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 World Day of Peace, on January 1, dealt with the theme 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 trust protocol to face the crisis
In its address 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 the conversion. Conversion particularly to fraternity (cfr. enc. Fratelli tutti).
In a second step, Francis addresses the meaning of the crisis: "sieve that cleans the wheat grain after harvesting". 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. This is also what Francis suggests, "each of us could find our 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 conflict leads is murmuring that encloses in itself without resolving anything.
Finally, with regard to service, he points out that our service must be directed especially to the poor and needy, to whom we must also proclaim 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
Pope Francis' message for the 54th World Day of Peace (January 1, 2011), The culture of care as a path to peaceThe letter of St. Joseph, in connection with the beginning of the Petrine ministry (January 19, 2013), is related to the task of guardianship and service, as seen in St. Joseph. In the previous issue of the magazine, we referred to the letter Patris corde (December 8, 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 take care of creation and fraternity, to eradicate the culture of indifference, rejection and confrontation, which often prevails today.
Secondly, the Pope points out the need for make informed judgments in 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 present situation. Those presented here are of two types. Some refer to the salvation history from creation (God himself teaches the meaning of caring for people and the world; it is taught by the prophets, and especially by Jesus, with his life and preaching; it is lived by his disciples and transmitted by the Church with its tradition and praxis); others refer to the social doctrine of the Church and her fundamental principles (human dignity, the common good, solidarity and the protection of creation, as taught in the encyclical Laudato si').
Finally, and within the proposalsFrancisco points out the importance of establishing processes The aim of the project is to develop educational programs that promote peace care with the "compass" of these criteria. It should be noted that, according to Evangelii gaudium, Fratelli tutti y Laudato si', and in the current context that includes the pandemic, these educational processes imply: an anthropology, an ethic (back to 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 collaboration with other educators (educational pact). These projects should be able to highlight the values (valuable contents) and the paths of human reality and creation.
Lay ministries", open to women
With the motu proprio Spiritus Domini (January 10, 2012), 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. Doctrinal developments in recent years have led to the recognition that the basis for these instituted ministries is in baptism and the royal priesthood received with it (along with the reinforcement of confirmation). Consequently, the Pope has changed the wording of canon 230, &1 to remove the reservation of access to these ministries for men only, and to leave it definitively open also to 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, he recalled the distinction between the so-called "instituted" (or "lay") ministries and "ordained ministries", in respective relation to the common priesthood of the baptized and to the ministerial priesthood.
Interestingly, this letter states: "The commitment of the lay faithful, who 'are simply the vast majority of the People of God' (Francis, Evangelii gaudium102), 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 help to enhance Christian commitment in relation to catechesis and the celebration of the faith, in order to "to make Christ the heart of the world"as the mission of the Church demands, without being locked into 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 for women to be ordained as priests (cf. John Paul II, Letter to Cardinal Ladaria, "The impossibility for women to be ordained as priests"). 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 the goal or 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) for that of "ecclesial ministries" or another equivalent, along the lines that the same letter suggests when quoting the synod of Amazonia, when it proposes to open up "new paths for ecclesial ministry"..
