learn how abbvie could help you save. (upbeat music) hello. on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to 'mosaic'. today we are introduced to the ministry of the catholic church. it is ancient and very new. this is an office, a function, a service that is referred to in the earlier scriptures of the new testament. the letters of st. paul and the acts of the apostles by st. luke. it endured for several centuries

but for about 1000 years after that it lay dormant. only in the 20th century did a renewed understanding of this ministry and an awareness of the church is need for it become resurrected. and the prescription for three founding was given and the documents of the second vatican council, particularly in. 1968, just over half a century ago, the catholic bishops of the united states petition pope paul the sixth to approve very founding of this ministry. in the half-century since then, more than 18,000 men in the united states have been ordained to this office. we are talking about the office of deacon. today our guest is one of the deacons who is ordained for the archdiocese of san francisco. after this brief break , come back and stay with us come as we learn about this ancient catholic vocation, and its new application.

thank you for joining us on 'mosaic'. our guest today , is deacon michael. you are a deacon in the archdiocese of san francisco. in ordained minister. everything i know about this i learned from you, recently. this idea it is an

ancient, christian vocation, i will read from the epistle of st. paul to the philippians, what you turned me onto. paul who is in jail now, jailed by the romans for his catholic, christian faith, rights to the people in philippi, i write to you, to the holy ones in christ jesus you are there with the overseers and the deacons. the ministers, translations is different. grace to you and peace from god our father i give thanks to my god at every remembrance of you because we are partnership for the gospel from the first day until now. that is ancient roots that i think of this vocation. i wanted you to tell me about the roots in the beginning of this vacation of deacon , if you can. >> the very first deacons were formed in acts chapter 6 . >> acts of the apostles. >> when the greek widows complained they were not being served. they were being ignored and neglected and they asked the apostles to appoint someone to serve them. the apostles appointed seven good

men. the first deacons. among them, stephen. >> this is recorded in the acts of the apostles. >> exactly. chapter 6. >> this was the community in jerusalem, finding his way with these deacons. >> exactly. to begin with. it was necessary because, like i said , they were forming into different classes and as a began to spread, people were not just jewish that were being brought into the faith but were also greek . it was the greek widows that necessitated someone of their background . >> i understand. all right. >> there was a need that needed to be filled literally, in the early church. >> i get it. the jewish disciples had gentile converts. and with a different

culture and different needs and so on. as a remember from acts it says the apostles were busy with the preaching and so on. what did the deacons do? what services? >> literally, to take care of them and provide them with food, shelter, clothing and things of that nature. but mainly to wait on the table when they gathered for the meal, the lords meal, also they would have a little meal afterwards to make sure the widows were served . the greek widows were served. >> how do i put it , in a new organization or thing that is not very well organized, a new movement, jobs somehow have to get parceled out. >> that is part of it. >> you mention the phrase from the acts of the apostles, what were these men described as? >> [ indiscernible ], seven. >> able men? >> good men. men of good virtue. it is later used in

timothy to describe deacons. hopefully we measure up to that today. >> i think every catholic knows about saint stephen but i don't promotionally connect him until now. >> stephen became our first martyr on that. we don't know a lot but he was also doing some preaching. it was adamant and because of his preaching that he was eventually martyred. >> in jerusalem the deacons were at work . they are named in the acts of the apostles the seven men. we know the histories of any of the other men? >> we know a little about philip and that goes on to a story about philip in ethiopia as well as -- the other ones we don't know as much about as to exactly what they did or where they went . >> we understand that the offices , in the church, became organized and distinguished over the early centuries. are the three main categories of

clerical office? >> what we now refer to as bishops. >> you have to speak greek to get the program. >> we use that as bishop. [ indiscernible ], which is priest. and [ indiscernible ] which is deacons or servants. >> are there any other notable deacons in her early history. >> in the very early history, we have lawrence in rome. was asked to bring about and present to the emperor the riches of the church. >> let me pause, i learned about him in third grade, may be. a famous martyr. not to give it away. i have no association with his being a deacon. tell us that story. >> deacons at the time were controlling the finances. he was asked to supply to the emperor the riches of the church . and he gathered up all the poor and brought them and presented them. he was not

warmly received. he ended up being martyred for that. >> he had access to the finances of the church and was told, hand over the treasure. that is a good man. he was martyred. by the romans. >> in rome . >> i heard about a doctor of the church, a learned theologian. >> saint efraim. >> fourth century. >> he became a doctor of the church and did many writings and letters that will still come down to us today. >> the office of deacon, as i understand it, it became part of the order of advancement toward priesthood, is that right . >> one of them. we have a variety of orders. porter , 70 can, deacon, and then priest.

