1. Just who and what is a deacon anyway? A Catholic deacon is a member of the clergy. In the Catholic Church, “the clergy” consists of three groups of ordained ministers: bishops, deacons, and priests. While all members of the Church are called to minister to others by virtue of their baptism, some Catholics are also ordained to specific forms of ministry to the rest of the Church. We refer to these ordained Catholics as “clerics” or “clergy.” The title “deacon” comes from the Greek word diakonos,