This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Amid all the distress among American Catholics over the shrinking number of priests, one bright fact stands out: Nowhere in the world have Catholic men heeded the call to a separate ordained ministry as in the United States.
In fact, roughly half of all permanent deacons in the church worldwide live in the United States, helping priests who are stretched thin tend to the needs of a growing church.
Last year, according to a study at Georgetown University, there were more than 16,000 permanent deacons in the United States alone. The average age was 63.
The diocese of Salt Lake City, which covers the state, has 75 deacons, 50 of them in active service in parishes. Another 22 men are studying to be deacons and will be ordained in January 2010.
"This is not a profession. It's not a position. There is no money for a deacon," says Forrest Gray, a retired National Weather Service meteorologist who was ordained in 2004 and now runs the diocese's office that serves deacons.
"It's a question of do you want to serve the people of God?"
All about service: Service is at the core of what deacons do.
The first deacons, Acts 6:1-6 records, were seven men "filled with the Spirit and wisdom," chosen by the Apostles to "serve at table," ensuring widows were fed. The deacon Stephen was the first Christian martyr.
Deacons through the early centuries played important roles in the church, but in the Middle Ages, the church ceased ordaining permanent deacons even as it continued to ordain men on their way to becoming priests as what are now called "transitional deacons."
One of the most venerated saints of the church, St. Francis of Assisi, was a deacon.
When the Second Vatican Council restored the permanent diaconate in the 1960s, it emphasized the role of a deacon is to serve, directly as a cleric and in the secular life he leads, holding a job and raising a family.
For instance, among Utah deacons are an attorney with Legal Aid who helps the poor navigate bureaucracy and a chaplain with a sheriff's office.
In Utah parishes, deacons assist the priests at Mass, preach, preside at marriages and funerals (when there is no Mass) and conduct vigils and graveside services. They also baptize infants and instruct those about to be married or have an infant baptized.
A deacon is able to celebrate every sacrament that a priest celebrates except three: the Eucharist at Mass; confession; and anointing of the sick, for those gravely ill or dying.
With their wives, deacons often instruct those who want to become Catholic or run programs for the grieving.
Deacon Dave Osman and his wife, LaRee, a retired geriatric nurse, visit many of the 22 nursing homes within St. Vincent de Paul parish's territory every week, taking Communion to Catholics or just stopping to visit.
At St. Vincent's, Osman helps Monsignor Francis Mannion carry another load: meeting with parishioners or their partners who need marriage annulments so they are free, in the eyes of the church, to marry.
The service that Deacon Bob Bambrick of Brigham City provides to the church is one directly tied to the priest shortage.
He travels to small southern Idaho communities such as Preston and Malad regularly, conducting Communion services when a priest cannot travel there for the weekly Mass.
Bambrick was in the first class of deacons for the Salt Lake City diocese, ordained in December 1976.
'God kind of calls you': Osman can point to one experience that nudged him toward the diaconate.
A cradle Catholic and native of Illinois, he had considered becoming a deacon almost since the ministry was restored at the Second Vatican Council.
But he was busy for decades as a gerontologist and clinical social worker, mostly in Veterans Administration hospitals, and raising seven children with LaRee.
At one point, he spent a lot of time talking to men who were POWs in World War II and the Vietnam War.
He was struck by the role their faith played in helping them cope with captivity. "It kind of transformed me," recalls Osman. "What I was able to do as a listener . . . [I thought] I could put to use as a deacon."
When the family lived in South Dakota, he applied for the diaconate, but then they moved to North Carolina.
It was only after they were back in Utah, which they had left in 1983 and returned to in 1993, that he applied and was accepted into the four-year class. He retired from the VA in 2000 and was one of 24 deacons ordained in 2004.
"God kind of calls you and speaks to you," says Osman.
As do many deacons' wives, LaRee Osman works alongside her husband.
She is the parish nurse for St. Vincent's, a volunteer position, and helps run the grief program.
"I would not be able to do any of this without my wife being here," says Osman. "She is part of my ministry."
What is a deacon?
A deacon is an ordained cleric in the Roman Catholic Church whose primary role is one of service. He can be single or married, but if his wife dies, he cannot remarry. Deacons often wear clerical collars and are mistaken for priests. They celebrate many but not all sacraments. Deacons are the only members of the church who can receive all seven sacraments - including marriage (not available to priests or bishops) and ordination (available only to priests, bishops and deacons).