Pope Francis confers ministries of lector, catechist on lay women and men
Highlighting the importance of the Bible in the life of faith and the role of lay women and men in sharing the Gospel, Pope Francis formally installed eight men and women in the ministry of lector and eight others in the ministry of catechist.
Of course, lay men and women have been serving as readers in our parishes since the Council, and as catechists for centuries. What was new in yesterday's ceremony is that for the first time, women were installed with a liturgical rite as lectors, and catechists were installed with a liturgical rite as catechists to permanent lay ministries similar to permanent ordained ministries. How will these permanent roles effect the life of the church? Like deacons, installed lectors and catechists can exercise their roles beyond the parishes and dioceses to which they are assigned. And their roles within the parish do not cease when a new pastor or bishop comes along.
During Mass Jan. 23, the church's celebration of Sunday of the Word of God, the pope used a revised rite for formally installing lectors, a ministry he opened to women a year earlier, and the new rite for the ministry of catechist, which he established in May.
"You will proclaim that word in the liturgical assembly, instruct children and adults in the faith and prepare them to receive the sacraments worthily. You will bring the message of salvation to those who have not yet received it."
This idea of a lector seems to be much more than simply reading the scriptures at Mass. It seems to entail what we have often regarded as catechetic roles, instructing children and adults, and even the role of evangelizing non-Christians.
Francis told the Catechists they were called "to live more intensely the apostolic spirit, following the example of those men and women who helped Paul and the other apostles to spread the Gospel."
They, too, knelt before the altar as the pope said, "May your ministry always be rooted in a profound life of prayer, built on sound doctrine and animated by true apostolic enthusiasm."
Again, this vision of a catechist seems to go beyond what we normally think of as the jobs as catechists, and involve the witness of their lives rather than simply educating others
In his homily, the pope said the 16 lectors and catechists "are called to the important work of serving the Gospel of Jesus, of proclaiming him, so that his consolation, his joy and his liberation can reach everyone."
But, the pope said, "that is also the mission of each one of us: to be credible messengers, prophets of God's word in the world."
For that to happen, he said, Christians must devote themselves to reading the Bible, digging "deep within the word that reveals God's newness and leads us tirelessly to love others."
"Let us put the word of God at the center of the church's life and pastoral activity," he said
As expected, Francis emphasized that the what the lectors and catechesis are invited to do is something that we all can and should do because of our baptism. We don't need another rite to empower us to do this, rather the rite recognizes that for some Christians these activities have become such a part of both their lives and the community, that they need to be formally recognized.
As a careful observer of liturgical practices, it was interesting to see how they arranged things in Saint Peters. The to-be-installed readers and catechists occupied the first-row seats in a semi-circle in front of the altar that are usually reserved to concelebrating cardinals, with bishops behind them. Those were place further back in the nave of the Basilica. During the offertory the front rows of these concelebrants processed to assemble around the steps at the sides of the altar with communion cups to be consecrated during the Eucharistic prayer. They then proceeded back through the church at communion time. So, at least for this ceremony it was very apparent the prominent roles of lector and catechist in the life of the church.
Ever since last summer we have had a new papal master of ceremonies. The former one was the same papal master of ceremonies who was a favorite of Benedict. Much was made of all the old fashion vestments he used for Benedict. Many though Francis would quickly remove him. However, Francis seems not to judge people according to their ideology but how they do their jobs. Over the summer Francis appointed him a bishop of a small diocese in Italy, certainly a promotion. Being master of ceremonies is a big job with several assistants. Will this be the first of some changes, now that the new guy has his feet on the ground?
Good heavens. I had no idea that it's taken until now to officially "allow" women to be lectors and catechists. They have been doing it forever. All the hoopla about the liturgical rite seems a bit silly. However, maybe it will draw more attention to the endemic second class state of female persons in the RCC.
