sacrament we contem-plate (to look forward to Friday’s feast) the

When Bishop Michael Evans died in July 2011 he had been Bishop of East

Anglia for eight and a half years, and for mostof that time he was suffering from aggressiveprostate cancer. Both the disease and itstreatments would have stopped most of us inour tracks. But it had two effects on BishopMichael. It made him determined to drivecheerfully through the pain and more partic-ularly the deep weariness, and it graduallymade him realise he needed to depend moreon others and less on sheer will-power. More than 2,000 people crammed the vast St John’s Cathedral in Norwich for hisRequiem Mass, and there was an extraordi-nary atmosphere of love and joy. He hadbecome a Bishop not only respected andadmired, but deeply loved, by the vast num-bers whose lives he touched. The AnglicanBishop of Norwich, Graham James, in histribute, said: ‘…Michael Evans was God’s giftto Catholics in East Anglia, to all Christiansand those of little or no faith as well. Themanner of his dying was the measure of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus, broken wide open sothat in that Heart all may find a home. In theEucharist the human heart of Jesus stillbeats with Trinitarian love. Immersed in thislove our human hearts are formed by divinelove, harmonised with the love of Christ. Corad cor loquiter; and so we discover ever morefully the meaning of the diaconal proclama-tion: ‘Ite missa est.’ �

man – faithful to God and his people, andwith an infectious joy about him which painand suffering could not extinguish…’ Thisgets to the pith. Bishop Michael was full of joy,and chronic illness only made him more joy-ful. He was a great teaching bishop and heinitiated a ‘Learning Together’ programmeevery third Saturday which brought peopletogether (1200 over the first five years) fromacross the diocese to study together for fivehours in what he called ‘teaching days’ (sys-tematics, scripture, history, moral theology)and ‘practical days’, training in a wide rangeof lay ministries and catechetics. He himselfled more than a quarter of the days, and hisdays were always the most popular, whetheron the Incarnation, the Atonement, the life ofOscar Romero, in dialogue with an Imamabout Christian-Muslim dialogue, or offeringexegesis of one of the encyclicals of Pope PaulVI (his favourite pope). These teaching days


Homily for the feast of Corpus Christi – Vincent Nichols

the actual practice of love for others – nomatter who they are. For the Father not onlygives us the Son in the Eucharist, but in thepower of the Holy Spirit sends us out to walkwith the Lord. We are to be a wonderful pro-cession carrying the one we have received toothers. Our charitable activity always flowsfrom the Eucharist and makes us radiantmanifestations of divine agape. For when, byour charity, we live the Eucharistic mysteryothers see the Trinity! Yes, the mission of theIncarnate Son continues in and through us.

However, we continue the Son’s mission,carry him to others, only because he walkswith us, leads us, carries us. The Eucharisticprocession reminds us that the Lord is withus every step of the way, renewing ourstrength. No matter how many the obstacleswe encounter we can travel the path of char-ity because it proceeds out from the Massitself.

This indissoluble bond between theEucharist and charitable activity means thatcharitable activity is essential to the Church’snature and mission. It’s as necessary as theproclamation of the Word and the adminis-tration of the Sacraments. These three pre-suppose each other and are inseparable. TheChurch cannot neglect her ministry of char-ity any more that she can neglect theSacraments and the Word.

No surprise, then, that at the very beginningof the Church the Apostles were concernedthat everyone in the community had whatwas required for a dignified life. Nor that inthe earliest centuries of the Church, bishops– the successors to the Apostles – had the pri-mary responsibility for ensuring that theofferings presented at Mass were used tosupport those in need. This responsibility foroverseeing charitable activity remains at thecore of Episcopal ministry. When I wasordained bishop I resolved ‘to show kindnessand compassion in the name of the Lord tothe poor, and to strangers and to all who arein need’. And the Directory for the Pastoral

Ministry of Bishops reminds me that the dutyof charity is incumbent upon each bishop inhis diocese.

How am I to fulfil this mission faithfully? Theanswer, you know, is the Greek word used toname the Church’s service of charity –diakonia.

The Apostles chose seven men full of theSpirit to ensure that there was a well orderedlove of neighbour. And at your ordination youdrew strength from the gift of the Holy Spiritto help your bishop as ministers of the word,altar and of charity. By the consecrationwhich binds you more closely to the altar, youare to perform works of charity in the nameof the bishop after the example of those theapostles chose. You have a privileged vocationof assisting your bishop to be a faithful mis-sionary of charity. This is why there is a spe-cial bond between the deacon and his bishop,more so that between the deacon and theparish to which he is appointed. Deacons, inhistory, are closely associated with the bishop,especially in the ministry of charity. I think wehave a great deal to learn about this.Moreover, by your ministry of charity youincarnate the Word you preach and shapeyour way of life according to the example ofChrist, whose body and blood you give to thepeople.

At this time, as a Church, we are striving tofind new ways of strengthening our work ofcharity. There was a recent conference ofrepresentatives from many Catholic charitieswho gathered here to explore how we maymore effectively live Caritas. There, too, Istressed the links between the Eucharist andpractical charity. I hope that this feast ofCorpus Christi may inspire us to reflect morefully on the particular role of deacons in thismission which is intrinsic to the Body ofChrist.

