Allen Morris
Music and Liturgy 49.3 (November 2023)
Most liturgical rites have a praenotanda, an introduction which offers a theology for the rite and practical guidance for its celebration. However, the rites for instituting the ministries of Lector and Acolyte lack such an introduction. When they were published in 1972, the place of the introduction was taken by a motu proprio from Pope Paul VI, so significant were the changes being implemented.
Until 2021, these ministries were reserved by Church law to lay men. But, in 2021, Pope Francis gave permission for them to be opened also to women. This action caused no little confusion to many faithful Catholics who had been long familiar with women reading in church and assisting as commissioned ministers of holy communion.
The confusion was understandable. It was exacerbated by two things. First, the lay ministries of lector and acolyte were introduced to replace the prior clerical minor orders of lector and acolyte. Of their nature these minor orders were exercised by clergy and mostly those who received them ‘progressed’ to ministry as priests, and so were not seen ministering as lector or acolyte. Secondly, as already noted, by 1972 parishes had become familiar with lay people who may not have been ‘lectors’ but were readers, not ‘acolytes’ but were commissioned ministers of holy communion. For, although these lay ministries of lector and acolyte had been introduced by Paul VI in 1972, they had been rarely exercised in most parishes. The main reason for this was that, around the world, most bishops agreed that if they could not institute women neither would they institute men. The only general exception was that those being ordained as deacon could only be so ordained if they had first been instituted as lectors and acolytes. In the Acts of the Apostles (note 1) we learn of disciples in Ephesus who had never heard that there was a Holy Spirit. In 2021, there were many who at one and the same time never knew there were such things as lectors and acolytes, but who when they learnt what these things were thought ‘We’ve had them for ever!’
In Acts, St Paul took action to teach the disciples about the Holy Spirit and to gift the Spirit to them by Christian baptism. Pope Francis urged bishops to attend to promoting the instituted ministries (subsequently adding the instituted ministry of Catechist)—signs of action are still awaited!
The great irony of all this was that the intention established in Paul VI’s motu proprio was that these significant and permanent ministries were for the future to be ‘assigned to lay Christians; hence they are no longer to be considered as reserved to candidates for the sacrament of orders’. His intention was frustrated and for fifty years and counting.
Why were these ministries intended by Paul VI to be (re-)assigned to lay people? To help respond to the charisms gifted to lay members of the community that can be exercised for the good of the community and the furtherance of the mission of the Church.
Of course, much graced service is carried out by men and women who have not been formally instituted to stable ‘permanent’ ministries. For fifty years, countless numbers of people have done this as readers and ministers of holy communion, commissioned for service in their local community—and this will continue. These commissioned ministers help manifest one of the key truths emphasised in the teaching of the Church at Vatican II, and subsequently explored in the various introductions to many of her liturgical rites, that our liturgy is a work of the gathered community (sometimes necessarily including ordained ministers), participating in Christ’s saving work and worship. The expectation of the Church is that our liturgy is sustained by the collaborative work of all sorts of people doing all sorts of things (2).
Very often such work is carried out by people on a temporary basis. Simple rituals to bless people offering such service to the Church are provided in the Book of Blessings prepared for use in the United States, and provided by rituals added by the local Bishops’ Conference to the Editio Typica (3). These simple rituals are offered in two forms: the first for use within Mass and the second for use on other occasions. A brief introduction to the collection includes these explanatory words: “Our life as the Christian faithful is enhanced when, in the Spirit of the Lord and in keeping with the divine commandments, we seek to extend whatever contributes to the harmony of human society and to make more available the products of nature and of human industry. The life of the faithful is also enhanced when we bless the Lord and are blessed by him.” (n.1805) and “In the life of a parish there is a diversity of services exercised by lay persons. It is fitting that as people publicly begin their service they receive the blessing of God who gives the gifts needed to carry out this work.” (n.1806) (4)
Such talk of gifts and charism and service helps move thinking about these ministries beyond, for example, X is helping Father out by ‘doing’ the reading. X may well be helping Father out but more importantly she or he is serving their community in their fruitful participation in the liturgy and enhancing what it is that we all offer together in Christ to our heavenly Father.
One consequence of the failure to respond positively to what Paul VI intended by the introduction of the stable, permanent lay ministries of lector and acolyte has been a far too simplistic distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘volunteer’ ministry in the Church; and collapsing that distinction into an equally simplistic, and even offensive, distinction between clerical and lay ministry in the Church.
Far too simplistic: for the ‘professional’ ministry of clergy has its beginnings in voluntary response to the call received from God and the Church; and much ‘voluntary’ (lay) ministry is carried out to the highest standards by people who have often not received much in the way of formation provided by those with responsibility for Church ministry. Pope Francis, in urging the Church to look again at how it draws on the benefits offered by having instituted lectors and acolytes, notes that there is real difference between lay ministry offered by virtue of baptism and ordained ministry offered by virtue of ordination. However, this is a difference in kind, not automatically in excellence or quality—and the Church wants and needs to be enriched by both.