ReplyDeleteAnd if new pastors can't get rid of the lectors and catechists, I guess that's a good thing. I never knew that they could do that. Although I was aware that a lot of the younger, conservative priests got rid of girls as altar servers.
All the hoopla about the liturgical rite seems a bit silly.
ReplyDeletePaul VI made a major change when he suppressed all the former minor orders which had become stepping-stones to the priesthood. However, when he decided to restrict the new baptism-based ministries of lector and acolyte to men, they in practice became used only in seminaries for candidates to the priesthood. Bishops around the world simply authorized men and women to temporarily do these ministries.
The motivations of bishops may have been complex. I think they like pastors really like the idea of being able to fire anyone. They also may have been afraid that they would become obligated to financially support permanent positions. That was behind the reluctance of bishops in some dioceses to ordain permanent deacons.
Paul VI also said the bishop's conferences could petition the Vatican for additional forms of lay ministries. It was widely expected that bishops' conferences in some parts of the world would petition for catechist to be made a permanent lay ministry. Again, that did not happen.
Some of this may just be the wariness of the unknown. Voluntary ministers can become very established in some parishes. Pastors are reluctant to change things because the new people may not work out.
"They also may have been afraid that they would become obligated to financially support permanent positions. " I have to laugh about that. Some people still think deacons get paid. The only thing they get paid for is that they get a check from the funeral home if they do a vigil service on their premises.
DeleteI guess I am glad that the pope decided to officially confer these ministries. Except, I am an EMHC and I kind of like the status of being a volunteer.
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ReplyDeleteAccording to Raber, who goes to Mass live once a month and always returns a bit downhearted, lay people are no longer allowed to be lectors in our parish under the regime of the new priest. The deacon does all the lectoring.
ReplyDeleteRaber was lector for many years. He hasn't been able to find out from the Church Ladies if this is because lectors now need formal training and recognition, which will take time.
Meantime, the priest has introduced a very ornate velvet cover called a chalice veil that everyone is rather confused about.
I remember chalice veils. Never noticed when they disappeared. I suppose after VII. I have never paid much attention to the fine points of liturgy though.
DeleteBTW, good article at NCRonline about Thich Nhat Hahn. I posted the link in the relevant thread.
DeleteThanks. Nothing against Thich Nhat Hanh, but I guess I tend to "stay in my own lane" as I get old.
DeleteI am grateful to the Unitarians for exposing me to many different religious traditions as a child, but I have felt from about age 26 on that growing toward God was something that required immersion in a spiritual home of some sort.
I don't have a sense that Christianity is better than any other religion, which may be grounds for going straight to hell.
But we live in a Western culture where Christianity is the primary spiritual anchor. It is easier to find community and a variety of viewpoints within Christianity than, say, Judaism, Islam, or whatnot.
When Merton was still a graduate student at Colombia, he became interested in Eastern non-Christian spirituality. One of its teachers in the US advised him to first look at the roots of Christian spirituality in monasticism and Eastern Christianity. Merton took that to heart.
DeleteMerton and others who have pursued interests in Eastern religions have emphasized that the only real basis for encounter is an ever deepening understanding of one's own tradition
I have an insatiable interest in religion. I was perhaps raised in a too- traditionally devout Catholic home and wasn't exposed to non- Christian religions as a child, as Jean was. Except for Judaism, because as a child, I lived in a neighborhood much like the one I've lived in since we married 49 years ago, which has a majority Jewish population. My a best friend from babyhood was Jewsish, until we moved away when I was in 5th grade.
DeleteI am happy to learn what I can from other wisdom traditions. I have found that the astern religions, especially Buddhism, offer a perspective and practices that are harder to find in modern Christianity. That is one reason Thomas Keating worked so hard to revive Centering Prayer as a Christian practice, so that people would know that it isn't just for monks.
