Permanent Diaconate

"Deacons play a vital role in evangelizing both to the gathered and the scattered in our community. Their ministry is of great importance to our archdiocese answering the call of Jesus to love and serve."

Cardinal Thomas Collins
Archbishop of Toronto

Do you think you have a calling to serve as a Permanent Deacon in the Archdiocese of Toronto?

If you would like information on the Permanent Diaconate you can contact:

Office of Clergy Personnel – Diaconate
1155 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4T 1W2
Tel: 416-934-3400, ext. 304

or email us

We would be happy to send you a video entitled "A Ministry of Presence" as well as a brochure, "Is God Calling You to Serve the Church as a Deacon?"

Cardinal Collins has also written a number of articles about the permanent diaconate, listed below for your consideration.

No. 1 - Let Me Introduce the Deacon .pdf

No. 2 - Explore the Diaconate Sacrament.pdf

No. 3 - The Deacon - Word Altar Charity.pdf

No. 4 - Deacon Must Priorize His Life.pdf

No. 5 - As a Deacon He Comes Third.pdf

For further information, review an outline of the Formation Program for the Permanent Diaconate

Intake Application Process
Finally, if you have been considering this calling for some time and would like to apply to enter the program, the Intake Application Process is outlined below.

The Next Intake: September 2020 and closes March 15, 2021

A new Formation Program Class starts every two years and so applications are accepted every two years.

To begin the application process, contact the Office of Clergy Personnel – Diaconate to speak to the Coordinator for Diaconal Ministry. We will then send you an Application package in an electronic format. This package will request the necessary information and a number of supporting documents by a specified date.

Once the information and the documents are received by the Coordinator of Diaconal Ministry, the Applicant will be contacted in order to arrange an appropriate time for a phone interview with you and if married, your wife.

All information collected by the office from the applicant is kept in the strictest confidence and shared only with the Director of Formation for the Diaconate Program, the Rector of the Seminary and/or his designate and members of the Admissions Committee.

Your documents combined with the information provided in the phone interview will be compiled in a file. The files of all applicants will be sent to St. Augustine's Seminary, where the Admissions Committee, the Director of Formation and the Rector of the Seminary will take over the Application Process.

The Admissions Committee will review each of the files and then select the applicants to be interviewed. They will contact each of these applicants who are selected and where applicable, their spouses, requesting them to attend at the Seminary for an interview.

From those applicants who are interviewed the Admissions Committee will select those applicants whom they will accept into the propaedeutic year in the following fall program.

Acceptance in the propaedeutic year is not acceptance into diaconate formation, but rather into a spiritual year of aspirancy and discernment. Any invitations into the diaconate formation program are made at the end of the spiritual year.

Further information about the Formation Program for the Permanent Diaconate can be found on the Seminary website.