VATICAN (Agencies): “A consolidated practice in the Latin Church has confirmed, in fact, that such lay ministries, being based on the sacrament of baptism, can be entrusted to all the faithful who are suitable, whether male or female,” Pope Francis wrote in a document, Spiritus Domini, issued motu proprio (on his own accord), amending Canon 230, paragraph 1, so that women can be formally installed as lectors and acolytes.
CNS reported that the document, was published by the Vatican on January 11.
The updated canon will now say, “Laity who possess the age and qualifications established by decree of the conference of bishops can be admitted on a stable basis through the prescribed liturgical rite to the ministries of lector and acolyte.”
In a letter to Luis Cardinal Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis wrote: “The decision to confer also on women these offices, which involve stability, public recognition and a mandate from the bishop, will make the participation of all in the work of evangelisation more effective in the Church.”
On January 11, Vatican News noted that there is nothing new about women proclaiming the Word of God during liturgical celebrations or serving as altar servers or as Eucharistic ministers.
On January 11, Vatican News noted that there is nothing new about women proclaiming the Word of God during liturgical celebrations or serving as altar servers or as Eucharistic ministers.
In many communities throughout the world these practices are already authorised by local bishops.
However, up to this point, this has occurred without a true and proper institutional mandate, as an exception to what Pope St. Paul VI had established when, in 1972, even while abolishing the so-called minor orders, he decided to maintain that access to these ministries be granted only to men because both were considered to be preparatory to the eventual admission to holy orders.
However, in the wake of the discernment which emerged from the last Synods of Bishops, Pope Francis wanted to formalise and institutionalise the presence of women at the altar, Vatican News reported
Pope Francis reiterated Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching that the Church “in no way has the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women” since Jesus chose only men as his apostles.
In his letter to Cardinal Ladaria, published with the document amending canon law, the pope said that since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has made “a clearer distinction between the attributes of what today are called ‘nonordained (or lay) ministries’ and ‘ordained ministries’,” such as deacon, priest and bishop, CNS reported.
Those distinctions, he said, make it “possible to dissolve the reservation of the former to men alone.”
Pope Francis reiterated Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching that the Church “in no way has the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women” since Jesus chose only men as his apostles.
But with “nonordained ministries it is possible and today it seems opportune, to overcome this reservation” of allowing only men to be formally and permanently instituted as lectors and acolytes.
The pope’s letter also said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments would oversee the implementation of the change and would need to modify parts of the Roman Missal and the rite instituting lectors and acolytes.
Pope Francis’ document and his letter to Cardinal Ladaria frame the question in the context of the gifts and talents given by the Holy Spirit “through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist” to all members of the Church so that they can contribute “to the building up of the Church and to the proclamation of the gospel to every creature.”
Quoting his 2020 apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia, he said that formal, public installation of women in those ministries “would also allow women to have a real and effective impact on the organisation, the most important decisions and the direction of communities, while continuing to do so in a way that reflects their womanhood.”
Pope Francis said, “The priesthood of the baptised and service to the community represent the two pillars on which the institution of ministries is based.”
The change, he said, recognises the service already carried out by many women, but will also emphasise for men preparing for priesthood—who also are formally instituted as lectors and acolytes—that those ministries “are rooted in the sacrament of baptism and confirmation” that they all share and that the ordained priesthood and the priesthood of the baptised always should work together for the good of the entire Church community.
