The Catholic Accent Podcast

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

• Diocese of Greensburg • Season 2 • Episode 3

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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

SPEAKER_02:

You're listening to the Catholic active podcast. We discussed the acts that Jesus performed and stunned his disciples. Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't know what's funny now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_02:

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 growing needs of the church. Like we never left. We should point out the stencil up there. You guys never addressed it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's beautiful, and I think that How do you look?

SPEAKER_02:

I changed your stubble this time.

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_02:

You also have to sit there.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm a statue now. Uh in time. I'm frozen.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you can change a little bit. I don't look like that.

SPEAKER_00:

I think we should make those like temporary tattoos of us so that when we give them out, we can Why do they have to be temporary? I mean, who would want your face on them forever? Everyone in our in our in our studio audience right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you stuck with those glasses. I know you have like a bunch of different ones too.

SPEAKER_00:

I know I wore the right ones so I could match your cutout today. So good, good.

SPEAKER_02:

You're welcome. Make sure you wear those Wednesday as well.

SPEAKER_00:

I will.

SPEAKER_02:

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, the apostles are the bishops of the early church. However, they needed assistance to help serve the community, particularly the widows. So they call the deacons to serve. Why? Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00:

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. And the head of that college of bishops is Saint Peter, who is the first pope. And so in the early church, you have the bishops who are preaching, so they're spreading the good news, they're sanctifying, and they're offering the sacrifice of the Mass in its earliest form, which is the same as we do, offering bread and wine to the Lord, asking the Holy Spirit to come upon it and transform those gifts, just as Christ taught at the Last Supper. But now the church is growing rapidly, especially among the poor and the forgotten and the outsiders, because that's who the apostles are reaching with this message. And so we see that they cannot do everything, just like a good boss can't do everything in their job, just like you couldn't do this podcast without us, right? You need to be.

SPEAKER_02:

I can get AI to help me. But Leo would come for you. So why particularly like why are the outcasts the ones they're gearing towards?

SPEAKER_01:

Many of the times, right? Outcasts would be vulnerable. And so the church continued to care for those people. We even see in the gospel of Luke that really it's could be called the gospel of the poor and especially of women. And so the emphasis that Luke, the evangelist, puts in the gospel there is that Jesus in his ministry had women that were widows that followed him, and that they sought solace in the community that Christ was building through his closest apostles and then later on the disciples as it spreads.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to remember if you were a widow at this time, if you had no husband, you had no income, you had no protection, you had no home. And if you had children, you had no way to care for them. And so the whole family structure would fall apart. And so the early church cared for the widow, for the orphan, which is a command from the Old Testament to care for those who are forgotten, who are alone, who need help. And so the church, early church is continuing to carry out this mission. But now specifically, the church is growing. The apostles can't do everything. And through the Holy Spirit, they recognize that contained in the ministry of the bishop is an arm of service. And so we have three levels of ordained ministry: bishop, priest, deacon. The deacon, every bishop is a deacon, every bishop is a priest, every priest is a deacon. So the deacon is that share in the ministry of service, the diaconia in Greek, to serve. And so now the church needs assistance to serve those most in need.

SPEAKER_02:

In Acts, tell us that the apostles laid hands on them, and this is the birth of the order of the diaconate. So what was the role? You know, you're telling me what, you know, the hierarchy of each, but what was the role that deacons played in the early church?

SPEAKER_01:

