Institution of lectors

Since Friday kind of caught me flatfooted again, I am posting something I wrote this week that was not used. Lest it go to waste, I am posting it here.

As Director of the Office of the Diaconate for my diocese, I have been entrusted with forming new deacons. On Wednesday of last week, eight deacon Candidates for my diocese were instituted lectors by our bishop.

In 1967, Pope Paul VI promulgated, motu proprio the Apostolic Letter Ministeria Quaedam. With this, Paul VI abolished the minor orders of porter and exorcist. The orders of lector and acolyte remained. At that time, these two minor orders were reserved exclusively for men preparing for ordination.

Then, in January 2021, Pope Francis promulgated the Apostolic Letter Spiritus Domini. This Apostolic Letter was also promulgated motu proprio. In Spiritus Domini, the Holy Father revised Canon 230 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law to state: “Lay persons who possess the age and qualifications established by decree of the conference of bishops can be admitted on a stable basis through the prescribed liturgical rite to the ministries of lector and acolyte.” This includes women as well as men. At least to my knowledge the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued no decree regarding this change.

With Pope Francis' change, lector and acolyte are no longer "minor orders." Rather, along with the order of catechist, these are now lay orders. Pope Francis established the order of catechist in his Apostolic Letter Antiquum Ministerium (this too he promulgated motu proprio). In December 2021, the Dicastery of for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the Rite for the Institution of Catechists during Mass.

While it is not the case that men preparing for ordination are instituted as catechists, they are still instituted as lectors and, after a suitable period allowing for the exercise of the lector’s ministry, then also as acolytes. Prior to being instituted lectors, married men preparing for diaconal ordination must petition their bishop in writing asking to be installed as lectors. Additionally, each wife of a man preparing to be a deacon has to give her consent to the bishop in writing for him to take this step.

The core of the Rite for the Institution of Lectors mirrors the part of the Rite of Ordination for Deacons during which the ordaining bishop presents the ordinand with the Evangeliary. The person being instituted as a Lector kneels in front of the bishop. Placing in the hands of the one being instituted either a Bible or the Church’s Lectionary, the bishop says:

Take this book of holy Scripture
and be faithful in handing on the word of God
so that it may grow strong in the hearts of his people

To which the one being instituted responds: “Amen.”

It is the ministry of the lector is to study, know, teach, and proclaim Sacred Scripture.

Being instituted lector marks the second milestone the journey to ordination, the first being acceptance as a Candidate for the sacrament of orders by the bishop. Institution as acolytes, then, is the penultimate step on this pilgrimage.