Odnowa diakonatu stałego w Kościele rzymskokatolickim

Abstract

The restoration of the permanent diaconate in the Roman-Catholic Church is closely connected with the restoration of the Church, which wants to realize itself in the contemporary world as one which serves (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church 3; 38; 40-45), in order to become in this way a genuine sign of Christ-Deacon, „who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20, 28). It is enough to say that the word ’’diaconia” appears 190 times in the Council documents. To be sure, the reactivation of the permanent diaconate in the Roman-Catholic Church was done on the strength of article 29 of the Constitution on the Church, but this idea had recurred continuously in the Church a long time before the Council. It suffices to mention the initiative of the Council of Trent (caused by the reactivation of the diaconate by the reformers), another one by the German Caritas before the Second World War, one by Hannes Kramer (who established diaconate circles in the GFR), one by Rene Schaller (in France), and by Alberto Altana (in Italy). In the present article the author points to the stages of the development of the thought connected with restoration of the permanent diaconaite, and – in brief – reflects on the conception of the permanent deacon’s service in the contemporary Church. It seems – according to the theological-pastoral conception of the Church’s self-construction and to motu proprio Ad pascendum – it should be community-creating, i.e. the deacon should be a creator, an animattor, and a co-builder of various Church communities and the one who will integrate the disintegrated people inlto a lay and Church community.