WATCH VIDEO: Deacon William T. Ditewig speaks on Dachau, Diaconate Circles, and the restoration of the diaconate at Vatican II
Click here to watch a video of the event.
In this second event in a series of educational webinars hosted by Discerning Deacons, Deacon William T. Ditewig, Ph.D., the author of several books on the diaconate, and the former executive director of the Office for the Diaconate at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks about how World War II and the experience of “Diaconate Circles” shaped the restoration and renewal of the diaconate as a permanent vocation — and what it means for the ministry of deacons today and Church’s active discernment of women and the diaconate.
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Witness
“As a college campus minister, diaconal ordination wouldn’t change how I encounter my students on the margins, but it would change how they encounter the Church through me. I wouldn’t be only Julia, their campus minister who tells them that God loves them unconditionally, but an official representative of a Church that loves them too.”
Julia Erdlen
College Campus Minister and Hospital Chaplain, St. Louis, MO
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Witness
“Restoring the diaconate in my church, to include women, supports the hopes and desires of our whole community where I see a longing for both male and female deacons to serve. As soon as I had the opportunity to become an acolyte, I became one. If I had the opportunity to become a deacon, I similarly would rejoice at the opportunity!”
Jessica Kenny
Chaplain, ConnectEd, Alta-1 College, Perth, Western Australia
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Witness
“If I were ordained a deacon, it would only be because I have accepted a call to a vocation that is equally accessible to women.“
Oblate James Holzhauer-Chuckas, ObSB
Executive Director of United Catholic Youth Ministries, Chicago, IL
