Permanent Deacons Community,
the Diocese of Hong Kong
HONG KONG (SE): On 15 January 2022 four more will be ordained into the ministry as an additional caring force.
In 1988 the Diocese of Hong Kong was the first in Asia to promulgate the ministry of Permanent Deacon. Since then, 31 men have been ordained to the diaconate.
The Bible reveals to us that God himself, in Jesus Christ, personally shepherds and serves his people. The Lord entrusted his disciples with “shepherding” and “serving” his people.
The early Church implemented the Holy Orders constituting three ranks in the sacred hierarchy: bishop, priest, and deacon. They cooperate and complement each other in tending the Lord’s flock.
However, for almost 1,000 years, the office of the diaconate almost disappeared. Then in 1964, the Second Vatican Council reestablished the diaconate as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy in recognition of the divinely established ecclesiastical ministry, just as it had evolved over the course of history.
In the 19th article of Lumen Gentium [Light of the Nations], a description is given of the principal characteristics proper to the state of permanent deacon: “At a lower level of the hierarchy are deacons, who receive the imposition of hands ‘not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry.’ For strengthened by sacramental grace they are dedicated to the people of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body of priests. In the service of the liturgy, of the gospel and of the works of charity.”
It is the duty of the deacons, as assigned by the competent authority, to administer Baptism, to be a custodian and dispenser of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, to bring the Viaticum to the dying, to read the sacred scripture to the faithful, to administer sacraments, to officiate at funeral and burial services.
t is the deacon’s special call to be on the front line as an attentive listener and a pioneer leading the Church’s response to various challenges of the ministry
As they are dedicated to duties of charity and administration, deacons are mindful of the admonition of Blessed Polycarp [LG 69-155]: “Be merciful, diligent, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all” [Ad Phil].
Apart from serving the liturgy and the Word, permanent deacons are sent to render pastoral services in hospitals, jails, labour and schools, airport chaplaincy, ministry in harbour and marriage, as well as works charity in society.
In the past, our deacons have organized pizza parties and dinners for the hungry, distributed blankets to the homeless, visited the sick in hospitals, cared for the elderly in old age homes, prayed for travellers and sailors at the airport and piers, and gave pastoral care to students, labourers and married couples, following the admonishment of Christ that “whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do unto me” [Matthew 25:45].
It is the deacon’s special call to be on the front line as an attentive listener and a pioneer leading the Church’s response to various challenges of the ministry.
Permanent deacons are bridge-builders people between clergy and laity, the celibate and the married, the ecclesiastical and the every day, they are to recognise the signs of times, articulating and interpreting them, attending to the spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially the poor, and bringing them healing.
The permanent diaconate is an opportunity to serve God and our Holy Catholic Church through the graces of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The deacon is commissioned to “focus on believing what one reads, teach what one believes and practice what one teaches.”
All permanent deacons of our diocese are devoted to living up to this commission through the strength of the Holy Spirit.
As St. Paul said, “Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible… I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it”
[1 Cor 9:19,22-23].
