Pope Francis admits women to the ministries of lector and acolyte

Pope Francis issued a motu proprio on Monday amending canon law to allow women to serve as readers and acolytes.

In the motu proprio "Spiritus Domini", issued on January 11, the pope modified canon 230 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law to: "Lay people of suitable age and with gifts determined by decree of the Bishops' Conference can be permanently assigned , through the established liturgical rite, to the ministries of readers and acolytes; however, the conferral of this role does not entitle them to support or remuneration from the Church “.

Before this modification, the law said that "lay people who possess the age and qualifications established by decree of the episcopal conference can be permanently admitted to the ministries of lector and acolyte through the prescribed liturgical rite".

Lector and acolyte are publicly recognized ministries established by the Church. Roles were once considered "minor orders" in the Church tradition and were changed into ministries by Pope Paul VI. According to Church law, "before anyone is promoted to the permanent or transitional diaconate, he must have received the ministries of lector and acolyte".

Pope Francis wrote a letter to Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explaining his decision to admit women to the ministries of lector and acolyte.

In this letter, the pope highlighted the distinction between "'established' (or 'lay') ministries and 'ordained' ministries", and expressed the hope that the opening of these lay ministries to women could "better manifest the common baptismal dignity of the members of the People of God ".

He said: “The apostle Paul distinguishes between gifts of grace-charisms ('charismata') and services ('diakoniai' - 'ministry [cf. Rom 12, 4ss and 1 Cor 12, 12ss]). According to the tradition of the Church, the various forms that charisms take when they are publicly recognized and made available to the community and its mission in a stable form are called ministries, ”wrote the pope in the letter published on 11 January.

“In some cases the ministry has its origin in a specific sacrament, Holy Orders: these are the 'ordained' ministries, the bishop, the presbyter, the deacon. In other cases the ministry is entrusted, with the bishop's liturgical act, to a person who has received Baptism and Confirmation and in whom specific charisms are recognized, after an adequate journey of preparation: we then speak of 'instituted' ministries ".

The Pope observed that "today there is an ever greater urgency to rediscover the co-responsibility of all the baptized in the Church, and above all the mission of the laity".

He said that the 2019 Amazon Synod "signaled the need to think about 'new paths of ecclesial ministeriality', not only for the Amazonian Church, but for the whole Church, in the variety of situations".

"It is urgent that they be promoted and confer ministries on men and women ... It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must consolidate by promoting the ministry and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity," said Pope Francis, citing the synod's final document.

Pope Paul VI abolished the minor orders (and the sub-diaconate) and instituted the ministries of reader and acolyte in the motu proprio, "Ministeria quaedam", issued in 1972.

“The acolyte is instituted to help the deacon and to serve the priest. It is therefore his duty to take care of the service of the altar, to help the deacon and the priest in liturgical services, especially in the celebration of Holy Mass ”, wrote Paul VI.

The potential responsibilities of an acolyte include distributing Holy Communion as an extraordinary minister if such ministers are not present, public display of the Sacrament of the Eucharist for worship by the faithful in extraordinary circumstances, and "the instruction of other faithful, who, temporarily base, he helps the deacon and the priest in liturgical services by bringing the missal, cross, candles, etc. "

"Ministeria quaedam" says: "The acolyte, destined in a special way to the service of the altar, learns all the notions regarding divine public worship and strives to understand its intimate and spiritual meaning: in this way he can offer himself , every day, completely to God and to be, in the temple, an example for all for his serious and respectful behavior, and also for having a sincere love for the mystical body of Christ, or people of God, and especially for the weak and the sick. "

In his decree, Paul VI writes that the reader was "instituted for the office, proper to him, of reading the word of God in the liturgical assembly".

"The reader, feeling the responsibility of the office received, must do everything possible and make use of the appropriate means to acquire every day more fully the sweet and living love and knowledge of Sacred Scripture, in order to become a more perfect disciple of the Lord" , the decree said.

Pope Francis affirmed in his letter that it will be up to local episcopal conferences to establish appropriate criteria for the discernment and preparation of candidates for the ministries of lector and acolyte in their territories.

"Offering lay people of both sexes the possibility of accessing the ministry of the acolyte and of the reader, by virtue of their participation in the baptismal priesthood, will increase the recognition, also through a liturgical act (institution), of the precious contribution that many lay people , even women, offer themselves to the life and mission of the Church ”, wrote Pope Francis.