13 - Called to Serve: The Growing Needs of the Church

When the apostles realized they couldn’t meet every need, they did something radical: they shared authority and created a new way to serve. We follow that story from Acts to our parishes today—why the Church called deacons to care for widows, how the laying on of hands conferred real authority, and what servant leadership looks like when the community grows faster than clergy can respond. Along the way, we unpack the three orders of ministry, clear up what deacons actually do, and show how a parish stays human when someone quietly stops showing up.

We sit down with Fr. Hamilton and Fr. Poojo to map the practical heart of the diaconate: bringing communion to the homebound, coordinating pastoral care, baptizing, witnessing marriages outside Mass, and leading funeral rites. They explain the difference between transitional and permanent deacons, the formation each receives, and why married deacons offer a grounded voice for couples and families. The thread running through it all is service—as Jesus showed at the Last Supper, authority is credible only when it kneels to wash feet. Even bishops wear the deacon’s garment beneath the chasuble at key liturgies to keep that truth close.

If your pulse quickens at the words service, charity, and presence, this conversation offers a clear window into vocation. The Church’s needs keep growing—fewer priests, more parishes, and countless people on the margins who still long to be seen. Deacons bridge that gap, turning the Gospel into action where it’s needed most. Listen for a grounded, hopeful look at how the diaconate strengthens community, honors apostolic tradition, and keeps mercy moving through everyday life.

If this spoke to you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. Ready to take a step? Reach out to the office of the permanent diaconate or the office of priestly formation to start the conversation.

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
You're listening to the Catholic active podcast.
We discussed the acts that Jesusperformed and stunned his
disciples.
Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
You don't know what's funny now, you're never
gonna know.

SPEAKER_02 (00:12):
I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father
Poojo.
And we're both stunned.
Alright, let's roll.
Episode three.
Called to Serve, the growingneeds of the church.
Like we never left.
We should point out the stencilup there.
You guys never addressed it.

SPEAKER_00 (00:30):
It's beautiful, and I think that How do you look?

SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
I changed your stubble this time.

SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
I don't like it because it really is, you know,
like cramping me in.
Like I can't change the way thatI look now that there's an
official stencil.
Right.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 (00:41):
You also have to sit there.

SPEAKER_01 (00:43):
I'm a statue now.
Uh in time.
I'm frozen.

SPEAKER_02 (00:46):
Well, you can change a little bit.
I don't look like that.

SPEAKER_00 (00:48):
I think we should make those like temporary
tattoos of us so that when wegive them out, we can Why do
they have to be temporary?
I mean, who would want your faceon them forever?
Everyone in our in our in ourstudio audience right now.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04):
Yeah, you stuck with those glasses.
I know you have like a bunch ofdifferent ones too.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07):
I know I wore the right ones so I could match your
cutout today.
So good, good.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11):
You're welcome.
Make sure you wear thoseWednesday as well.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13):
I will.

SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
All right, so let's talk about you know why this
church needs assistance.
Uh in the act of apostles.
In the Acts of the Apostles, theapostles are the bishops of the
early church.
However, they needed assistanceto help serve the community,
particularly the widows.
So they call the deacons toserve.
Why?

(01:35):
Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
So it's important to look at this whole reality in
the idea of ministry, right?
So even today we have bishops,we have priests, and we have
deacons.
So those early 12 disciples,they were given the authority of
Christ, which made them bishops.

(01:56):
And the head of that college ofbishops is Saint Peter, who is
the first pope.
And so in the early church, youhave the bishops who are
preaching, so they're spreadingthe good news, they're
sanctifying, and they'reoffering the sacrifice of the
Mass in its earliest form, whichis the same as we do, offering

(02:18):
bread and wine to the Lord,asking the Holy Spirit to come
upon it and transform thosegifts, just as Christ taught at
the Last Supper.
But now the church is growingrapidly, especially among the
poor and the forgotten and theoutsiders, because that's who
the apostles are reaching withthis message.

(02:40):
And so we see that they cannotdo everything, just like a good
boss can't do everything intheir job, just like you
couldn't do this podcast withoutus, right?
You need to be.

