 Deacons are male and usually belong to the diocesan clergy, but, unlike almost all Latin Church (Western Catholic) priests and all bishops from Eastern or Western Catholicism, they may marry as laymen before their ordination as clergy.The Catholic Church teaches that when a man participates in priesthood after the Sacrament of Holy Orders, he acts "in persona Christi Capitis", representing the person of Christ.Unlike usage in English, "the Latin words "sacerdos" and "sacerdotium" are used to refer in general to the ministerial priesthood shared by bishops and presbyters.