But better than talk more about it, let’s kneelbefore the Lord in adoration. In prayer beforethe Blessed Sacrament the significance of


Homily for the feast of Corpus Christi – Vincent Nichols

John Morrill

OBITUARY : The Rt Revd Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia

John Morrill has been a permanentdeacon in the diocese of East Angliasince 1996 and has served as Chair of the Commission for Evangelisation for the diocese since 2005 and asAssistant Director for diaconalformation since 2007.

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ber of priests is in decline. Others feel strong-ly that the diaconate represents a versatileministry which allows the institutional serv-ing Church to interface with the world. In theend, whatever we might think or ponder, weare told that ‘The origin of the diaconate isthe consecration and mission of Christ, inwhich the deacon is called to share. Throughthe imposition of hands and the prayer ofconsecration, he is constituted a sacred min-ister and a member of the hierarchy’.1

While I realise that there is still a great deal ofdebate and discussion going on as to the ori-gins, ministry and purpose of the PermanentDiaconate, I would just like to offer a fewthoughts as a result of pondering on the roleand ministry of the deacon during the Massof Chrism and the Sacred Triduum.Personally I find it helpful, and perhaps itmight be of use to others. My thoughts areinspired by this quote from the Catechism ofthe Catholic Church: ‘The Church’s faithprecedes the faith of the believer who is invit-ed to adhere to it. When the Church cele-brates the sacraments, she confesses thefaith received from the apostles – whence theancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi (or:legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi,according to Prosper of Aquitaine [5thcent.]). The law of prayer is the law of faith:the Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is aconstitutive element of the holy and livingTradition’.2 Also, given that the Liturgy is thesummit to which all the Church’s activity isdirected and font from which all her powerflows,3 we are bound to find some direction inthus meditating on this theme.

As the solemn Mass of Chrism begins,towards the front of the procession, a dea-con carries the book of the Gospels. Thenat the appropriate time a deacon proclaimsthe Gospel. As is normal, the deacon ordeacons assist the bishop in gathering the

gifts for the Offertory. In the case of theMass of Chrism they also bring up the Oilsto be blessed, announcing what each one isfor: Oil for the Sacred Chrism, the Oil ofthe sick and the Oil of catechumens. Allthe way through the Mass they assist thebishop, carrying, lifting, holding and even-tually bearing the Blessed Oils from theChurch in procession to the sacristy orsome other suitable place at the end of theMass. Again, they normally assist in the dis-tribution of the Oils after Mass is finished.

During the Mass of the Lord’s Supper thedeacon or deacons assist as usual but theyare there also especially to assist the bish-op or priest at the Mandatum or theWashing of the Feet. If it is a bishop who isdoing the washing of the feet he removeshis Chasuble but keeps on his dalmatic ifhe is wearing one.

On Good Friday, the deacons are there againstanding with the bishop or priest as they cel-ebrate the Solemn Liturgy of the Lord’sPassion. The deacon directs the people dur-ing the General Intercessions as to when tokneel and stand. More often than not, in thesecond form of the showing of the Cross, it isthe deacon who brings the Cross before thegaze of the faithful and who holds it for themto kiss. He brings the Blessed Sacramentfrom the place of repose for the distributionof Holy Communion.

In many ways, on Holy Saturday at the Vigil,the deacon’s role is enviable. It is he who car-ries the lighted Paschal Candle into Churchand announces ‘the Light of Christ’. He thenproclaims the Exsultet with its profound andjoyous message. He is charged with carryingthe good news of Christ’s Resurrection to allof us. As at every mass, the deacon also dis-misses us, but it is in a very special way thathe does it at the Vigil and throughout the

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revealed most of his enthusiasms – Catholicsocial teaching, ecumenism, a radical com-mitment to the processes begun by theSecond Vatican Council. Above all he wascommitted to the young people of the dio-cese, setting up a diocesan youth council andhe threw himself into regular events withyouth (‘hobbling with the bishop’ –- a regularpilgrimage-walk from King’s Lynn toWalsingham; annual visits with youth toTaizé, taking one of the largest diocesan con-tingents to successive World Youth Days). Hedied much loved and admired, but it had notall been plain sailing. He had come into thediocese at the age of 52 having rarely movednorth of the Thames (he was a man of Kent)except to watch his beloved Leeds Unitedplay football, and after a 28-year ministry fair-ly evenly divided between teaching in semi-nary, university chaplaincy and parish work.But he also came in as a whirlwind and hisreforming zeal did not carry all with him. Hepromulgated a plan for reform of all aspectsof parish life (‘Forward and OutwardTogether’) saying in a cover-note that heintended to ‘throw some chili peppers intoyour salad’. This was typical of his slightlycaustic wit, the most counter-productiveexample of which was his attempt to call thediocesan newspaper ‘The Bishop’s Finger’,an allusion to a good Kentish ale that was not

appreciated. His first meetings with his dea-cons were unhappy ones, as he instructedmore than he listened. But over the years,the deacons more than most came to lovehim. He had some odd ideas about the dia-conate (he said that if he was pope for the day he would abolish the transitional dia-conate and have just permanent priests andpermanent deacons), but mutual respectwas gradually and then emphatically engen-dered. He recognised the range of gifts thatdeacons brought from their worlds of workand by the end of his ministry as Bishop amajority of the diocesan commissions werechaired by deacons, and his visitations ofparishes were invariably affirming. He wasutterly committed to the three-fold ministryof the deacon, in service of the Word, theAltar and Charity, and he preached powerful-ly at ordinations and jubilees about the dea-con as a man who by his life and by the wordsof commissioning given him at the end of theMass led the people out with joy to love andserve the Lord. Indeed Bishop Michael’s ownlife was as much a sign (however much hewould not agree) that he was every inch adeacon, just as he was every inch a priest andevery inch a bishop. Diakonia, I never quitedared to say to him, is an indelible mark, andyou demonstrate as much. �


