General
Jubilee of Deacons USCCB Resource Packet (English)
Pilgrims on the Way of Hope: A Resource for the Jubilee of Deacons
Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Jubilee of Deacons: Resource Packet
February 21-23, 2025
INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW
Jubilee 2025 invites you to be a pilgrim of hope. For Christians, hope is anchored in the encounter with Jesus whose life, death, and resurrection reveals God’s transforming love. Our hope in God is renewed constantly in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son, who is given, even now, to the community of believers.
The Holy See has designated a number of Jubilee Days throughout 2025 to recognize and celebrate different groups of people and various ministries in the Church. The Jubilee of Deacons will be held from Friday, February 21, to Sunday, February 23, 2025; however, these resources can be used for engaging and celebrating deacons at any time throughout the Jubilee Year.
In the Catholic Church, the diaconate is one of three degrees in ordained ministry - bishops, priests, and deacons. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Latin-rite Church has restored the diaconate “as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy”. Deacons preparing for the priesthood are transitional deacons, while those not planning to be ordained priests are permanent deacons. Permanent diaconate can be conferred on a single or married man. If he is married, he must be so before receiving the diaconate.
Lumen Gentium, after describing the function of presbyters as a participation in the priestly function of Christ, illustrates the ministry of deacons, “upon whom”, it says, “hands are imposed not unto the priesthood, but unto a ministry of service.” The Sacred Order of Deacons is to be a “driving force for the Church’s service or diakonia toward the local Christian communities and as a sign or sacrament of the Lord Christ himself, who ‘came not to be served but to serve.’" This is at the very heart of the diaconate to which you have been called: to be a servant of the mysteries of Christ and, at one and the same time, to be a servant of your brothers and sisters. That these two dimensions are inseparably joined together in one reality shows the important nature of the ministry which is yours by ordination.
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