Our purpose is to build up the community of deacons so that they may realize their full potential in Jesus Christ and the Church. The Lord has called us together in ministry and service and we have common bonds of Orders to fulfill this call. We do need one another for none of us are islands and the very fact of the Church's existence dictates against loners. We come together each year in the Institute to build through Education, Sharing and Community. We share our successes as well as our failures so that we might realize that Jesus is Savior and we do need His help. Let us then pray for one-another as well as for the Institute and the leadership of the Diaconate, that together we can go forward by serving in traditional ministries with imagination and innovations and will find through research and development, New Ministries and New Ways to Serve God and His Church.
In 1973, a small group of deacons met informally at St. John's, Collegeville, Minnesota for brotherhood and sharing. The experience was pleasant and the group with the leadership of Deacon Joe Newman of Cleveland, planned a First Formal Meeting. The meeting was held at St. John's with 45 attending. Msgr. Fiedler was present at this and the previous meeting to lend direction and support. A decision was reached at this meeting to develop a formal organization of deacons. Joe Newman was selected as chairman of a Steering Committee and from this evolved the meeting of 1976 at Notre Dame with about 90 deacons and wives attending. At the 1976 meeting tentative goals were set-up to try and achieve an organization of national scope and preparations were made to develop a constitution. Beginning with 1976 and continuing through 2003, meetings were held at Notre Dame University. The 1977 meeting saw the ratification of the Constitution of The National Diaconate Institute, the election of Joe Newman as First President. In 1978, the Institute continued to grow, and in 1979 Stan Gogol of Toledo was elected President. In 1980 the growth of the Institute continued and formal communications were established with the Bishops' Committee on the Permanent Diaconate. In 1981 Hosea Alexander was selected President. John Dimeo was elected President in 1985, John Pistone in 1989 and William Krueger in 1991. Rudy Wolf, William Krauskoff, Alfred Mitchell Ed Sadowski, John DiStazio, Gordon Cartwright, Charles Brown and Leo McBlain preceded the 2004-2005, 2005-2006 president Clif Perriman. In July 2006, Hal Belcher was elected president for 2006-2007.