but there are others. we have suppressed most of those with the exception of lecture and reader . and acolyte. that we use as steps to the [ indiscernible ] and the priesthood. >> that is good to know. will take a brief break and we will come back and talk about the change of the diaconate from an ancient practice into a new and modern one.

welcome back. we are talking with deacon michael. let's turn to your personal -- let's talk about this. you are not a deacon from the third century a.d. you are a deacon from the 20th century. and you are ordained as a minister

for the archdiocese of san francisco. as i said in the opening, your vocation, your office is a new one founded about 50 years ago. what happened? >> in 1968 after vatican ii the church was looking for ways to involve the laity more in their participation in the church. part of that was expanding the office or order of the diaconate. it is kind of a bridge between clergy and laity. that is what -- the idea that we bring those people to the church. we are almost like an outreach. one of our formation directors told us that we should be preaching to the people in the back pew. because that is the ones we are bringing into church. the ones that don't quite feel they belong, bring them into the church. bring them to more full participation in liturgy, in service , charity, whatever

you want to call it. >> i knew that the last step four young man on the way to the priesthood, the last order before ordained as a priest, he is ordained as a deacon. >> a transitional deacon. >> and your vacation , your office is permanent deacon. >> exactly. >> you are ordained by the bishop for his archdiocese. and ordained to what ministry? you are not a jr. priest of some kind. >> a lot of people think you are a jr. priest. in the priest is not there you take over. that is not the call to the diaconate. it is more one of service. the priests have christ as the icon of the high priest. that is the kind of goal. for the deacons it is more christ the servant is our icon. the one we try to imitate. >> that is interesting. there is a theology of the priest , he does the sacrifice of the

eucharist . >> that is why the deacon cannot say amass or consecrate the eucharist . we can participate and assist the priest but we cannot hear confession and anoint the sick. >> it to have liturgical and pastoral duties and specialties. give me those. >> we can read the gospel and proclaim the gospel. we can preach, we can baptize , we oversee vigils or committal's at the cemeteries. >> okay. liturgical and pastoral. as you mentioned, the pastoral side involves outreach to the laity, particularly to the marginalized people . >> exactly. it is specifically meant -- if you think of the old testament call to take care of the widows, the orphans, and the stranger in the land where the immigrants. that is a call to the diaconate.

>> i personally have experienced a deacon, now that i think about it. an older gentleman i knew in oakland have become a deacon. in my own parish upbringing i have had not much experience . from the statistics that we agreed, 18,000 men in the united states are in this ministry. people have answered the call. who are these people? what about the call brings them in? >> the vast majority of deacons are married. you not only have a deacon in the sense of a married man as a member of the clergy but the wife also participates with him. very often as ministry. my wife works with me in marriage preparation and in preparing couples to get married, within the church and things of that nature. deacons, we have deacons who work with the homeless , work and see

petitions. deacons who work in jails, jail ministry, juvenile ministry. anywhere that there is a need of service to the people of god. >> fascinating you mention the wife. i think the majority of ordained deacons are married men. >> about 90%. >> the church looks for that . and the wife has to be -- how do i put it -- discerner of vocation in that. >> she has to be willing that her husband become ordained. we ask that before they joined the diaconate formation and we ask it every year until ordination and they ask it during the ordination itself. >> it is a complex location. there must be severe training, discernment process. >> i don't know if it is severe. but it is five years of theology. we start with catechism of the church. we start with general systematic theology. then we move on to

new testament, old testament theology. all different types of theology , all different things we need to learn because people will be asking us questions. >> you have the training, a five year program. is that done locally? >> we take two saturdays a month. done at the seminary, st. patrick seminary in menlo park. it takes from 9:00 until 3:00. about six hours , two saturdays. we have some evening classes, sometimes . that is the majority of classes held at the seminary. >> you do five years of night school, weekend school, with your wife's accompaniment and permission and cooperation. and when you are ordained deacon, can you work range from a few hours a week to a

