Pope Francis institutes 23 women as Lectors, described as ‘tectonic shift’ in Catholic Tradition

[Stone]

Once again, Pope Francis expands and fructifies the errors in Vatican II.

The following is taken from Vatican II's "Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People," Apostolicam Actuositatem (Nov. 18, 1965):

The lay apostolate, in all its many aspects, is exercised both in the Church and in the world. In either case different fields of apostolic action are open to the laity. We propose to mention here the chief among them: Church communities, the family, the young, the social environment, national and international spheres. Since in our days women are taking an increasingly active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that their participation in the various sectors of the Church's apostolate should likewise develop (AA §9).

The article by SiSiNoNo on The Errors of Vatican II reminds us with respect to the above quote that:

The more active participation is provoked, to a great extent, by the false "dogmas" that we have just related, and carried out under their signature, a participation that was condemned by Pius XI as "a grave disorder to eliminate at all cost" in his encyclical, Quadragesima Anno, because it takes "mothers of families" away from their proper duties (AAS23 [1931] 200).

+ + +

Pope Francis institutes 23 women as Lectors, described as ‘tectonic shift’ in Catholic Tradition
Following his Canon Law changes in 2021, Pope Francis has now instituted men and women as Lectors four times, citing the 'common priesthood' in doing so. Liturgical scholars have warned that such actions contradict centuries of Catholic Tradition.



Pope Francis institutes a woman as Lector, Jan 26, 2025
Vatican News Youtube

Jan 26, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [Emphasis mine]) — Pope Francis instituted 40 men and women in the ministry of Lector today, marking the fourth time he has done so since his controversial changes to Canon Law in 2021.

During Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on January 26, Pope Francis formally instituted 23 women and 17 men as Lectors, handing them a copy of the Bible and instructing them to proclaim the faith to young and old:

As readers and bearers of God’s word, you will assist in this mission, and so take on a special office within the Christian community; you will be given a responsibility in the service of the faith, which is rooted in the word of God, You will proclaim that word in the liturgical assembly, instruct children and adults in the faith, and prepare them to receive the sacraments worthily.

The ceremony is a recently formed event, and takes place in light of the Pope’s two liturgical writings in 2021. These include his motu proprio “Spiritus Domini” – by which he changed Canon Law to open up the male roles of lector and acolyte to women – and his apostolic letter “Antiquum ministerium,” which further drew on texts from Vatican II to establish the lay ministry of catechist for both men and women.

The 40 men and women hailed from Europe, South America and the Philippines, and it is by far the largest group to receive the ministry in the four years that Francis has performed the ceremony.

Pope Francis, Jan 26, 2026. ©Vatican News YouTube



Pope Francis, Jan 26, 2026. ©Vatican News YouTube



Male and female Lectors line up before Pope Francis, Jan 2025. ©Vatican News YouTube

Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church formed seminarians for the priesthood by the series of minor and major orders.

However, in his 1972 motu proprio “Ministeria quaedam,” Pope Paul VI curtailed the “minor orders” of Tonsure, Porter, Lector, Exorcist and Acolyte, as well as the major order of subdeacon, highlighting instead “the universal priesthood of believers.” Paul VI also changed the minor orders from “ordinations” to “institutions.”

The minor orders of Lector and Acolyte are still practiced in seminaries offering the post-conciliar liturgy, but referred to as “ministries” rather than minor orders, due to Ministeria quaedam.

Since Paul VI’s text, the liturgical actions traditionally performed by seminarians holding the respective “minor orders” have been performed by lay men and women in the Novus Ordo liturgy.

By virtue of his 2021 text Spiritus Domini, Francis codified what had become widespread practice whilst also raising what had become the widespread practice of women in the Novus Ordo liturgy to a formal ministry.

To accompany the new motu proprio, Pope Francis penned a letter, addressed to then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer SJ. In his letter, the Pope asserted that there is “an ever greater urgency today to rediscover the co-responsibility of all the baptized in the Church, and especially the mission of the laity.”

Drawing from the Amazon Synod in Spiritus Domini, Francis urged “the need to think about ‘new paths for ecclesial ministeriality.’ Not only for the Amazonian Church, but for the whole Church, in the variety of situations.”

Focusing his attention on the institution of female ministers, Francis quoted again from the Amazon Synod, saying “it is urgent that ministries be promoted and conferred on men and women[.] … It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must consolidate by promoting ministry and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity.”

Pope Francis with a new female Lector, Jan 2025. ©Vatican News

However, liturgical scholars have opposed Francis’ move. One such individual is Dr. Peter Kwasniewski – Thomist and liturgical scholar – who has long warned against Francis’ opening of the Church’s orders to women and laymen.

Authoring a book-length response to the question of women as ministers – Ministers of Christ: Recovering the Roles of Clergy and Laity in an Age of Confusion – Kwasniewski defended the traditional Catholic teaching on reserving the liturgical ministries to men only.

Spiritus Domini, he wrote, was “a tectonic shift both in theology and in praxis,” before adding:

The motu proprio Spiritus Domini therefore commits a double categorical error by conflating the dignity of the baptized with the dignity of active liturgical ministry.

Joining Kwasniewski was Bishop Athanasius Schneider, of Astana, who has written at length on the liturgical history and import of male-only roles at the altar.

Commenting on the role of women in the liturgy, Schneider wrote:

“The liturgical service of women in the Eucharistic liturgy, as reader and as acolyte and servant at the altar, was altogether excluded in the theological reasoning of the whole Old Testament and New Testament traditions, as well as of the two-thousand-year-old Eastern and Western tradition of the Church (see the cited study by Martimort).”

Instead, he posited the “common priesthood” – the aspect cited by recent popes in expanding liturgical roles to laity – as being exercised by praying from the nave of the church: “the common priesthood, on the other hand, is represented by those persons who, during the liturgy, are gathered in the nave of the church, representing Mary, the ‘handmaid of the Lord,’ who receives the Word and makes it fruitful in the world.”

With files from David McLoone.