Discover the new ministries for the laity that the Pope will confer on Sunday 23 January

Il Vatican announced that Papa Francesco he will confer for the first time the ministries of catechist, reader and acolyte to the laity.

Candidates from three continents for these new forms of service to the Church will be invested during the papal Mass on Sunday 23 January.

Two people from the Amazon Region of Peru will be formally catechized by the Pope, along with other candidates from Brazil, Ghana, Poland e Spain. In the meantime, the ministry of lectorate will be conferred on lay Catholics from South Korea, Pakistan, Ghana e Italy.

Each of these ministries will be conferred through a rite prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Those called to the ministry of readers will be given a Bible, while the catechists will be entrusted with a cross. In the latter case, it will be a copy of the pastoral cross used by Popes St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II.

In relation to the ministry of the catechist, it was instituted by the Holy Father through the Motu Proprio Antiquum ministerium ("Ancient Ministry").

The motu proprio explains that "it is appropriate that men and women of profound faith and human maturity be called to the instituted ministry of catechists, who actively participate in the life of the Christian community, who know how to be welcoming, generous and live in fraternal communion, who receive the right biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be attentive communicators of the truth of the faith, and who have already gained a previous experience of catechesis ".

A reader is a person who reads the scriptures, apart from the gospel, which is announced only by deacons and priests, to the congregation during mass.

Finally, the acolyte has the task of distributing Holy Communion as an extraordinary minister if such ministers are not present, publicly expose the Eucharist for adoration in extraordinary circumstances, and instruct the other faithful, who temporarily assist the deacon and the priest in the liturgy. services carrying the missal, cross or candles.