SPEAKER_02 (02:53):
I can get AI to help me.
But Leo would come for you.
So why particularly like why arethe outcasts the ones they're
gearing towards?

SPEAKER_01 (03:04):
Many of the times, right?
Outcasts would be vulnerable.
And so the church continued tocare for those people.
We even see in the gospel ofLuke that really it's could be
called the gospel of the poorand especially of women.
And so the emphasis that Luke,the evangelist, puts in the
gospel there is that Jesus inhis ministry had women that were
widows that followed him, andthat they sought solace in the

(03:26):
community that Christ wasbuilding through his closest
apostles and then later on thedisciples as it spreads.

SPEAKER_00 (03:32):
You have to remember if you were a widow at this
time, if you had no husband, youhad no income, you had no
protection, you had no home.
And if you had children, you hadno way to care for them.
And so the whole familystructure would fall apart.
And so the early church caredfor the widow, for the orphan,
which is a command from the OldTestament to care for those who

(03:55):
are forgotten, who are alone,who need help.
And so the church, early churchis continuing to carry out this
mission.
But now specifically, the churchis growing.
The apostles can't doeverything.
And through the Holy Spirit,they recognize that contained in
the ministry of the bishop is anarm of service.

(04:16):
And so we have three levels ofordained ministry: bishop,
priest, deacon.
The deacon, every bishop is adeacon, every bishop is a
priest, every priest is adeacon.
So the deacon is that share inthe ministry of service, the
diaconia in Greek, to serve.
And so now the church needsassistance to serve those most

(04:39):
in need.

SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
In Acts, tell us that the apostles laid hands on
them, and this is the birth ofthe order of the diaconate.
So what was the role?
You know, you're telling mewhat, you know, the hierarchy of
each, but what was the role thatdeacons played in the early
church?

SPEAKER_01 (04:53):
And this isn't something new in the life of all
of salvation history.
If you go back to the OldTestament with Moses, he becomes
overburdened by the amount oftasks of being able to
administrate over all of thepeople Israel.
Right.
So he's listening to the messageof God.
He's really in that way a leaderof the people, but he needs
other co-leaders with him andthose in other positions of the

(05:16):
elders to help in that way.
So as that breaks down more intothe New Testament, you'd have
priests that help the bishop inthe facilitation of the
sacraments of the church,usually, of offering the mass in
different areas and being aleader of that particular
community in the name of theapostle or in the name of the
bishop.
And then with the priest, thosein the rank underneath that,

(05:38):
those that are deacons, goingout to serve the very physical
needs of the people of God, oneof which is communion to the
homebound.
As a priest, I try to do thatfrequently myself, but I know
that deacons in my parishesbefore really organized all
that, made sure everybody wasbeing seen and was the reference
person to make sure, okay, wehave a new person that needs
communion at home that can't bea church anymore.

(05:59):
We're making sure that we'rereaching out to them, that we're
keeping contact with them.
Because that's one of the thingsthat's most difficult about the
church is people go to differentmass times, everything, so on
and so forth.
Somebody maybe stops coming tochurch, no one asks about them.
And then what happens?
You become a little resentful ofthat.
If I'm part of a community andnobody even notices that I'm
gone anymore and asks about me,why was I a part of that

(06:22):
community anyways?
And so I think I've seen deaconsbefore that they have a feel of
the community because they'rerooted in that one particular
church or place.
And they can bring a lot ofthose concerns to a priest or to
others and keep peoplestrengthened together in
community.
As we have different inquiriesabout baptism, parents bringing
forth their child to bebaptized.

(06:43):
That's something that deacons doproperly within the church and
within the liturgy and are ableto baptize uh and help to bring
those into the life of Christ.
Beyond that, funerals, there's agreat need to help people in the
midst of real difficulties ofdealing with death.
And so deacons can offer uhdifferent funeral prayers and
liturgies outside of thefuneral, the mass of Christian

(07:07):
burial.
And beyond that, as well,marriage.
A marriage outside of a mass,deacons are able to hear and
witness the vows of a couplecoming before the church that
ratify their covenant togetherthat we call holy matrimony.

SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Jordan, you mentioned about the laying of
hands, and that's so importantbecause it shows us that even
from the very beginning, thesedeacons received authority.
So, right, if we think about theearly church, that apostolic
church, in one sense or another,Christ laid hands upon those
disciples, conferring upon themhis authority, setting them

(07:45):
apart, consecrating them.
And so even today, our fatherand I have both had the bishops'
hands laid upon us twice when wewere ordained deacons, and then
again when we were ordainedpriests.
And that same symbolism, havingbishop Kulik lay hands upon us,
is the same as the firstapostles laying hands upon the

(08:06):
deacons, Christ laying handsupon the apostles.
So each bishop in his localchurch is a successor to the
apostles.

SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
So you you mentioned how that you and Father Andrew
were both deacons at one time.
But going back to the earlyWell, we still are deacons.

SPEAKER_00 (08:23):
You don't lose your character.

SPEAKER_02 (08:25):
Okay, you were only deacons, you weren't priests as
well.

SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
We were transitional deacons.
Transitional deacons.
We can break that down, right?

SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Transitional versus permanentdiaconate.
Yeah.
So there's only those two.

SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
In terms of, yeah, within the order of deacons.
So transitional deacons, you'reordained a deacon by the bishop,
in that you are transferringthrough only that order to the
next level of holy orders, whichwould be to be a priest.
Usually the way that that worksout now in the modern church is
that you would spend a year inbetween that time period.

SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
And that really you're carrying out the same
ministry of the permanentdeacon, you're preaching the
gospel, you're meeting the poor,you're bringing communion to
those who can't can no longergather with the community.

SPEAKER_01 (09:07):
And a permanent deacon would be one that you're
not transferring out of thatholy order.
You're staying in thatpermanently.
And usually that's marked todayby uh men that are actually able
to be married in that holy orderof the permanent diaconate.
And so we see a lot of deaconswith wives and even families and
so forth, and they're able tofulfill different roles within

(09:30):
the church that say that thepriest is caught up in the
administration of sacraments andother things, especially as
helping to run parishes, thatdeacons then become an
organizer, especially of the laypeople in the parish to help to
meet the needs of the peoplethat are being brought up.
But you also do that too, as apriest.

unknown (09:49):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
And so that's so we share in that ministry of
service, but our ministry ofservice then, through being
ordained priests, is expanded toa ministry also of
sanctification, of offeringsacrifice to God for the
salvation and sanctification ofthe people entrusted to our
care.

SPEAKER_02 (10:05):
Now, if you're a permanent deacon, you don't have
to be a seminarian, right?
That's just for thosetransitions.

SPEAKER_01 (10:12):
You participate in seminary in a certain way, not
living usually in seminary withother men studying to be
priests.

SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
But there's still a diaconal formation, period.

SPEAKER_01 (10:22):
You go to seminaries to take certain educational
classes, pastoral activities,and assignments that you then
learn how to really be anordained member of the clergy.
That's important to remember.

SPEAKER_02 (10:33):
So would you say that there's even another level
of the hierarchy below deacon?
Would it be a seminarian?

SPEAKER_01 (10:40):
Not really, not because holy orders are only
three as deacon, priest, bishop.
Why have you guys I need toknow?
Seminarians would be consideredstill lay people until they
would enter into the clericalstate at the diaconate.

SPEAKER_02 (10:54):
So when does the hazing period stop stop at once
you're a in your church?

SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
It never starts, Jordan.
That's the correct answer.

SPEAKER_02 (11:01):
So, you know, we mentioned that both of you were
in that transitional diaconateum period.

SPEAKER_01 (11:09):
What was your experience?
It's very much garnered towardsservice, right?
Even where does Jesus actuallyinstitute the priesthood?
Where does he ordain the bishopsof the church, the apostles?
Where we would look to is thelast supper.
Now notice that Jesus doescertain uh a certain thing in

(11:30):
particular is that he lowershimself in service and he washes
the feet of the apostles.
We remember this at our greatliturgy on Holy Thursday of the
Lord's Supper, where the priestgoes and he washes the feet of
those in the congregation.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (11:45):
We also did an episode of that.

