In Easter 1955 at Freiburg-Wallenried, Father Conrad Fischer, parish priest and general secretary of Catholica Unio, was suddenly snatched from the fruitful field of his activities by a malignant disease. One year before his death he wrote to me on the question of the revival of the diaconate in the following terms:

I personally am deeply pre-occupied with the question, more deeply, perhaps, even than yourself. In very truth it could be the source of a unique renewal of vitality within the Catholic Church. The presence of one or several deacons living with their families in a parish would bring the Church to the notice of many laymen. People would be compelled to a far greater extent to take ‘churchfolk’ into account. The concerns of the Church would be more deeply impressed on the minds of lay-people… . Through the diaconate something would come to life again in the Church; the layman's sense of responsibility towards his parish.