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Trust, culture of care and ecclesial ministries

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Omnes

Ramiro Pellitero

Professor of the School of Theology at the University of Navarre

Still at the end of December, the Pope's Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia is always seen as an orientation for the coming year. The message for the workshop World Peace Day, on January 1, addressed the topic of the culture of care. Later in the month, the Pope published the motu proprio Spiritus Domini, which establishes the access of women to the ministries of lector and acolyte.

A protocol of confidence to face the crisis

In his speech to the Roman Curia (December 21, 2020) on the occasion of Christmas, Francis pointed out that the pandemic, with all its drama, is also an opportunity for conversion. Conversion particularly to fraternity (cf. encyclical Fratelli tutti).

In a second step, Francis addresses the meaning of crisis: "the sieve that cleanses the grain of wheat after the harvest". Crises, ultimately crises of faith or trust, were experienced by the important figures in the history of salvation. Above all, the Son of God, Jesus himself, wanted to be a grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit (cf. Jn 12:24). And then, the saints with their trust in God and their witness. In the same way, Francis suggests, "each one of us could find his or her place".

What to do during this crisis? And he proposes the following protocol: accept it as a time of grace (given to us to discover God's will for each one of us and for the whole Church); pray more, as much as we can; at the same time, do what we can with confidence in God (because Christian hope is an active hope), serving others with peace and serenity. A crisis that is not overcome remains a conflict, which depletes energy and predisposes to evil. And the first evil to which the conflict leads is the murmuring that encloses in itself without resolving anything.

Finally, and to purpose of service, he points out that our service should be directed especially to the poor and needy, to whom we are also to announce the Good News (cf. Mt 11:5).

Trust in God, humility and courage to face the crisis. Discernment and prayer, work and service to come out of it better. A good road map to manage the crisis at the beginning of the new year.

Careful" navigation to peace

The message of Pope Francis for 54 workshop World Peace Day (1-I-2021), "The culture of care as a way of peace", connects with the beginning of the Petrine ministry (19-I-2013), in relation to the task of guardianship and service, seen in St. Joseph. In the previous issue of the magazine we referred to the letter Patris corde (8-XII-2020) on St. Joseph.

The image chosen by the Pope is the navigation towards peace, in this boat of fraternity, on the path of justice. In addition to the context of Covid, he points out some obstacles and above all the ways: to care for creation and fraternity, in order to eradicate the culture of indifference, rejection and confrontation that often prevails today.

Secondly, the Pope points out the need to discern on the basis of this topic. The foundations and criteria for discernment can be found in revelation, in the signs of the times, in the human sciences and always in the current status . Those presented here are of two types. Some refer to the history of salvation beginning with creation (God himself teaches the meaning of caring for people and the world; it is taught by the prophets, and above all by Jesus through his life and preaching; it is lived by his disciples and transmitted by the Church through her tradition and praxis); others refer to the Church's social doctrine and its fundamental principles (human dignity, the common good, solidarity and the protection of creation, as taught in the encyclical Laudato si').

Finally, and already within the proposals. Francis points out the importance of establishing educational processes that promote the care for peace with the "compass" of these criteria. It should be noted that, from agreement with Evangelii gaudium, Fratelli tutti and Laudato si', and in the current context that includes the pandemic, these educational processes imply: an anthropology, an ethics (we return to the social principles), openness to others, discernment and dialogue in search of the "lived truth".

This will have to be translated into concrete projects at the universal and local levels: in the family, the parish and the school, in the university, in relation to religions and in partnership with other educators (pact educational). These projects should highlight the values (valuable contents) and the paths of human reality and creation. 

Lay ministries", open to women

With the motu proprio Spiritus Domini (10-I-2021), the so-called "lay ministries" are no longer reserved to men. In 1972, St. Paul VI established these ministries (m. p. Ministeria quaedam) for access to the sacrament of Holy Orders, although they could also be conferred on men considered suitable. The doctrinal development in recent years has led to the recognition that the basis for these instituted ministries is in baptism and the royal priesthood received with it (together with the reinforcement of confirmation). Consequently, the Pope has changed the essay of canon 230 & 1 to remove the reservation of access to these ministries only for men, and to leave it definitively open also for women who are considered suitable for these ministries.

On the same day, in a letter addressed to Cardinal Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the distinction between the so-called "instituted" (or "lay") ministries and the "ordained ministries" is recalled , in relation to the common priesthood of the baptized and to the ministerial priesthood.

It is interesting that this letter points out: "The commitment of the lay faithful, who 'are simply the vast majority of the People of God' (Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 102), certainly cannot and should not be exhausted in the exercise of non-ordained ministries". At the same time, he maintains that the institution of these ministries can contribute to enhance the Christian commitment in relation to the catechesis and to the celebration of the faith, in order to "make Christ the heart of the world", as requested by the mission statement of the Church, without enclosing oneself in the sterile logics of the "spaces of power".  

The reactions to this decision have not always been adequate, as was perhaps foreseeable. Particularly on the part of those who consider it as a step in the direction they would like to see: the access of women to priestly ordination. This is explicitly contradicted by the Pope's letter to Cardinal Ladaria recalling the impossibility of women being ordained as priests (cf. John Paul II, Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis, 1994).

It should be added, in line with the letter, that while these or other ministries are necessary in many places (such as in the missions or in the young Churches), they do not change the ecclesial condition of those who exercise them: they continue to be lay faithful or members of religious life. Therefore, they should not be considered as goal or the fullness of the lay vocation, which is situated in relation to the sanctification of the temporal realities of ordinary life.

In this sense, it could have been used to change the denomination of "lay ministries" (which had already become obsolete, since they could be conferred to religious, now also in a stable way to religious women) to that of "ecclesial ministries" or another equivalent, along the lines that the same letter suggests when citing the synod of Amazonia, when it proposes to open "new paths for ecclesial ministry".