OBITUARY : The Rt Revd Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia – John Morrill

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Terry Drainey

The Deacon and Holy WeekThis article is a paper given by theBishop of Middlesborough at the annualmeeting of the Conference of DiaconateDirectors and Deacon Delegates ofEngland and Wales held at Hinsley Hallin Leeds in November 2010. BishopDrainey is the member of the Bishops’Conference of England and Wales who is responsible for clergy formation

Everyone has an opinion on the theologicalbasis and ministerial parameters of the

Permanent Diaconate. Many enthusiasticallyembrace it and see it as the restoration of awonderful and germane ministry to the Post-Vatican II Church. Others interpret it as aclericalisation of tasks that could be andshould be in the domain of the lay-faithful.Some welcome deacons because they see inthem a stop-gap in a world where the num-

1 Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent deacons 12 CCC 11243 Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium 10

The sacramental character of the dia-conate is an issue that remains implic-

it in the biblical, patristic and liturgical tes-timony we have just described. Now weneed to see how the Church first took con-scious and explicit notice of this at a timewhen, with rare exceptions, the diaconatewas merely a step toward the priesthood.

I. The Early ScholasticsAlthough it can have a broad and genericmeaning, “sacramentality” in the strictersense alludes to the seven sacraments (vis-ible and efficacious signs of grace),amongst which we have the sacrament of“Holy Orders”. And, within Orders, we candistinguish different “levels” or “degrees”,varying between seven and nine in num-ber. The diaconate and the presbyteratealways appear among the ordines sacri ofthe sacrament, and the sub-diaconate alsocame to be included on account of thecelibacy requirement. The episcopate wasexcluded in most cases.1

According to Peter Lombard († 1160),2

the diaconate is an ordo or gradus officio-rum – the sixth. Although he consideredall ordines to be spirituales and sacri, heemphasised the excellence of the dia-conate and the presbyterate, the only

orders that exist by the precept of theApostles in the early Church, whereas allthe others were instituted by the Churchover the course of time. The episcopatedid not enjoy this excellence, according tohim, since it did not belong to the sacra-mental ordines, but rather to the domainof offices and dignities.3

II. From St Thomas Aquinas(† 1273) to the Council of Trent (1563)

1. The affirmation of sacramentality

The teaching of St. Thomas on the dia-conate4 included its sacramentality inas-much as it belongs to Holy Orders, one ofthe seven sacraments of the New Law.Each of the various orders in some wayconstitutes a sacramental reality, notwith-standing the fact that only three (priest-hood, diaconate and sub-diaconate) could

New51

Tony Schmitz

The NDR presents the next instalment ofa fresh and complete translation of theInternational Theological Commission’simportant research document Le Diaconat: Évolution et Perspectives,Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 2003. DeaconTony Schmitz is Director of Studies ofthe national diaconate formationprogramme for the DiaconateCommission of the Bishops’ Conferenceof Scotland and co-editor of the NewDiaconal Review. What follows is onlythe first part of Chapter Four.

International Theological Commission: The sacramentalityof the DiaconateFrom the twelfth to the twentieth century

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Octave of Easter. With the double ‘Alleluias’he evokes in us a similar response, thus mak-ing us witnesses to the Risen Lord.

Obviously we all know that the deacon isindeed a Herald of the Gospel. He is chargedwith this at his ordination, and he is told, ‘Itwill also be (your) duty, at the bishop’s discre-tion, to bring God’s word to believer andunbeliever alike..’ The deacon’s ministry andlife are intimately bound up with living outand carrying to others the Gospel message.Furthermore, his ministry is closely connect-ed to the Church’s mission of service. Heshould be ready to “wash feet” on any occa-sion. He will be engaged in catecheticalinstruction, helping others to deepen theirunderstanding of the Word of God and howto live it out in their daily lives. His is a min-istry of prayer. As he guides the faithfulthrough the Liturgical Services, as he leadsthem in the Intercessions, so he will encour-age and support them in their own personalprayer journey.

Through his practical role in the Blessing ofthe Holy Oils, he is associated with theSacramental life of the Church. Yes we knowthat the deacon can officiate at theSacrament of Baptism with all the solemnrites that the Church provides. But as he car-ries the Oil of Catechumens he does so asone who gathers, instructs and encouragesthose who are on their journey towards initi-ation into the life of Christ. As he carries theOil of Sacred Chrism, he does so as one whoshould constantly enlighten God’s people asto their priestly, royal and prophetic role. Heshould be one who gives witness to thegospel, proclaiming it by his life and by hiswords. In this way he will help those who arepreparing for the sacrament of Confirmationto be open to the gifts of the Spirit enablingthem to become witnesses to their faith inChrist by the holiness of their lives.

