[hinckley buzzard]

Female lectors in the Catholic Mass have been commonplace as long as I can remember. Decades at least. Not sure what the fuss is about here. Is the Vatican somehow different from the cathedral downtown?

[ebb tide]

Immediately after VC II, there were no female lectors, no permanent deacons, no altar girls, no Holy Communion in the hand, no Ascension Sundays (for the lazy), etc.

It you don’t see the creep of modernism, you’re no different than a frog in a pot on the stove.

[NKP_Vet]

“ Female lectors in the Catholic Mass have been commonplace as long as I can remember. Decades at least. Not sure what the fuss is about here. Is the Vatican somehow different from the cathedral downtown?”

Only in Novus Ordo.

Traditional churches , as in SSPX,FSSP, etc,do not have lay people saying a word from the pulpit. Its modernist Protestant nonsense.

[eastsider]

Prior to Vatican II, there were four minor orders: acolyte, exorcist, lector and porter. In the early 70's, the minor orders of exorcist and porter were done away with, and the two remaining minor orders of acolyte and lector were redesignated 'ministries.'

Since then, only men were formerly instituted into the ministries of acolyte and lector because those ministries were deemed steps in seminary formation leading to priestly ordination. The women lectors at Mass that have been commonplace for the past 50 years were not formally instituted.

What's different now is that Pope Francis is formally instituting women as lectors because the instituted ministry of lector is no longer deemed to be a step leading to priestly ordination.