There are occasions in the Roman Catholic Church in which a bishop -who is the main celebrant of a Mass-has two deacons serving him at his side. These two deacons are sometimes termed as "the deacon of the Word" and "the deacon of the altar". They usually sit on either side of the bishop.

My questions are:

Can a Byzantine Catholic deacon be asked to serve as one of the bishop's deacons?

Could he do all the functions of a Roman deacon even though he does not have bi-ritual faculties?

If he has bi-ritual faculties, would he have to be vested as a Roman deacon or could he maintain being vested as Byzantine?

Thanks.

Yes.

Yes.

If bi-ritual, I suppose he would have his choice. If not, he would wear Byzantine vestments.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I was under the impression that a deacon really couldn't do anything unless he had the permission of his bishop.

Permission for occasional concelebration is presumed. If one were to serve at a parish of another ritual Church on a regular basis this would need to approved.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I was told that deacons are by nature "omni-ritual," not that this dispenses one from asking permission of his bishop for more regular celebrations.

Certainly, anything presidential in nature (Baptism, Marriage, Benedictions) would require SOME sort of explicit permission by one's bishop and the Latin bishop.

Fr. Deacon Lance, I cannot recall...is there anything in Canon Law which addresses this issue?

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

This strikes me as curious since in the East a Deacon cannot join together a couple in Marriage .

Could a Deacon who has been ordained in the East perform such ceremonies/rites in the West which he can't do in his own Church ?

Not without explicit permission, especially as it pertains to marriage. I'm told that such permission is RARELY if ever given.

The development of the presiding diaconate outside of mission situations (or where there is a dire lack of clergy) is a bit of an aberration in the tradition of the diaconate. It seems almost omnipresent in the Latin Church.

Only with the permission of his bishop and at the invitation of the Latin bishop under whom he has been invited to serve.

Regarding the "omniritual" issue, we were instructed in our diaconal program by a canon lawyer that a Ukrainian Greek Catholic deacon can "assume" no service outside of that to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop who has blessed his service and whose omophorion the deacon is under. Only his bishop can bless him for other service when that other service is requested. Bishop Basil (Losten) later reiterated that in another session. I do not consider myself "omniritual".

Yes, if you're biritual, you can wear Roman vestments. If you're not, your Byzantine vestments are alright. If your bishop has a good working relationship with the Latin bishops vice-versa, an informal conversation on the phone would usually do the trick. Bishop-bishop relationships, especially if they work well together or are friends, is easy business. Nothing to worry about.

So if I participate in a Catholic catechetical conference I must contact my bishop to request specific permission to serve at the Mass with the local Latin ordinary? Or when I participated in the regional Mass at the National Shrine with a group I was escorting at the March for Life, I needed to contact my bishop to serve? Seems a bit excessive...such permission is not even required of priests.

I think that there is a difference between infrequent participation in an event and more regular activities at a Latin parish.

The USCCB have a diaconal handbook or publication on their website. If you dig deep enough in there it discusses bi-ritual deacons - and stated that even if an Eastern Catholic deacon were granted bi-ritual faculties, he is only to exercise those duties that are appropriate to his own rite...

Meaning that even if you are bi-ritual, you won't be doing any marriages, baptisms, or funerals in the Latin church you serve.

Here's the applicable quote from that document (p43):


This is from: http://www.usccb.org/deacon/DeaconDirectory.pdf

I wonder what that does for Latin weddings presided over by Byzantine Rite deacons. I think a few people will be left wondering what implications this has on the marriage. It ahs happened that Byzantine Deacons ahve presided over wedding with the permission oo their bishop. I just wonder if they can't preside over a valid marrige ceremony in their own church, how do they suddenly get to do this validly, in a church they are not part of? I had not realised there was such a ruling, as mentioned above.

The theology of marriage is differnt in the Byzantine and Latin Churches. In the Latin Church the copule is considered the minister of the sacrament, the priest/deacon is a witness for the Church and while they do impart a blessing it is not considered neccesary for validity. The Byzantine Church sees the priest as the minister of the sacrament and his blessing is necessary for validity. So if a Byzantine deacon presided over a Latin wedding ther would be no problem. If a Latin deacon presided over a Byzantine wedding it would be invalid.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I don't even like the idea of "bi-ritual" clergy, but this "omni-ritual" idea is even worse in my opinion.

Fr. Deacon Lance,

But from the quote provide by Crule above, it appears that Byzantine deacons should not celebrate Latin weddings even if they are granted bi-ritual faculties. Personally, I agree with such a thing. As I said before, I think the Latin understanding of the role of the deacon is largely disfigured (minimalistic in the Mass and presidential in Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals). Outside of mission situations and Typica services, a deacon, while vested with some power of governance, is not by nature presidential in the exercise of his ministry.

For my part, I have no plans to be involved in a Latin Catholic context in any way other then infrequent Catholic events like the ones mentioned above. It diffuses ones proper apostolic energies, not to mention the fact that one is ordained to serve one's bishop and his flock.