The deacon carries the Oil of the Sick, for hisministry will be bound up with the care of thesick. He will bring the Eucharist togetherwith the presence and support of the Churchto all those who are unable to be attend. Hewill demonstrate the Church’s care for thosewho are in hospitals or medical institutions of

one kind or another. He will be for them thesign of the Church’s loving service.4

In a world that finds ageing and death almosttaboo-topics, where hope is in short supply,the deacon is charged with proclaiming themessage of Christ who died and is risenagain; not just in the darkness of the Churchon Holy Saturday night, but at all times andin every place. He is to bring the good newsof that first Easter morning to all those whoare desperate to hear it. He has to evoke agenuine response in us to the news of theresurrection and he has to encourage andempower us to go out into the world takingthat same message with us.

I am sure a deacon can and will do so muchmore than this. The wonderful thing to me asa bishop is that the deacon is there to assist inany way that is pastorally helpful for the mis-sion of the Church. It can be rich ministrywith an illustrious past and an encouragingfuture. So to you, brother deacons, I say,‘Hold the mystery of faith with a clear con-science. Express in action what you proclaimby word of mouth. Then the people of Christ,brought to life by the Spirit, will be an offer-ing God accepts. Finally, on the last day, whenyou go to meet the Lord, you will hear himsay: “Well done, good and faithful servant,enter into the joy of your Lord.”’ 5 �


The Deacon and Holy Week – Terry Drainey

4 There are some who advocate that the deacon should be a minister of the Sacrament of the Sick; mycomments neither imply nor support this position.

5 From the Rite of Ordination of deacons

1 For these oscillations, cf. L. Ott, Das Weihesakrament (HbDG IV/5), Freiburg a.Br. 1964.2 Peter Lombard introduced in IV Sent. d. 24 the Treatise De ordinibus ecclesiasticis that, with

the exception of a few lines, had been copied from Hugo of St. Victor († 1141), from Yves deChartres († 1040 to 1115) and from the Decrees of Gratian, and all these authors dependedin their turn on De Septem ordinibus ecclesiae (fifth to seventh centuries), one of the firsttreatises of the Western Church (cf. St. Isidore of Seville) dedicated to an exposition of thecompetences of the different grades of the hierarchy.

3 IV Sent. d. 24 c14.4 See In IV Sent. D. 24-25, Suppl. qq 34-40, SCG, chapter IV. 74-77, De art. fidei et Eccl.

sacramentis.

He will be for them the signof the Church’s loving service

Catholic Social teachingand currency stabilityIn my earlier article I looked briefly at the his-tory and economics of the euro; now I wantto concentrate on its theology. This establish-es the case that the stability sought throughthe euro reflects Christian teaching. In thehistory of developed Catholic social teachingsince Leo XIII, the popes and bishops haveincreasingly warned against the harm doneby unregulated financial profiteering. In themidst of the Depression in the 1930s PopePius XI wrote this in Quadragesimo Anno:

‘…a dictatorship, being most forcibly exer-cised by those who, since they hold themoney and completely control it, controlcredit also and rule the lending of money.Hence they regulate the flow…of thelifeblood whereby the entire economic sys-tem lives, and have so firmly in their graspthe soul, as it were, of economic life thatno one can breathe against their will’.1

This critique of bankers – just as true now asit was in the 1930s – really only makes senseif it also encompasses those who throughspeculation in exchange markets make enor-mous sums of money and deprive countriesof stability, in respect of the competitivenessof industry and agriculture and people’sspending power. The principle of solidaritydemands, as in the whole of our teaching,that the system be properly regulated andpoliced – a ‘free’ unfettered market is notacceptable. This was reiterated forcefullylater in the 1930s in two statements by theCatholic bishops in the United States.2

From the time of Blessed John XXIII papalteaching about economic life has increas-ingly looked at relationships between coun-tries and the international monetary sys-


Ashley Beck

Deacons and the Euro II

tem. In his great encyclical about peace,Pacem in Terris, Pope John recognised thatthe relationships between states need bet-ter international structures of authority:

‘..The shape and structure of political lifein the modern world, and the influenceexercised by public authority in all nationsof the world are unequal to the task of pro-moting the common good of all peoples.’3

The world of 1963, reeling from the Cubanmissile crisis, needed better international

in the strict sense be considered ordinessacri on account of their particular rela-tionship to the Eucharist.5 But one shouldnot conclude from their sacramentalitythat priesthood and diaconate constituteddifferent sacraments; the distinction prop-er to orders does not correspond to a uni-versal or integral whole, but rather to a“potestative totality”.6

The manner of articulating the unity andunicity of the sacrament of Orders, in itsdifferent grades, involved their referenceto the Eucharist, Sacramentum sacramen-torum.7 It was on this account that differ-

ent orders required a sacramental conse-cration in accordance with the type ofpower relative to the Eucharist. By theirordination, priests received the power toconsecrate, whilst deacons were given thepower to serve priests in the administra-tion of the sacraments.8