full-time job? >> we ask that deacons put in about 10 hours a week. you can work it out with your pastor as what that is. if you are doing homilies and presenting at all the masses, that will be 10 hours easily. if you have six masses. it will easily come from that. also we have things , with food baskets or food harvest or anything that they -- st. vincent depaul. all types of things that deacons work with within the parish but we also work with the jail ministries and things of that nature or the homeless centers that are literally outside the parish and more for the whole archdiocese. >> 40% or 50% of these men are holding down full-time jobs as well. >> yes. almost everyone is holding down a job and maybe the wives are working also. and

still putting in the hours above and beyond . they are not compensated for this. >> we thank you for your service . we will come back and have one more session of talk and find out about what the deacons are doing. thank you.

welcome back. we are having an enjoyable conversation, illuminating conversation with deacon mike. i did not ask you for your full title at the archdiocese where you work. >> i am the director of diaconate industry and life. >> i take it that means that deacons have a ministry but they also have a life. how many deacons we have in our archdiocese? >> this is always an excellent question. we have 110 incarnated in the archdiocese of san francisco. 20 of those are working outside the archdiocese . >> in ministry? >> as far away as guatemala and honduras. of that , the remaining 90, 15 are retired.

75 active deacons for san francisco. >> mostly in parish worked? >> almost all. some are in jail ministry or things of that nature that are specific . some are both in parish work and in archdiocese and ministry. >> we have about 100 parishes . we have about 100 deacons. how many will be like to have? >> i would like to have two deacons per parish. all of it does not follow one person. we could use two deacons per parish. we also don't apply after the age of 60. >> i know retirement age is a time when a man looks around and says this may be for me. you have some people like that applying. but you want younger -- >> you cannot be younger and

say 35 and be ordained of 35 . >> i notice in january there were three evening meetings at different places and different counties of the archdiocese and the advertisement was interested in being a deacon? come for an informational meeting. no salesman will call. no commitment or anything of that nature, just information. >> people can find out readily what the diaconate is and how they can find about it. >> we have a website . we also have an office of the diaconate . you can call deacon fred or deacon mike. >> deacon mike, i have to say the job seems to have agreed with you. when we first met i thought you were about 20 years younger than i am. i find out that is not the case.

something is working well for you. >> i have been fortunate. >> tell me briefly how you got into this and how did you discern this vocation? >> it is a long process for me. out of grammar school i felt called to the seminary and i spent eight years in the seminary. >> you are local. >> san francisco. my senior year in high school, and my senior year in college , i discerned that god was not calling me to the priesthood. he was calling me to service within the church but not the priesthood. i kind of put that aside. and eventually got married and raised a family with four children. it was not until i guess i was about 50 or 55 i began feeling a call to do more. and they kept saying, i don't know what that is. my best friend , told me that you are being called to

the diaconate. no. god does not want that. i argued with him for a long time about it. he turned out to be correct . i was being called to the diaconate. it took me a while to realize that and a little argument with god. i decided to aspire to it and discern whether or not this was for me. obviously, i found it very much for me and my wife was only supportive . she told me, what took you so long? >> okay. you and your wife and four kids in the prior career. >> i was a teacher. i had a teaching store. >> an expert with a masters in east asian history. all walks of life are found in the diaconate. i hope that you guys have a good collegial relationship and structure. you need one another . >> we definitely do. that was the surprise for us . at least

for me and my wife is we joined the diaconate community and it was such a warm and welcoming e goodpl i consnt mble of t aco wives are doing wonderokeson, beer at a a g >> that is humility wee minute or less. could you give us a brief prayer to close. >> in the name of the father, son, holy spirit. lord we thank you for the day that you have given us. we ask you to guide us to where you want us to be today , as you do always. this we ask christ our lord. >> thank you for joining me. i want to tell her audience, you can find out all about the diaconate in the archdiocese of san francisco by going to the website, sf arch.org. there is a webpage, mike's telephone number, and

informational evenings. these will continue. >> they continue. >> take a look and ask about the diaconate it i atcupatiand a great service to the church. thank you for being with us and we will see you next time on 'mosaic' .

>>from cbs news bay area, this is the morning edition. the wa o oakland police s they are cracking down on sideshows but one business owner says it is not enough, especially when scenes like this happen right outside. a long time television voice is off the airways after an on air racial slur. what happens next and why a man linked to the incident is calling for forgiveness.