Category Archives: Ad Pascendum

Here’s the very end of Ad Pascendum: Transitional Norms. Candidates for the sacrament of Orders who have already received first tonsure before the promulgation of this letter, retain all the duties, rights and privileges of clerics. Those who have been … Continue reading →

With just a few posts to go on Ad Pascendum, let’s finish it up tonight and tomorrow, then devote our full attention to FIYH. Once done with that document, we’ll move to the ordination rites. I never get heavy commentary … Continue reading →

Lots of catch-all stuff. First, who ordains: 3. The liturgical rites by which admission of candidates for the diaconate and the priesthood takes place and the above-mentioned ministries are conferred should be performed by the ordinary of the aspirant (the … Continue reading →

As we get to the meat of Ad Pascendum, Pope Paul VI acknowledges consultation with “experts” and bishops. Having weighed every aspect of the question well, having sought the opinion of experts, having consulted with the episcopal conferences and taken … Continue reading →

Why was there a delay of eight years from Lumen Gentium to this motu proprio? The pope explains: However, this restoration of the permanent diaconate required that the instructions of the Council be more profoundly examined and that there be … Continue reading →

Lifting right from Lumen Gentium, Pope Paul VI retells the restoration by the council bishops, righting the unfortunate situation in which the Church’s traditional minsitry of service was subsumed into a stepping stone for clergy. For this reason, at the … Continue reading →

A look back into history as to how deacons waned while the presbyterate achieved ascendancy: The exercise of the office of deacon enabled those who were to become priests to give proof of themselves, to display the merit of their … Continue reading →

The introduction to Pope Paul’s second motu proprio on the permanent diaconate continues in a vein somewhat foreign to most Catholics. Here is presented the notion that a deacon is connected to his bishop: Furthermore, when the writers of the … Continue reading →

The 1972 motu proprio, Ad Pascendum “Containing Norms for the Order of Diaconate,” includes a long unnumbered introduction. For the sake of clarity, I’ve lettered the first posts on the apostolic letter. This introduction makes a Biblical and Patristic case for the … Continue reading →