Retired Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. said the decree issued by Pope Francis allowing women to serve as lectors and acolytes is a "symbolic gesture" of the greater recognition and worth of women's service in the church.
(RCAM / Paul Guanlao / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The prelate, however, explained that this has long been allowed in practice.
"He is just formalizing approval of what is being done," Bacani said in an interview Monday.
In fact at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene or Quiapo Church in Manila majority of lectors are women.
"At present, a great majority of lectors are women. Our sacristans are all boys to encourage some to enter the seminary. Young girls and boys are in the children's ministry and youth ministry," Quiapo Church Rector Monsignor Hernando Coronel said.
"The gender issue has never been a topic since the community in Quiapo is inclusive, comprising of members from diverse backgrounds centering in a common love of the Nazarene," he added.
Coronel said they will abide by the regulations that will be laid by the liturgy commission of the Archdiocese of Manila.
According to Vatican News, in Spiritus Domini (The Spirit of the Lord), which modifies the first paragraph of Canon 230 of the Code of Canon Law, Pope Francis establishes that women can have access to these ministries and that this be recognized through a liturgical act formally instituting them as such.
The new formulation of the canon reads: “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.”
The specification “lay men” qualifying the laity and present in the Code until today’s modification, is, therefore, abolished.