Word: proprio
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Janitors. There are still many problems for the diaconate to overcome. The program is already far more adventurous than the document that outlined it in its modern form. Pope Paul's 1967 motu proprio (directive given "by his own hand") envisioned the diaconate as a substitute ministry where priests were in short supply. It is the motu proprio that demands, somewhat unrealistically, that unmarried deacons take lifetime vows of celibacy; as a result, few single men have applied. Most of the married deacons resent the Pope's ruling that a widowed deacon cannot remarry, even though that ruling...
More significant, Paul also issued a motu-proprio-a decree by his own hand-that barred women from formal investiture in even such minor roles in the ministry as lector (reader) and acolyte (assistant at Mass and other services). They have performed these functions extensively, if unofficially, since Vatican II and presumably will continue to do so. In a separate decree the Pope reaffirmed mandatory celibacy for deacons who are not married at the time of ordination or who become widowers...