Pope Francis receives the cruets from two women during Mass
Posted on 01/18/2023 8:40:37 AM PST by ebb tide
Pope Francis receives the cruets from two women during Mass
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis will confer the ministries of lector and catechist to women for the second time, in a Mass to be held at the Vatican this Sunday.
In a press release sent out by the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Holy See Press Office announced that the conferral of the two ministries would take place on January 22, which would be this year’s “Sunday of the Word of God” – as started by Francis in 2019.
The Dicastery wrote:
During the celebration, the ministries of Lectorate and Catechist will be conferred on lay men and women, specifically three people will receive the ministry of Lectorate and seven that of Catechist.
The ten men and women come from Italy, Congo, the Philippines, Mexico and Wales, wrote the Dicastery.
LifeSiteNews has contacted the Holy See Press Office, seeking more precise information on the number of men and women who will receive each specific ministry. This report will be updated upon receipt of a response.
Sunday’s event marks the second time that Pope Francis will institute women as lectors and catechists. His first such occasion was on the same Sunday of the Word of God in 2022 when he installed six women and two men in the ministry of lector and acolyte, with three women and five men being installed as catechists.
Under Pope Francis’ groundbreaking January 2021 motu proprio Spiritus Domini, Canon Law was changed to allow the liturgical institution of female lectors and acolytes, both of which are minor orders. This was followed by the May 10 apostolic letter Antiquum ministerium, which further drew on texts from Vatican II to establish the lay ministry of catechist for both men and women.
With these moves, Francis continued the liturgical upheaval seen following the Second Vatican Council. The ministries of lector and acolyte have been traditionally reserved to men and were stepping stones on the way to the priesthood. Even though women have regularly performed such roles in recent decades, they had never been formally instituted to do so, until Francis’ papacy.
Writing shortly after the release of Spiritus Domini in 2021, liturgist and theologian Dr. Peter Kwasniewski warned that the Pope’s altering of Canon Law to push women through the liturgical ministries “fits snugly into this larger pattern of rupture from Catholic tradition.”
In Kwasniewski’s recent book Ministers of Christ, – explaining and defending the traditional Catholic teaching on reserving the liturgical ministries to men only – he wrote that Spiritus Domini was “a tectonic shift both in theology and in praxis.”
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Pointing to the current “backdrop of the pervasive feminism,” Kwasniewski added that the motu proprio thus “continues to stoke the flames of a false egalitarianism that will never stop agitating for women deacons and priests.”
Moreover, it reflects a failure to understand why ministries were reserved to men in the first place, and why the inclusion of women in these roles is contrary to the very nature and structure of the Catholic liturgy.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider contributed to Kwasniewski’s book, and highlighted the great need for the Church to fully restore the traditional minor orders – porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte. Bishop Schneider described their modern rejection as “a novelty that comes close to the liturgical views of certain Protestant communities.”
He called instead for a re-establishing of the minor orders “with the same theological significance that the Church has always expressed in her lex orandi,” along with instruction to be given to lay Catholics on “the true meaning of their common priesthood in the liturgy and the highest source of their dignity.”
Ping
Apostate does apostate things, film at eleven. This is some emperor has no clothes level insanity. The vicar of pachamamma can’t be the Vicar of Christ.
Would that make her a lectress or a lectatrix?
Apostate?
There have been female lectors and catechists for years.
ANTI pope Francis. ANTI.
Pope Francis is wrong on things that endanger lives, confuse people about good and evil, etc. This one is not as big a deal as letting Christians in China and Nigeria suffer, as an example.
I’m a lector. I happen to be female. I don’t care what name you give it. I’m carefully, prayerfully doing my job. The Word speaks to people. I’m just the reader.
When I listen in the pew, it is not the sex of the reader that is of interest. It’s the clarity, so I can grasp the meaning and reflect upon it.