I live in a very religiously diverse town and I love learning about the beliefs and practices of others. Richard Rohan sometimes suggests that we should bloom where we were planted, but he also has a strong appreciation for the religious understandings of non- Christian religion. I don't know that I would be any more comfortable in " true" Buddhism than I am in Christianity, but i am more comfortable with the religious expressions given to the west by Thich Nhat Hahn and the Dalai Lama than I am with most evangelical expressions of Christianity.
Several typos again. In too big a hurry on my ancient iPad
DeleteThere are a few different things at work here:
ReplyDelete1. What is this permanent, stable ministry of lector (and there is another for acolyte - and I think yet another now for catechist)?
2. Who is eligible?
3. Are there any prerequisites or requirements for persons who are installed in these ministries? Any continuing-formation and/or continuing-education requirements?
I was installed as a lector after my first year of diaconal formation. In order to be installed, I had to ask the bishop (Cardinal George) for permission, and my wife had to provide her permission/consent as well. I offer those little factoids to illustrate the former assumptions that were at work:
1. Eligibility was restricted to males. And, although church law permitted any adult male to be eligible to be installed as a permanent lector, as a practical matter in Chicago - and, I think, most of the other American dioceses - only men on the path to holy orders were offered the opportunity. This, as Jack notes, was a "hangover" from the pre-Vatican-II days when lector was considered a minor clerical order, one of the stepping-stones to become a priest. Thus, even though Paul VI abolished the minor orders, they were abolished and yet retained under a different set of church laws. A pretty good (or bad) trick!
On a more positive note: that they required me to complete a year of formation before they'd make me a 'permanent' lector illustrates that the church wants persons in that role to have some formation.
Incidentally, my wife has had every minute of formation that I have had, and she is a reader at Sunday mass. But until and through today, nobody ever has offered the opportunity to be installed as a 'permanent' lector.
I agree with the notion that "not just any reader" should be installed as a lector. S/he should show a passion for the Bible, as illustrated by study, spirituality and willingness to proclaim it, not only at mass but in other ways and settings (such as catechetical settings). If I were a pastor, I'd look to an installed lector to be the leader of the readers at masses - and I'd expect "leader" to consist of much more than "keeper of the schedule". S/he should be offering opportunities for spiritual and educational growth as proclaimers of the word, and might also provide constructive feedback to readers.
"I agree with the notion that "not just any reader" should be installed as a lector. S/he should show a passion for the Bible, as illustrated by study, spirituality and willingness to proclaim it, not only at mass but in other ways and settings (such as catechetical settings)."
DeleteOh yes. But the reality is that such folks are sometimes hard to find. Lector training in the local parish involved watching a video and getting up at the ambo for an audition for the two head Church Ladies to demonstrate your ability to turn on the mic without getting that horrid feedback.
I wanted to tell what I knew about the the role of the lector in the early Benedictine monastic tradition, but the Church Ladies said there wasn't time for that and that I needed to hold the book up higher when I processed.
Raber misses lectoring. But, as I have tried to point out very gently, it's not about whether *he* misses it, but whether he's well enough trained to be a good conduit for the Word.
Some practical skills other than knowledge of the bible and a good Christian life are needed to be a lector whether temporary or permanent.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to handle the microphone is one of them. Being able to speak clearly is another. Being able to articulate phrases, sentences, and other structural features of the reading is another. Focusing the congregation's attention on the reading rather than the reader is another. An understanding of the immediate reading, it's genre and context is another.
The music director at my favorite parish gave a great deal of attention to her cantors (she had quite a few good ones). She actually matched cantors to the text and music to be sung and spent time practicing with each one. She also had a backup cantor selected and matched for each Mass.
Maybe each parish needs a director of lectors who would match and work with lectors on their readings.