And this isn't something new in the life of all of salvation history. If you go back to the Old Testament with Moses, he becomes overburdened by the amount of tasks of being able to administrate over all of the people Israel. Right. So he's listening to the message of God. He's really in that way a leader of the people, but he needs other co-leaders with him and those in other positions of the elders to help in that way. So as that breaks down more into the New Testament, you'd have priests that help the bishop in the facilitation of the sacraments of the church, usually, of offering the mass in different areas and being a leader of that particular community in the name of the apostle or in the name of the bishop. And then with the priest, those in the rank underneath that, those that are deacons, going out to serve the very physical needs of the people of God, one of which is communion to the homebound. As a priest, I try to do that frequently myself, but I know that deacons in my parishes before really organized all that, made sure everybody was being seen and was the reference person to make sure, okay, we have a new person that needs communion at home that can't be a church anymore. We're making sure that we're reaching out to them, that we're keeping contact with them. Because that's one of the things that's most difficult about the church is people go to different mass times, everything, so on and so forth. Somebody maybe stops coming to church, no one asks about them. And then what happens? You become a little resentful of that. If I'm part of a community and nobody even notices that I'm gone anymore and asks about me, why was I a part of that community anyways? And so I think I've seen deacons before that they have a feel of the community because they're rooted in that one particular church or place. And they can bring a lot of those concerns to a priest or to others and keep people strengthened together in community. As we have different inquiries about baptism, parents bringing forth their child to be baptized. That's something that deacons do properly within the church and within the liturgy and are able to baptize uh and help to bring those into the life of Christ. Beyond that, funerals, there's a great need to help people in the midst of real difficulties of dealing with death. And so deacons can offer uh different funeral prayers and liturgies outside of the funeral, the mass of Christian burial. And beyond that, as well, marriage. A marriage outside of a mass, deacons are able to hear and witness the vows of a couple coming before the church that ratify their covenant together that we call holy matrimony.

SPEAKER_00:

Jordan, you mentioned about the laying of hands, and that's so important because it shows us that even from the very beginning, these deacons received authority. So, right, if we think about the early church, that apostolic church, in one sense or another, Christ laid hands upon those disciples, conferring upon them his authority, setting them apart, consecrating them. And so even today, our father and I have both had the bishops' hands laid upon us twice when we were ordained deacons, and then again when we were ordained priests. And that same symbolism, having bishop Kulik lay hands upon us, is the same as the first apostles laying hands upon the deacons, Christ laying hands upon the apostles. So each bishop in his local church is a successor to the apostles.

SPEAKER_02:

So you you mentioned how that you and Father Andrew were both deacons at one time. But going back to the early Well, we still are deacons.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't lose your character.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, you were only deacons, you weren't priests as well.

SPEAKER_00:

We were transitional deacons. Transitional deacons. We can break that down, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. Transitional versus permanent diaconate. Yeah. So there's only those two.

SPEAKER_01:

In terms of, yeah, within the order of deacons. So transitional deacons, you're ordained a deacon by the bishop, in that you are transferring through only that order to the next level of holy orders, which would be to be a priest. Usually the way that that works out now in the modern church is that you would spend a year in between that time period.

SPEAKER_00:

And that really you're carrying out the same ministry of the permanent deacon, you're preaching the gospel, you're meeting the poor, you're bringing communion to those who can't can no longer gather with the community.

SPEAKER_01:

And a permanent deacon would be one that you're not transferring out of that holy order. You're staying in that permanently. And usually that's marked today by uh men that are actually able to be married in that holy order of the permanent diaconate. And so we see a lot of deacons with wives and even families and so forth, and they're able to fulfill different roles within the church that say that the priest is caught up in the administration of sacraments and other things, especially as helping to run parishes, that deacons then become an organizer, especially of the lay people in the parish to help to meet the needs of the people that are being brought up. But you also do that too, as a priest.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And so that's so we share in that ministry of service, but our ministry of service then, through being ordained priests, is expanded to a ministry also of sanctification, of offering sacrifice to God for the salvation and sanctification of the people entrusted to our care.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, if you're a permanent deacon, you don't have to be a seminarian, right? That's just for those transitions.

SPEAKER_01:

You participate in seminary in a certain way, not living usually in seminary with other men studying to be priests.

SPEAKER_00:

But there's still a diaconal formation, period.

SPEAKER_01:

You go to seminaries to take certain educational classes, pastoral activities, and assignments that you then learn how to really be an ordained member of the clergy. That's important to remember.

SPEAKER_02:

So would you say that there's even another level of the hierarchy below deacon? Would it be a seminarian?

