Modernist model of a post-clerical church

Permanent deacons are spearhead of post-clerical church

Married clergy with the lowest level of ordination: permanent deacons sit between all chairs in the view of Rainer Bucher. The pastoral theologian, however, does not see this as a shortcoming, but rather an opportunity - especially with regard to the future of the Church.

The emeritus pastoral theologian Rainer Bucher has praised permanent deacons as the "spearhead of a post-clerical Church". For centuries, he said, the office had not existed, but was now held by married men who were clergy, but at the "lowest rung", as they were not allowed to celebrate the Eucharist, for example. "So they have three glorious stigmata," Bucher said at a conference on the diaconate, according to a press release from the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart (Thursday). The fact that deacons thus sit between all chairs is not a shortcoming but an opportunity with regard to the future.

According to Bucher, due to their special circumstances, deacons have the freedom to do what the Gospel tells them to do. "In this open situation, we need an organisational form of church that favours responding to the situation, experimentation and freedom," the pastoral theologian emphasised. "We need a turning away from the habitus of taking church roles for granted, a turning away from pastoral routine." He described the fact that women were not ordained as deacons as "completely inconsistent".

Church loses "not only its opponents, but also its supporters"

Bucher also criticised that the church, with its structural devaluation of women, its absolutist internal constitution and its legal system, was violating human rights, which it actually perceived itself as having a Christian foundation. The abuse scandal reinforces this. "As a result, the Church is not only losing its opponents, but also its supporters," the pastoral theologian said. The Church has gambled away its credit and at best still has a last chance with the Synodal Way.

According to church statistics of the German Bishops' Conference, there are currently 3,253 permanent deacons in Germany. The name is derived from the Greek διάκονος and means something like "servant" or "helper". In addition to diaconia, deacons also take on tasks in the liturgy and preaching. The diaconate already existed in the early Church, but over the centuries it became a mere transitional stage on the way to the priesthood. The Second Vatican Council reintroduced the office of permanent deacon in the Church. 

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