The relationship of each order to theEucharist becomes a criterion for exclud-ing any suggestion that each orderrequires the administration of a specificsacrament. The same criterion also servesto exclude the psalmist and the cantorfrom sacramental orders. But this criterionis also used to exclude the sacramentalityof the episcopate.9 Nevertheless, althoughSt. Thomas refuses to allow the episcopateany sort of power superior to that of thepresbyter in relation to the verum corpusChristi, he does consider the episcopatealso to be, in some way, an ordo by reason

of its powers over the corpus mysticum.10

Because the diaconate is a sacrament, weare faced with an ordo that imprints acharacter, a doctrine that Thomas appliesto baptism, to confirmation and to Orders.But there was a development in histhought: one that begins from defining thecharacter of Orders solely by reference toChrist’s priesthood (In IV Sent.) and endsby the defining the entire doctrine of whatis meant by character (STh).11

On the subject of the diaconate, heexplains all its potestates relating to the dis-pensatio of the sacraments as somethingthat appears to lie in the domain of what is“licit” rather than in the domain of a moreradical empowerment relative to the “valid-ity” of its respective functions.12 In his turn,in the Summa Theologiae, (III q67 a1), heposes the question whether evangelisingand baptising are part of the diaconal officeand he responds that direct administrationof the sacraments does not belong to dea-cons quasi ex proprio officio, any morethan any task relating to teaching (docere).Only catechesis (cathechizare) belongs todeacons ex proprio officio.13 �


International Theological Commission: The sacramentality of the Diaconate – Tony Schmitz

1 London: CTS (S 105), 1931, section 105.2 ‘Present Crisis’, in 1933 and ‘Statement on Social Problems’, in 1937, in D. Myers (ed.) Justice in

the Marketplace: Collected Statements of the Vatican and the United States Catholic Bishops onEconomic Policy, 1891-1984 (Washington: USCC, 1985).

3 London: CTS (S 264), 1963, section 135.

Deacons are expected to be specialistsin the social teaching of the CatholicChurch. In the issue before last welooked at how the single currency inEurope has developed as part of thevision of the founders of a unitedEurope sixty years ago: in this sequelwe look at how this development isrooted in social teaching – the reasonwhy deacons should back the Eurowhere it exists and work for countriesoutside the Eurozone to join it. FrAshley Beck is co-editor of the NewDiaconal Review and the representativeof the Catholic Bishops Conference ofEngland and Wales on the Committeeof Management of Faith in Europe, anecumenical research body inassociation with Churches Together inBritain and Ireland. He is AssistantPriest of Beckenham in south eastLondon and Lecturer in PastoralMinistry at St Mary’s University College,Twickenahm. An expanded version ofboth articles, Christians and the Euro,has been advertised in this journal(available by emailing the author [email protected])

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5 In IV Sent. d. 24 q2 a1 ad 3.6 Ibid. d.24 q2 a.1 sol. 1.7 Ibid. d.24 q2 a.1 sol. 2.8 Ibid.9 Ibid. d 24 q3 a.2 sol. 2.10 Ibid. d.24 q3 a.2 sol. 2.11 See In IV Sent d.7 q2 ad1; STh III Q.63

a.3.12 In IV Sent. d.24 q1 a.2 sol. 2.13 STh q. 67 a.1.

... one should notconclude from theirsacramentality thatpriesthood anddiaconate constituteddifferent sacraments

darity which includes everyone, beginningwith the most neglected. He thinks that thepoorest nations themselves have a respon-sibility to work closely together, but it isclear that this way of operating reflects ageneral principle:

‘…Nations of the same geographicalarea should establish forms of coopera-tion which will make them less depen-dent on more powerful producers; theyshould open their frontiers to the prod-ucts of the area; they should examinehow their products might complementone another; they should combine inorder to set up those services whicheach one separately is incapable of pro-viding; they should extend co-operationto the monetary and financial sector…

An essential condition for global solidar-ity is autonomy and free self-determina-tion…but at the same time solidaritydemands a readiness to accept the sacri-fices necessary for the good of the wholeworld community.’

The first part of that quotation is a thumb-nail description of what has happened inEurope since the war, made by the popeinto a model for other, poorer regions; thesecond part is a succinct definition of thebalance between autonomy and shared sov-ereignty demanded by the idea of solidarity.Why does the pope endorse this way of act-ing for nations and encourage others to fol-low it? Because it is rooted in Christianteaching. How can any Catholic read thesewords and still be a ‘euro-sceptic’?

These themes in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis aretaken up in subsequent documents from var-ious bishops’ conferences. The priority ishelping poor nations – and they suffer most,

along with others, when there is currencyinstability and insecurity. It is this instabilitythat the monetary union project in Europehas been designed to address, and we can seefrom these extracts from papal teaching whyCatholics should support it wholeheartedly.

It is, of course, absolutely essential that thesingle currency should work in the interestsof the poorer nations, both within the EUand the rest of the world, and this is morepressing than ever during the current cri-sis: it is not acceptable for the more pros-perous countries to seek to ‘go it alone’, andthe means by which countries which haveexperienced problems are helped shouldnot go against the interests of the poor.

