Diakonát ako východisko kresťanskej charity
Diaconate as the Starting-Point of Christian Charity

Summary/Abstract: The beginnings of diaconate in the Church belong to the period of the first community of believers in Jerusalem. The Christians from Jewish communities found it important to take care of the poor, orphans and widows, such as it was the case already in the Old Testament tradition. Moreover, Jesus Christ presented himself as the one who serves and invites his disciples not to be served but rather to serve themselves. Thus in the first Christian centuries the diaconate developed as an autonomous degree of ministering priesthood which focused mainly on charitable and social work. The examples of several blessed deacons manifest well the significant place they occupy in the Church, where they manage its property that is the base for those in need. As the Church was gaining its liberty, the social and charitable dimensions of the diaconate have gradually been on decline and the liturgical function stands out that has been set up in the Christian East. On the other hand, in the Christian West the permanent diaconate practically dies out and its social and charitable service is taken over by monasteries and later by monastic orders and congregations which specialize in some forms of charity and social service. The Second Vatican Council renewed the permanent diaconate also in the Latin Church, emphasizing that it is the first degree of ordination, which is to say, that it drew it into the line of the priestly ordination in persona Christi. It turns back to the beginnings of the Church stressing the original functions and assignations of the deacons. Particularly in our milieu, where the activity of holy orders was forcifully interrupted for 40 years and the activity of the Catholic Charity was reduced and deformed to self-liquidation of the Church, it is important to rediscover the integral place of the diaconate, and of the charitable and social service in the local Church. It is characteristic that many social workers experience the need of a deeper enrooting of the social work which cannot be built only on some vague philanthrophy, but it is necessary to place it on a more solid base. And this solid base is the starting point which charitable and social work, while proclaiming good news, has had for centuries.

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