Women As Lector and Acolyte

The Amendment in Can. 230, §1 of CIC 1983

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Pope Francis changed canon law and liturgical norms to allow women to be formally installed as lectors and acolytes, acknowledging the gifts of each baptized person. Laity who meets the age and qualification requirements can be a lector or an acolyte under the prescribed liturgical rite.

Women will be able to partake more effectively in the work of evangelization in the church if these offices, which involve stability, public recognition, and a bishop's mandate, are also granted to them. For decades, women and girls have been lectors at Mass and altar servers. Women and men were allowed to perform those functions by temporary designation under Canon 230, paragraph 2, but it was not a formally and stably instituted ministry.

The “General Instruction of the Roman Missal” stipulates: “The acolyte is instituted for service at the altar and to assist the priest and deacon. It is his place principally to prepare the altar and the sacred vessels and, if necessary, to distribute the Eucharist to the faithful as an extraordinary minister.”

The lector is instituted to proclaim the readings from sacred Scripture, with the exception of the Gospel. He may also announce the intentions for the universal prayer and, in the absence of a psalmist, recite the Psalm between the readings, the instruction prescribes.

A study of this new amendment and its legal provision enabling women to be stably instituted as lectors and acolytes is presented in the article. Additionally, it highlights the historical development and clarifies the role of ministries in the Church.