The Diaconate, a "plastic" ministry
Deacon Giorgio Agagliati reports on a program of ongoing formation for deacons and spouses
in the Dioceses of Turin and Susa.
This experience concerns a three-year ongoing formation program for the deacons of the Dioceses of Turin and Susa (Piedmont, Northwest Italy), along with their spouses, focusing on two fundamental elements: diaconal spirituality and a “plastic” conception of ministry.
The program started in 2023/24 pastoral year and was inspired by a speech by Cardinal Roberto Repole, Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Susa. During a diocesan convocation on June 9, 2023, while presenting the theological and pastoral guidelines for diocesan development in the coming years, he defined the permanent diaconate as a “plastic ministry.”
The report reveals a significantly “unprecedented” approach, combining more “traditional” contributions (biblical, theological, ecclesiological) with contributions from “secular” expertise, in the belief that today the ministry of the deacon and the witness that he and his spouse are increasingly called, both within and outside the ecclesial community, to address a profoundly changing reality, which requires spiritual soundness and pastoral creativity.
You can download the report in our download section.
The author: Deacon Giorgio Agagliati (Turin, 1957), is a member of the Diocesan Coordinating Body of the Permanent Diaconate of Turin and Susa and, within this context, responsible for ongoing formation. Agagliati, a deacon since 2001, is a member of the National Council of the Diaconate Community in Italy and of the project group for the Theological Days on the Diaconate promoted by the Pious Society of San Gaetano of Vicenza and directed by Father Luca Garbinetto. He also serves every year as a volunteer offering spiritual welcome to the Pilgrims reaching Santiago de Compostela. His latest book (February 2025) is titled Il diacono e il pellegrinaggio della speranza (“The Deacon and the Pilgrimage of Hope”, currently available in Italian only).