For a few years in the 1980s, I led an ensemble (small group of singers and instrumenatlists) at the Sheil Center at Northwestern Univ. Today it's a Newman Center, but at the time it wasn't considered a Newman Center for some reason (not sure why), but for all practical purposes it was a Newman Center: a Catholic chapel and community at a "secular" university. (Northwestern isn't a state school, and it has Protestant roots, but I don't think it has an overtly religious identity anymore.) At any rate, it had a gifted person who acted as a "director of lectors". She had a theater background and knew quite a bit about the art and science of proclamation. The universes of liturgical proclamation and theater arts aren't fully mutually exclusive sets. She worked with the lectors, a mixed lot of undergrads, grad students and adults, and they were uniformly excellent - a magnitude better than what one is likely to find in a parish. I'm a big proponent of having someone like that.
DeleteMost parishes could raise their liturgical game. It takes a little imagination and commitment.
Just one opinion. But I find that the theatrical readers are just as bad as the monotone readers.
DeleteHaving many good lectors, each suited to a particular type of reading would be ideal, but certainly beyond the capacity of small parishes.
DeleteThe larger question in my mind is which is more important: To encourage lay participation and put up with imperfect reading? Or to let the priest and deacon handle the the readings because the lay readers are bad?
I'm not a lector. Don't want to be one. I have read at a couple of weddings, and people said I was hard to hear. Not to mention it was intimidating to do it facing a bunch of people. Singing is different. Of course we do it from the choir loft, and you don't face the congregation.
DeleteMy husband was a lector when we lived in Colorado. When we moved back to Nebraska, that time it was in the Lincoln diocese. He tried to volunteer there, but was told that the priest had to invite you to take the class, "maybe next time". Of course next time never happened.
I agree with Anne that the theatrical readers are just as bad as the monotone ones.
DeletePeople wonder why Pope Francis is being so mean to the poor traditionalists. Jean and Anne mentioned previously about conservative priests coming in to a parish and doing things like squelching girl altar servers, and bringing back pre-Vatican II practices; and the effect this sort of thing has on the parish. That is one of the reasons.
DeleteI dunno. For every person disgruntled by Father's new-old innovations, he has two groupies from his old parish who have followed him over here and tell everyone "he's the real deal."
DeleteIf I were just judging by what Raber reports locally, I'd say the Church is taking some giant leaps backward and veering into a cult of the priesthood. Glad I unoccupied from that parish long ago, but I try to stay neutral so as not to feed Raber's disgruntlement.
I stood up in front of classrooms for 32 years as a teacher, so I had no problem facing a crowd and projecting as a lector. Infirmity and meds have taken a toll on my voice, and it would be annoying for people to listen to now even if I were not fallen away, there were no pandemic, the priest wanted women up there, etc. etc.
Re: theatrical readers: if by "theatrical" we mean "overacting", then yes, that is annoying - although, to my mind, not as bad as the monotone reader who sounds both bored and boring (it is, after all, the word of God!). But one can use the arts from the worlds of professional speaking and acting to be an effective reader without coming across as a Kenneth Branagh wannabe.
DeleteAs an imperfect thought experiment: if you're a person who listens to audio books, probably you've heard readers who you think are pretty good, and readers who really annoy you. What distinguishes them?
Jean's reporting of the traditional priest in her parish reinforces in my mind that the real target of Francis's restrictions are (or should be) the traditional priests. They are the ones with parish authority. They are the ones who think they know better than the church. They are the ones who stir up division within faith communities. They are the ones who cause so much stress and "churn" for local bishops.
DeleteNot all the traditional parishioners are blame-free. (Although there are parishioners of any/all stripes who can be pains in the tuchus.) But on the whole, I think the traditionalist parishioners are sort of collateral damage in this conflict. Which is a shame; it's sort of yet another instance of clericalism.
Jim, I think you are right about the priests being the problem. I have mentioned before the pastor about 30 miles down the road from us who went to the Capitol Insurrection, and has gone full tradionalist with Communion on the tongue and head coverings for women, etc. Many parishioners drive to other parishes miles away to get away from it. I guess the archbishop came down on him pretty hard about the insurrection, but he's still there.
