When first ordained, as people asked what a deacon is, I would sometimes respond that we don’t fully understand it yet. That in restoring the diaconate, the Church did what it always does, act first and theologize later. I would add that in about 75 years the Church will have worked out the theology of the diaconate. In the meantime, the theology of it isn’t something I was concerned about.

As I’ve traveled, I’ve come across three theologies of the diaconate which have bothered me enough to reject. I’ll describe them in my own words and readily admit that those advocating them would never use the same language as me.

The first is based on clericalism. There are dioceses that want to keep laity out of any position of authority or influence within the Church. Yet, at the same time, due to the shortage of priests, they don’t have enough priests to do what must be done. Their solution is to choose a certain men they want to help, ordain then deacons and exclude the general laity from being involved. In such a case, it isn’t that the diocese is pro-deacon as much as they are anti-laity involvement. In such cases, a warped understanding of the diaconate arises. We’d all be better off if they didn’t have any deacons.

A second case arises amongst those who believe there are eight sacraments. The idea that deacons, priests and bishops share the same sacrament of ordination doesn’t seem possible for them. Therefore the ordination of the deacon may be a sacrament, but the ordaining of the priest is so different it should be counted separately. They give a sense that the ordination of a priest is an eighth sacrament. I had a High School student ask me if I was ordained because the Theology teacher at her Catholic High School in Omaha was teaching that deacons are not ordained. Although this heresy takes places in many areas, I think it is especially true in dioceses where some faculties are withheld from deacons.

The third case arises with the Clark Kent vision of the diaconate. We might say that like Clark Kent, deacons live within our world but are not of our world. Clark Kent became the authentic version of himself when he removed the disguise and appeared as Superman. After all, his cape was his baby blanket and represents him much more than hiding with glasses. Relating this to the diaconate, there is this idea that a deacon transforms from his disguise then pulls out a stole or a collar to transform into being a deacon. This is silly, but proliferated false teaching of the diaconate.

The theology of the diaconate is important and in time the Church will work it out. In the meantime we don’t want to get sidetracked by any false renderings of what it mens to be a deacon.