As a permanent deacon who, for family reasons, resides in Malta for six months each year, I was intrigued by the article ‘Deacons in limbo’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 7).

Readers may be interested to know that my attempts to function as a permanent deacon in the Maltese episcopate ever since my arrival in 2013 have fallen on stony ground, this despite two introductory letters from two bishops in the United Kingdom to the then Archbishop Paul Cremona. Sadly, with his retirement the issue has been swept under the carpet.

The description given by Mgr Cremona that the permanent diaconate “adds a richness to Holy Orders” is a very apt one. It should be stated that the permanent diaconate in no way supplements the lack of priests; the Second Vatican Council made that quite clear.

St Stephen, the first permanent deacon and the first martyr, after Christ, with his six other companions did not have the hands of the Apostles laid on them to supplement the lack of Apostles.

The reason, as I am sure most readers are aware, was to allow the Apostles (priests) to concentrate on prayer and spirituality and not be tied down by administrative chores and overwhelming pastoral needs. The fact that some deacons in the Church’s history have even been elected to be Popes speaks for itself.

Surely it is time the Maltese Church started to live post-Vatican II not Vatican I?