There is a serious reason for this overallteaching. One of the foundations of Catholicmoral teaching is the idea of natural law –the idea that simply from the created orderand the use of reason, we can discern howGod wants us to behave, without revelationor religious belief, so that some norms arebinding in all times and places. In Catholictheology we do not operate in an unrestrictedsetting of freedom – the way God has createdus reflects his will, and a sense of order andstability. Essentially setting up a single cur-rency, and co-ordinating and integratingmonetary policies among groups, is an inter-vention in the market with a view to anothergood – economic growth through stability.Currency speculation is about profiteeringand involves risking the common good in theinterests of private profit – rather, accordingto St Thomas Aquinas economic life shouldbe directed according to the common good ofsociety and the cultivation of moral rights andvirtues.7 The common idea that the individ-ual profit motive is the driving force of eco-nomic activity is thus alien to Catholicthought. Drawing on this both Pope Leo XIII


Deacons and the Euro II – Ashley Beck

regulation. Pope Paul VI built on this teach-ing and on the world view of the SecondVatican Council, especially in the PastoralConstitution on the Church in the ModernWorld, Gaudium et Spes (December 1965).In his ground-breaking encyclical in 1967 onworld development Populorum Progressio (aletter described at the time by the Wall StreetJournal as ‘souped-up Marxism’, and alsocategorically commended in 2009 by PopeBenedict XVI in his letter Caritas inVeritate4) the Pope applied Catholic thinkingto the need for international finance to sup-port the poorest nations of the world. Hecalled (paragraphs 51ff.) for the establish-ment of a World fund to relieve the poorestof the world, and for other forms of financialassistance to be given to poorer nations,either through gifts or low-interest loans.None of this would be possible without somecommon regulation and currency stability.By the time of the 1971 synod of bishops onjustice in the world, the Church had becomemore critical of the financial and monetarysystem as such – in his letter for the synod,Octagesima Adveniens (43) Pope Paul saidthat the monetary system has to be revisedin the light of the prior call of internationalduty.

As in many other respects, Blessed JohnPaul II developed further this aspect ofsocial teaching – the need for the interna-tional financial and monetary system to begoverned by ethical norms in favour of thepoor. As in other situations a ‘jungle’ is intol-erable: the market needs to be regulated.Moves in various places for fixed exchangerates and linked or common currencies arepart of what such regulation is about. In hisfirst encyclical Redemptor Hominis hereflected on how disparity between rich andpoor nations is getting worse and worse:

‘The contrast…represents the giganticdevelopment of the parable in the Bibleof the rich banqueter and the poor manLazarus. So widespread is the phenome-non that it brings into question thefinancial, monetary, production andcommercial mechanisms that, restingon various political pressures, supportthe world economy. These are provingincapable either of remedying the unjustsocial situations inherited from the pastor of dealing with the urgent challengesand ethical challenges of the present.’5

This becomes even more explicit in the1987 encyclical (written to commemoratethe 25th anniversary of PopulorumProgressio) which explored in the fullestway so far the concept of solidarity,Sollicitudo Rei Socialis6. One of the pope’srecurrent themes is the link between per-sonal sin and structures of sin in the world,and he includes international power blocsmarked by imperialism in this definition.He criticises forcefully aspects of the inter-national economic system which damagethe Lord’s poor. So he says:

‘I wish to mention specifically: thereform of the international trade system,which is mortgaged to protectionism andincreasing bilateralism; the reform of theworld monetary and financial system,today recognised as inadequate…

The world monetary and financial systemis marked by an excessive fluctuation ofexchange rates and interest rates, to thedetriment of the balance of payments andthe debt situation of the poorer countries.’

Moreover, he makes concrete proposals forco-operation in the framework of a soli-



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4 London: CTS (Do 784), 2009. See Ashley Beck, ‘More Souped-up Marxism? A summary andinitial assessment of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate’ The Pastoral Review volumr5, issue 5 (September/October 2009).

5 London: CTS (Do 506), 1979, section 16.6 London: CTS (S 400), 1987, sections 36 – 45.

7 On economic life in general see Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the SocialDoctrine of the Church (London: Continuum, 2004), 323ff., citing many references to John Paul II,Encyclical letter Centesimus Annus (London: CTS 2001). For St Thomas see ST II IIae 114ff. and134ff.

responsibility for the new ‘currency commu-nity’ that monetary union will create.Without this solidarity the short-term loserswill become the long-term excluded. Hedescribed the social responsibility of the pri-vate sector in which it has become the drivingforce as a major issue to which the Churchwould give more attention.

In other discussions at the conference PeterSutherland, former director of GATT and ofthe WTO, and President of BP and GoldmanSachs International, said that the nobility ofthe European ideal is integral to EuropeanMonetary Union which recalls what we haveseen about the need to re-establish the highideals at the base of so many commonEuropean institutions: the euro needed theright conditions to succeed – European inte-gration continues to be an example and anaid to greater solidarity throughout theworld. Commissioner Monti pointed out thatmonetary union would increase our sense ofsolidarity with one another but also how farwe have to go: in 1998 the EU had an unem-ployment rate of 11%, of which 4% could beattributed to the harmful effects of taxation.What was needed was fiscal co-ordination –that is, common taxation policies, repeated-ly resisted by successive British govern-ments, as envisaged originally by JacquesDelors.11 The President of COMECE, BishopJosef Homeyer, called for participants in theconference to continue the dialogue in his orher own country and to being politicians andeconomists into ethical debate. This confer-ence illustrates the ways in which the visionof a single currency is rooted in Catholicteaching and practice. In 2011 it is clear thatthe nations in the eurozone should have lis-tened to what was said at this stage – bothwith regard to fiscal and political integrationand the need for social responsibility.