DeleteJim, Jean mentioned what the readers (lectors) did during the Middle Ages. Since most people then were illiterate, and bibles were scarce and expensive, having someone read to others was the only way to pass on the scriptures to most people. Stained glass windows and other art served the same purpose.
DeleteBut now, many if us prefer to use written materials to read scripture, even during mass. We visual learner types often can’t stay tuned to the readings during mass, whether it’s a Kenneth Branagh wannabe or the monotone type. We need written versions. I don’t go to a liturgy to be entertained. That’s why I preferred weekday masses - readings without theatrics, no music, five minute homily that was to the point and actually had a chance of penetrating before I was off in daydream land. Catholic Churches have opportunities that most others don’t- multiple masses each Sunday. So there can be various “ styles” and maybe at least somewhat fewer complaints about music or whatever.
Lectors should probably be chosen from among the teachers, those who are willing. As Jean mentioned, they have years of experience working to hold the attention of students, can project and speak with confidence, but aren’t trying to audition for the next Shakespearean play to be offered in the community.
I remember that after VII when they first started having lay readers, our priest chose lawyers for the first ones, reasoning that they would be used to speaking in front of people.
DeleteJim, re - audiobooks. I have not listened much to audiobooks. I prefer to read them. However, I have bought and downloaded a few non- fiction books recently and am trying to listen to them at least 30 minutes/day as an exercise in listening- to maybe improve my grasp of words when spoken by the people in my life. I understand many more words I hear through earbuds than I do words that I hear in conversation. It’s an experiment,
DeleteWhen I tried listening to fiction audiobooks I really didn’t like it. One narrator doing all the voices of all the characters, often emphasizing dialogue or even the thoughts of a character in ways that I wouldn’t, was not a positive experience for me. But I can handle a narrator who is just reading non-fiction text clearly. Perhaps lectors should do the same - just read the texts clearly.
Katherine - lawyers! Maybe a good choice as long as they aren’t the grandstanding type. Some lawyers get pretty theatrical too.
Delete"I think the traditionalist parishioners are sort of collateral damage in this conflict."
DeleteNot sure I understand what you mean, but sounds intriguing.
From what I can see, the trads--lay and clergy--are younger people born well after Vat2. They have no first-hand knowledge of what the Church used to be like. They have idealized what they see as the clearcut rules of the Good Old Days and fetishized the accoutrements (cassocks and women's head coverings) and rubrics (kneeling to receive) of an older time.
It is very like the kind of thing that preoccupies the Amish and why I find their faith so arid and tiresome. It feeds nothing but self-righteousness.
In the Orthodox liturgy, readers play an important part not just as readers of scripture but as readers of prayers. Included among those prayers are the psalms. These are the prayers of the people.
ReplyDeleteThe ideal reader does not project their interpretation onto the text. They are not reading psalms or prayers as representatives of the people to God nor are they teaching the people the meaning of the psalm or prayer. They are taking the place of a book so that the people may pray the psalms and prayers in their hearts by hearing them from the lips of the reader. The reader must not get in the way of allowing the Spirit to inspire each person with the words of the psalm or prayer.
They give you a lector guide with textual notes and accent marks on the words to emphasize. If you can read at a pleasing pace without stumbling and have enough humility to follow the guide and practice the passage, it's not hard.
DeleteIn the Middle Ages, refectory lectors in the Abbey or monastery had to eat after everyone else, and they got meat and wine to keep their voices fit.
They usually read sermons and saints lives in the refectory. Scripture and prayers were reserved for prayers and Mass. So the lector had to be able to read well in both vernacular and Latin.
But, yes, the lector was always seen as a conduit for the Word.
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DeleteA lector reads from the Book of Armaments in the high Anglican proclamatory style: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SNTzOBKs1bA
ReplyDeleteOne of the classics. My husband recognized it immediately. :)
ReplyDelete