{"id":2664,"date":"2008-10-25T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector.html"},"modified":"2008-10-25T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-25T10:55:00","slug":"coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector.html","title":{"rendered":"Coming soon: women installed in ministry of lector?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. <\/p>\n

It’s a proposal — passed overwhelmingly by the Synod of Bishops — to admit women, formally, to the ministry of lector. <\/p>\n

Among other things, this is significant because lector has historically been one of the stepping stones to Holy Orders. (Though the Synod was quick to point out that is NOT in the cards here.) <\/p>\n

From CNS<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The issue was raised in Proposition 17 on \u201cThe ministry of the word and women,\u201d and on Saturday morning it passed with 191 votes in favor, 45 opposed and three abstentions, according to our sources.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cIt is hoped that the ministry of lector be opened also to women, so that their role as proclaimers of the word may be recognized in the Christian community,\u201d the proposition states in its final sentence.<\/p>\n

What Pope Benedict XVI will do with that proposal is unclear, according to Vatican people I spoke with shortly after the synod vote.<\/p>\n

The issue, of course, is not whether women can act as lectors, or Scripture readers, in Catholic liturgies. They already do so all over the world, including at papal Masses.<\/p>\n

The question is whether women can be officially installed in such a ministry. Until now, the Vatican has said no: canon law states that only qualified lay men can be \u201cinstalled on a stable basis in the ministries of lector and acolyte.\u201d At the same time, canon law does allow for \u201ctemporary deputation\u201d as lector to both men and women, which is why women routinely appear as lectors.<\/p>\n

The reasoning behind church law\u2019s exclusion of women from these official ministries has long been questioned. For centuries, the office of lector was one of the \u201dminor orders,\u201d generally reserved to seminarians approaching ordination. While seminarians still are installed formally as \u201cacolyte\u201d and then as \u201clector\u201d before being ordained deacons, since the 1970s service at the altar and proclaiming the readings at Mass have been seen primarily as ministries stemming from baptism and not specifically as steps toward ordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to emphasize that any proposition for women lectors would simply arrive from their baptism and not from any presumptive opening for orders,\u201d said one Vatican source.<\/p>\n

The synod took up the question because some have suggested that in promoting greater scriptural preparation and presentation, the church designate \u201cministers of the word.\u201d Lectors were seen as natural candidates.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that this proposal, while passing overwhemlingly, drew the greatest number of \u201cno\u201d votes than any of the other 54 propositions, most of which passed with fewer than five opposing votes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. It’s a proposal — passed overwhelmingly by the Synod of Bishops — to admit women, formally, to the ministry of lector. Among other things, this is significant because lector has historically been one of the stepping stones to Holy Orders. (Though the Synod was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgy","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nComing soon: women installed in ministry of lector? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coming soon: women installed in ministry of lector? - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. 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(Though the Synod was…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-25T10:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQM21irRL9I\/AAAAAAAADNY\/KpWY7Oi8S0o\/s320\/Lector2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Coming soon: women installed in ministry of lector? - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/coming-soon-women-installed-in-ministry-of-lector.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Coming soon: women installed in ministry of lector? - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}