Archbishop Nichols’homily in FrankfurtI want to conclude with reflections from animportant homily preached by the presentArchbishop of Westminster, the Most RevdVincent Nichols, in early 2002,12 when hewas Archbishop of Birmingham. He waspreaching in Frankfurt cathedral for theannual celebration of the first Holy RomanEmperor, Charlemagne, known as theKarlsamt. Birmingham is twinned withFrankfurt. The archbishop drew togetherCharlemagne’s vision for a united Europewith the recent introduction, a few weeksbefore, of the euro. For Charlemagne, thestate was a means of gaining the world forChrist, whose gospel could inspire and directthe state, at least in part.

The archbishop acknowledged that manymight miss the deutschemark and othercurrencies, but also pointed out that evenin England he had managed to acquireeuro coins from all over the continent veryearly in the year.13 He went on:

‘For many, of course, the new currency isboth sign and instrument of the deeperunity of all the peoples of Europe. Suchunity is a legitimate and worthy aspira-tion, especially in as much as it frees usall from the fear of conflict, enhances ourmutual support and enables us to tacklethe many human problems of today in amore efficient and concerted manner.

Monetary union in Europe, or at least insubstantial parts of Europe, is not new.For many decades until 1930 the goldstandard served as a common currency,and with silver coins such as theMariathaler in widespread use. That coinwas, of course, named after the EmpressMaria Theresa. But common currencies,



(in Rerum Novarum, 1891) and Pius XI inQuadragesimo Anno held that the state has apositive duty to intervene in economic life topromote a life of virtue among its citizens. Itis surely right to apply this approach to mon-etary and currency activity – the prioritymust be for transactions to reflect fairnessand justice – which is why St Thomas, andthe Church until the time of the Reformationcondemned usury.8 It is because of this basicconcept of order, and of the need for direc-tion and regulation, that Catholic analysis ofmodern problems identifies currency specu-lation and instability as a major social ill andthe root of many injustices.

The European bishops and the EuroThere is a commission of Catholic bishopsin Europe, COMECE, made up of repre-sentatives of the various bishops’ confer-ences.9 It works closely with similar bodiesfor other churches, especially CEC, theCouncil of European Churches. In early1998 COMECE organised a special con-ference in Brussels entitled The Euro andEurope, bringing together bishops, Vaticanofficials and senior figures in the EU.10 Itshows the Church’s vision with regard tothe single currency and the ways in whichour community has been working withthose who have been setting it up. In 1998the practical introduction of the euro,although it had been planned andtimetabled, was still some way off.

The conference brought together 200experts and 20 bishops from the 15 memberstates of the union, including the thenPresident of the German Bundesbank, DrHans Tietmeyer, and the EU commissionerresponsible for the single market, MarioMonti. One of the main contributors wasArchbishop Diarmuid Martin, General

Secretary of the Holy See’s PontificalCommission for Justice and Peace and nowArchbishop of Dublin. Dr Tietmeyer in hisspeech made clear what we have seenalready in these articles – that the singlecurrency is not an end in itself. Although itshistorical originality has to be acknowledged,it is not a miracle cure for all Europe’s eco-nomic ills –for example, unemployment; inaddition there are also risks that public opin-ion might turn against it, or that countriesmight not be able to stay in the stability pact.Monetary union is a major step in econom-ic and political progress, and the stabilitywhich it will bring will bring advantages toeveryone, including the whole world econo-my. He pointed out that currency integra-tion is ahead of political union – the eurohas advanced faster than Europe itself. As aresult it was now necessary to balancethings out by bringing further political inte-gration to match the economic – monetaryunion has become the motor force drivingEuropean integration.

Archbishop Martin took a rather differentview on this last point: the motor was not themarket, but the creativity, energy and work ofpeople. The economy is at the service of thehuman person – it gives that service by func-tioning properly and in accordance with eth-ical criteria; an unstable currency, just as alack of transparency, creative book-keeping,collusion and the suppression of information,damages people’s lives – he referred to recentexperiences in Asian economies. TheChurch values, therefore, the legitimateautonomy of the European Central Bank(ECB) and the need for a strong politicalcommitment to ensure its success. However,he stressed that there must be, at every level,responsibility for the social consequences ofdecisions that are taken. In strong and weakcountries, economic actors must internalise



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8 See ST II IIae.789 See the commission’s website, www.comece.org for details of their work. The current President is

the Bishop of Rotterdam. 10 For a full report see Briefing, 19 March 1998.

11 The recent crises in the eurozone in Greece and elsewhere have revived this aim, as a way ofpreventing similar problems in the future.

12 Briefing 13 March 2002.13 Many shops in London and port towns accept euros.

The gospel reading the archbishop waspreaching about was the call of the first dis-ciples by Jesus. The call to follow him meansthat all the ways in which we look at howhave to change are to be grounded in God:

‘From God alone will we find the trueperspectives by which to judge all things,knowing which is to be left behind aspart of a temporary or even false identi-ty, and which to be brought into the fash-ioning of a new and wider reality.

It is, then, precisely the marginalising ofreligious faith that puts at risk the projectof European unity. Those who believethat this unity will be achieved in purelysecular terms are mistaken. For thecapacity for religious belief lies at theheart of the human person, and withouta response to that truth our societies areattempting to build a new future on falsefoundations. Little wonder that PopeJohn Paul II, in his most recent address tothe diplomatic corps of the Holy See, andin reference to the work of refashioning apossible constitution for the EuropeanUnion, said: ‘The marginalisation of reli-gions, which have contributed and con-tinue to contribute to the culture andharmonisation of which Europe is legiti-mately proud, strikes me as both an injus-tice and an error of perspective.’ This issomething which must be corrected.’