SPEAKER_01:

Not really, not because holy orders are only three as deacon, priest, bishop. Why have you guys I need to know? Seminarians would be considered still lay people until they would enter into the clerical state at the diaconate.

SPEAKER_02:

So when does the hazing period stop stop at once you're a in your church?

SPEAKER_01:

It never starts, Jordan. That's the correct answer.

SPEAKER_02:

So, you know, we mentioned that both of you were in that transitional diaconate um period.

SPEAKER_01:

What was your experience? It's very much garnered towards service, right? Even where does Jesus actually institute the priesthood? Where does he ordain the bishops of the church, the apostles? Where we would look to is the last supper. Now notice that Jesus does certain uh a certain thing in particular is that he lowers himself in service and he washes the feet of the apostles. We remember this at our great liturgy on Holy Thursday of the Lord's Supper, where the priest goes and he washes the feet of those in the congregation. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

We also did an episode of that.

SPEAKER_01:

It's very important for us to understand because what is Jesus doing in essence as he comes down from heaven? He's lowering himself to take the form of a slave or a servant to free us from our sin. And so entering into the holy order, the sacrament of holy orders, where do you enter in at? First and foremost, as a servant of the people of God. And so that's kind of the general breakdown, but you don't lose that. As you go on to be a priest or as a bishop, you're always reminded of you being a deacon. Now, bishops, very interestingly, during the liturgy, during a mass, especially during ordination masses, it's common, they will wear underneath the chasuble a dalmatic.

SPEAKER_00:

So the chasuble is the outer priestly garment that a priest wears for the celebration of the Eucharist of Mass.

SPEAKER_01:

And a dalmatic is the proper uh vestment worn by the deacon as a sign of their service at the altar. And so what is symbolized there in the bishop is that he has the fullness of the priesthood of all the holy orders, but he never takes off in that sense his diaconate being a deacon. It's underneath everything, it's the very basis of the holy orders that he continues to live out. So what can the church do for its deacons?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'd I'd rephrase it. I think it's the question should be what can the deacons do for the church? Because the deacons it's like JFK.

SPEAKER_01:

Do not ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's true because the deacons are called to bring a different perspective to the church. Especially since many of our permanent deacons are married. And interestingly, if a permanent deacon's wife should die while they're a permanent deacon, they're not permitted to remarry. So they have to be married prior to their ordination to the diaconate.

SPEAKER_02:

So what if that happens and they decide, like, are they able to become a priest?

SPEAKER_01:

They could. In in picking up on that as well, I think that permanent deacons can actually speak in a very beautiful way to those that are in difficulties in marriage, right? A lot of our permanent deacons are married and they know that intimately, the idea of husband and wife, the struggles of marriage and matrimony and so forth. And so they can be very good in that way to help individuals that are struggling in that sense. Not that you always have to be married to be able to speak truth into an area, certainly, but there is a a a particular way in which that they know marriage and share their experience.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And that brings us back perfectly to this episode's topic. That the needs of the church continue to grow. And the deacon is there to supply those needs. The needs continue to grow in our own parishes as we have less clergy to be available and to be in our parishes. Many of our pastors have three, four, or five parishes. But that work is supplemented really through the permanent deacons who are present in those communities, as Father was saying. And so just as in the early church, the church grew and needed assistance to reach people where they were, the same thing is today. And if you're really feeling a call to the permanent diaconate, if if service and charity really speak to you and interacting on a level of of the service of Christ and being one of those representatives of the goodness of Christ in the world, and you're feeling a call to the permanent diaconate or to the transitional diaconate. We always can use more priests. Um, feel free to contact the office of the permanent diaconate and the office of priestly formation.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to our show. You know, when we're done filming, I say you guys stay sitting up there and we'll just get like little reactions. We'll call cliff too so people can kind of see. I don't think we need the to see the I just want a little studio audience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's not the point of this. The point is you guys are the stars.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, all the we're so that's you know, we're award winning now. We want to show that it's not just three, there's a team.