If the Church, upon direction by the Holy Spirit, decided that women lectors and acolytes were standing in the way of priestly vocations, I’d obey a directive to step down. I don’t want to, though. This ministry is really good for my soul, and from the feedback I get, others are benefiting also.
Do you also have desires to be a womyn deacon or priest for when Bergoglio permits them?
That is what happened in the Episcopal Church (among many other bad things that go right along with it). I fled from the wrath to come and was received into the Catholic Church. I do NOT want to see it go the way of the Anglicans. If that means I cannot read . . . so be it.
We have the leadership we deserve.
No. When I was younger I didn’t understand or agree with a male only priesthood. Now, I have just enough humility to figure that God knows better than I do on this. Jesus’ recruitment decisions seemed to turn not only on what the individual, with Grace, could do for the Church, but also on what God wanted to do for that individual. I think it is possible that, while women could do the various functions of a job called “priest”, it is men who need to receive this sacrament, this kind of grace. Far be it from me to interfere.
It’s like when Peter and Jesus are walking, post-resurrection, and John is walking after them. Peter says “what about him”? And Jesus basically tells him it’s none of his business, don’t worry about John. I’m very ok with not butting into Jesus’ decisions.
Is this news?
This is the clericalism he pretends to condemn.
These are instituted. Formerly minor orders; now an encroachment on Holy Orders.
St. Paul seems clear in stating a women is to be silent/restrained in church. 1 Timothy 2:11; 1 Corinthians 14:34; Titus 2:1-15.
In Acts 18:26, we see Paul being instructed by Priscilla and Aquila; Priscilla being a woman.
In Acts 2:17, Paul writes, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy ..."
""He (Philip the evangelist) had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied." - Acts 21:9
Something I've considered. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The result of Jesus' command is the gathering of the saints in the upper room. Acts 1:13,14 describes those in the upper room following Christ's resurrection. They included: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. ... with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. "
In the upper room the Holy Spirit rested on all present, men and women. Peter then preaches the following:
‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ - Acts 2: 17,21
As I began my comment, new testament scripture is a mixed bag concerning women in Christian ministry - IMHO.
Inferior ministers such as lector and acolyte should echo and reinforce the priest. There is no good reason to obscure the Christ-like sign value of his maleness. Lector, acolyte, etc have always been part of the minor orders that were steps to ordination. Priests and deacons can only be men because they are conformed to Christ the Bridegroom. To feminize these ministries is monstrous because it amounts to trans-sexualism: women being invited to adopt behaviors that are intrinsically male.
As for your service as lector, I hope you will reconsider. Even Francis has spoken about what a bad idea it is to clericalize the laity. As for your reading, please keep in mind that Mass is not Bible study, notwithstanding continuing efforts to protestantize the liturgy. We do not go to Mass to get instruction or edification, except in a subsidiary, accidental way. What comes first is what we GIVE. Scripture is proclaimed as part of the Holy Sacrifice, which consists first of the Inspired Word, and second, the Incarnate Word (in the Sacrament).
I think the Jewish antecedents are relevant here. There were prophetesses in the OT, but this was never seen or exercised as a Levitical office. All priests and levites were men. We can’t pretend this is irrelevant.
Exactly.
At my parish, we have females distributing Communion even though our congregation is no small no extraordinary ministers are needed. Church is never even half full.
And now we have women serving as altar boys.
you will be known by your fruits.
I guess I don’t mind the Liturgy of the Word as currently done. Since it’s the only Scripture many people get, having a “Bible Study” bent to it seems helpful to the congregation. The more I look at the Bible, the more I home in on the parts of the Liturgy of the Eucharist that are verbatim from Scripture. I am more aware and more attentive.
I had my chance years ago to become educated in liturgy, through music. I am not called to take an impassioned stand, as far as I can tell, in support of the Latin Mass or fine points of liturgical improvement. Although I certainly have attended Latin Masses and Eastern Rite masses, they do not tug at my soul like some people. But if you want to pray for greater spiritual maturity and faithfulness on my part, that is very fine by me.
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