“In the course of history, as ecclesial, social and cultural situations have changed, the exercise of ministries in the Catholic Church has taken on different forms, although the distinction, not only of degree, between ‘instituted’ (or ‘lay’) ministries and ‘ordained’ ministries has remained intact. The former are particular expressions of the priestly and regal condition proper to every baptised person (cf. 1 Pet 2:9); the latter are proper to some of the members of the People of God who, as bishops and priests, ‘receive the mission and capacity to act in the person of Christ the Head’ or, as deacons, ‘are empowered to serve the People of God in the ministries of the liturgy, the word and charity’ (Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter in the form of motu proprio, Omnium in mentem n.26 October 2009). Expressions such as baptismal priesthood and ordained (or ministerial) priesthood are also used to indicate this distinction. In any case, it is worth reiterating that, with the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council, that ‘the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ’ (Lumen Gentium n.10). Ecclesial life is nourished by this reciprocal reference and is nourished by the fruitful tension between these two poles of the priesthood, ministerial and baptismal, which despite their distinction are rooted in the one priesthood of Christ.” (5)
Furthermore, Francis reminds us: “It is the task of the Church’s pastors to recognise the gifts of each baptised person, to guide them also towards specific ministries, to promote and coordinate them, so that they may contribute to the good of the communities and to the mission entrusted to all disciples.” (6)
All those who exercise ministry deserve such care and support. It is especially important for those who are not simply commissioned to a ‘temporary’ ministry, but are formally instituted to such ministry in a diocese by the bishop.
Francis notes that those being instituted to such ministry require that the Church needs to recognise ‘the firm will to serve God and the Christian people faithfully’ and that such a vocation and response to vocation requires the discernment of the pastors and adequate preparation (7).
Instituted lectors having received their office entailing stability, public recognition and a mandate from the bishop means that they are able and responsible for doing more than ‘just’ reading. Their ministry, their experience, their calling urges also their participation in the work of evangelisation, working collaboratively with others (lay and ordained). Commenting particularly on the value of extending these ministries to women, Francis writes: “This 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.” (8)
If it is important to note that readers do much more than just read—they proclaim, they allow the word to speak, they touch and change hearts—then much more is expected of Lectors. They are of the range of ‘professional’ ministers, whose ministry extends beyond service at a particular Mass in a particular parish.
For that reason, Pope Francis notes that it is “… the task of the Episcopal Conferences to establish adequate criteria for the discernment and preparation of candidates for the ministries of the Lectorate or Acolytate, or other ministries which they deem to be instituted, according to what is already disposed in the motu proprio, Ministeria quaedam, subject to the approval of the Holy See and according to the needs of evangelisation in their territory.” (9)
Its more than two years since Pope Francis wrote those words. There has been no indication yet of our Bishops’
Conference establishing such criteria; exploring what ‘job description’ might be put in place; or identifying what might have been lost in the past fifty years by neglecting the formation of lay ministers of all sorts. It is easy to suggest others might be neglecting important responsibilities. But what about me and you? How do we help our local community to do what we should (or even seek to make good what others fail to provide!)? How often do we provide formation for ministers, or help and encourage them to offer formation to each other—and how helpful is what is provided? How often does the parish acknowledge its ministers and pray for them?
With 2024 seeing a further National Eucharistic Congress and the publication of the new edition of the Lectionary for Mass, what better time to give time and attention to all of our ministers of Word and Holy Communion (instituted or not) and help them give of the very best they can offer? Working together on this might also help us work together to make it clearer to the bishops and those others responsible for diocesan formation what more we need and why.
Notes
1. Acts 19:1-7
2. The most complete account of Duties and Ministries is found in Chapter III of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.
3. No edition of the Book of Blessings has been prepared for England & Wales or Scotland. In its absence, it is permitted to use the US edition. Rites for the blessing of those who exercise pastoral service; of readers, of altar servers, sacristans, musicians and ushers, and of extraordinary ministers of holy communion are provided in Part VI of the US edition of the Book of Blessings. The rites for blessing of readers and ministers of holy communion are also made available in Ministering the Word of God and Ministering Communion by Allen Morris, published by the Catholic Truth Society.
4. Extracts from Introduction to Blessings taken from for Various Needs and Occasions, Part VI of the Book of Blessings (1989 The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota).
5. Letter of his Holiness Pope Francis to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding access of women to the ministries of lector and acolyte (10th January 2021) §4.
6. ibid §6
7. ibid §13
8. ibid §14 (Pope Francis quotes from his Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia n.103)
9. ibid §16
Allen Morris is a priest of Birmingham Archdiocese and a former Secretary to the Department of Christian Life and Worship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.