SPEAKER_01 (11:47):
It's very important for us to understand because
what is Jesus doing in essenceas he comes down from heaven?
He's lowering himself to takethe form of a slave or a servant
to free us from our sin.
And so entering into the holyorder, the sacrament of holy
orders, where do you enter inat?
First and foremost, as a servantof the people of God.

(12:07):
And so that's kind of thegeneral breakdown, but you don't
lose that.
As you go on to be a priest oras a bishop, you're always
reminded of you being a deacon.
Now, bishops, veryinterestingly, during the
liturgy, during a mass,especially during ordination
masses, it's common, they willwear underneath the chasuble a
dalmatic.

SPEAKER_00 (12:26):
So the chasuble is the outer priestly garment that
a priest wears for thecelebration of the Eucharist of
Mass.

SPEAKER_01 (12:31):
And a dalmatic is the proper uh vestment worn by
the deacon as a sign of theirservice at the altar.
And so what is symbolized therein the bishop is that he has the
fullness of the priesthood ofall the holy orders, but he
never takes off in that sensehis diaconate being a deacon.
It's underneath everything, it'sthe very basis of the holy
orders that he continues to liveout.

(12:53):
So what can the church do forits deacons?

SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
Well, I'd I'd rephrase it.
I think it's the question shouldbe what can the deacons do for
the church?
Because the deacons it's likeJFK.

SPEAKER_01 (13:07):
Do not ask what your country can do for you, but what
you can do for your country.

SPEAKER_00 (13:12):
But it's true because the deacons are called
to bring a different perspectiveto the church.
Especially since many of ourpermanent deacons are married.
And interestingly, if apermanent deacon's wife should
die while they're a permanentdeacon, they're not permitted to
remarry.
So they have to be married priorto their ordination to the

(13:32):
diaconate.

SPEAKER_02 (13:33):
So what if that happens and they decide, like,
are they able to become apriest?

SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
They could.
In in picking up on that aswell, I think that permanent
deacons can actually speak in avery beautiful way to those that
are in difficulties in marriage,right?
A lot of our permanent deaconsare married and they know that
intimately, the idea of husbandand wife, the struggles of
marriage and matrimony and soforth.
And so they can be very good inthat way to help individuals

(14:00):
that are struggling in thatsense.
Not that you always have to bemarried to be able to speak
truth into an area, certainly,but there is a a a particular
way in which that they knowmarriage and share their
experience.

SPEAKER_00 (14:10):
Yeah.
And that brings us backperfectly to this episode's
topic.
That the needs of the churchcontinue to grow.
And the deacon is there tosupply those needs.
The needs continue to grow inour own parishes as we have less
clergy to be available and to bein our parishes.
Many of our pastors have three,four, or five parishes.

(14:33):
But that work is supplementedreally through the permanent
deacons who are present in thosecommunities, as Father was
saying.
And so just as in the earlychurch, the church grew and
needed assistance to reachpeople where they were, the same
thing is today.
And if you're really feeling acall to the permanent diaconate,
if if service and charity reallyspeak to you and interacting on

(14:57):
a level of of the service ofChrist and being one of those
representatives of the goodnessof Christ in the world, and
you're feeling a call to thepermanent diaconate or to the
transitional diaconate.
We always can use more priests.
Um, feel free to contact theoffice of the permanent
diaconate and the office ofpriestly formation.

SPEAKER_02 (15:18):
Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast.
Don't forget to follow, like,and subscribe to our show.
You know, when we're donefilming, I say you guys stay
sitting up there and we'll justget like little reactions.
We'll call cliff too so peoplecan kind of see.
I don't think we need the to seethe I just want a little studio
audience.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
But that's not the point of this.
The point is you guys are thestars.

SPEAKER_02 (15:40):
Yes, all the we're so that's you know, we're award
winning now.
We want to show that it's notjust three, there's a team.