Archbishop Nichols stressed the need torespect other people’s identities whileaffirming our own. He went on:

‘Another way of putting this is to say thatidentities and cultures are truly humanonly when they demonstrate an open-ness to others. Now that is a real chal-lenge to us all.’

This means we have to look at the darknessin our own history – that Karlsamt celebra-tion in Frankfurt (26 January 2002) at whichthe archbishop preached was also the same

day that year as Holocaust memorial day, theanniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in1945 – the temptation to exclude others fromour way of life, or simply from our consider-ations, does not go away.

What Archbishop Nichols, now the leader ofBritain’s Catholics, did was to root the enter-prise of the single currency in the wholeCatholic vision for European unity. AsCatholics we have a serious duty, for the rea-sons I have outlined, to support and sustainthat vision; deacons in particular have a dutyto deepen their awareness of this aspect ofour social teaching. Much of the work forthis article and the one published a year agowas done some years ago, long before thepresent crisis in the eurozone. The logic ofwhat I have argued is that the original visionfor the euro expected a far greater degree ofpolitical and fiscal integration than wasachieved: everyone agrees now – evenBritish politicians who have no intention ofbringing Britain into the eurozone – that thisis now necessary if the single currency is tosurprise. One of the commentators I havequoted, Will Hutton, has recently pointedout that the original vision needs to be recap-tured and the myths of free-marketeerschallenged: collective action in Europe is theonly answer to the current problems.14

Those of us who believe in the project of asingle currency should not lose our nerve.The arguments for a single currencyremain as strong as they have always been,and deacons should be arguing for this: ifwe live in the eurozone we should bethankful for what it has achieved; if we aregoing to join we should look forward to it;and if we live in Britain, Denmark orSweden we should work for our countriesto adopt the euro and ditch the pound, thekrone and the krona as soon as possible. �



of course, have not been sufficient to pro-tect Europe from disintegration and vio-lence. So there is an historical context inwhich we view this moment of new mon-etary union, not in order to dampenenthusiasm but to maintain our sense ofreality. So, too, our Christian perspectiveasks that we retain our critical senses.The unity of the European human familyobviously depends on far more than mon-etary union and will involve us in fargreater searching than has been neces-sary for this step, remarkable as it is.’

Archbishop Nichols linked the quest forEuropean unity with ecumenism, thesearch for unity among Christians. This isan important angle: in the aftermath of thelast war, the two went hand in hand. Theefforts of important Anglicans like BishopGeorge Bell of Chichester (the well-knowncritic of the allied bombing of German citiestowards the end of the war) and the foun-dation of the Taizé community, for example,showed that the parallel breaking down ofbarriers between nations which had been atwar, and between churches, caught theimagination of post-war Europe, even ofsome people in Britain. Moreover, the twomovements towards unity encounter someof the same problems.

‘The Church is the sacrament of the world,the place in which he purposes of the Godfor all peoples are revealed and expressed.So the struggles of the one Church ofChrist to find ways of overcoming historicand painful divisions are intimately con-nected with tasks facing Europe. Theemergence of a more united Christian wit-ness is properly understood as a sacramentof the greater unity of the whole humanfamily. The search for Christian unity, then,is a service to the harmony and peace forwhich all people long.’

This makes sense in so many ways. Themost important ways in which Christiansfrom different churches are now able to co-

operate – immeasurably more than at theend of the war – are in pursuit of God’s lawof justice for the poor, and the struggle forpeace in the world, as we have seen verymuch in the last few months. Christianunity and European unity go hand in hand.

The archbishop pointed to the symbolism ofthe new euro coin, which expresses bothunity and diversity in Europe: on the one sideis a standard design, showing the whole con-tinent, on the other different national sym-bols – for example, the tree of liberté(France), St Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna(Austria), the harp (Ireland), the cathedral ofSantiago de Compostella (Spain) and thehead of Pope John Paul II (Vatican City state).

‘The relationship between the individualcountry in Europe and the unity of Europeas a whole is a crucial and sensitive issue. Itresolution lies at the heart if the Europeanproject. Of course, the very notion of iden-tity is complex not only for the individualbut also for the nation. The basis of identitylies in a variety of factors: language, cus-toms, laws, art and sciences, and, of course,religion. The wide variety of creative talentswithin a people forges these factors into anidentity. And in a people’s way of life thatidentity maintains continuity with the pastand serves to fashion a future which is bothfaithful and innovative. While politiciansmust struggle to find ways to both promoteand reconcile a plurality of identities withinEurope, the gospel asks us to look closely atthe cost of allowing our identity to beshaped by the saving message ofJesus….that invitation requires of us a will-ingness to change. Without change we shallcontinue simply to exist side-by-side,whether that co-existence is within thewalls of one house, or within the boundariesof the present European Union.’

The unwillingness to contemplate changeis one of the bleakest and most unattrac-tive features of the anti-euro movement –it is stuck so firmly in the past.



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14 ‘The ailing euro is part of a wider crisis. Ourcapitalist system is near meltdown’ TheObserver 18 September 2011.


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