National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons

"This Directory is intended to serve the Catholic Church in the United States in its preparation for permanent deacons. Although the Directory is aimed specifically at the Latin Rite Churches, it can also with minor revisions be useful to the churches of the Eastern Rite. This work was approved by the Bishops' Conference in June 2003 to become effective on December 26, 2004, the traditional feast of the first deacon, Saint Stephen.

The introduction and preface trace the development of the Permanent Diaconate in the United States since Vatican II and gives a brief acknowledgement of the history of the preparation and promulgation of the Directory. There are two major sections of the book. The first section contains the primary text dealing with the doctrinal understanding of the Diacaonate, vocation, formation, life and ministry of the Deacon as well as a chapter on diocesan organization for an Office of Deacon formation and ministry. This secition is followed by an adequate index.

The second section of the book is made up of two secondary documents, "Basic Statement for Readiness" and "Visits of Consultation Teams to Diocesan Permanent Diaconate Formation Programs." The "Basis Readiness..." offers several models for evaluating the candidate's readiness and the document on consultation teams is the sixth edition of the work by the Bishops' Committee on the Diaconate which provides information on the approval and evaluation of Deacon formation programs."

"This work is an important reference work along with Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons and should be in all Catholic libraries."