(LifeSiteNews) — Two U.S. bishops, Bishop John Stowe and Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, installed multiple women as acolytes and lectors without official guidance from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Stowe installed three female “acolytes” during a November Sunday Mass in his diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, while Garcia-Siller installed five women as both “acolytes” and “lectors” in a special August Mass in his archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. While Pope Francis has allowed women to serve as lay ministers, the USCCB has yet to issue any official guidance for American prelates.
“I waited long enough to get any direction from the USCCB,” Stowe told National Catholic Reporter (NCR).
The ministries of lector and acolyte are part of the priestly formation process in seminaries. It is required that candidates for the priesthood receive the ministries of lector and acolyte before they are admitted to Holy Orders as a preparation for serving at the altar, according to Pope Paul VI’s motu proprio Ministeria Quaedam.
Pope Francis, in his 2021 motu proprio Spiritus Domini, opened the formerly male liturgical roles of lector and acolyte to women by altering canon law. The Pontiff has since appointed women as lectors in the Vatican.
Theologian and liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, in a book-length response to the motu proprio entitled Ministers of Christ: Recovering the Roles of Clergy and Laity in an Age of Confusion, noted that the institution of women into lay ministry roles is a “rupture from Catholic tradition,” and contradicts Sacred Scripture.
“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 and of the two-thousand-year-old Eastern and Western tradition of the Church,” Kwasniewski wrote.
In a letter to the presidents of the episcopal conferences following the release of Spiritus Domini, the Vatican clarified that it would be up to each national bishops’ conference to create the criteria for who could serve in lay ministerial roles. The USCCB has yet to issue these criteria.
The lack of official guidelines from the USCCB didn’t stop Stowe from installing three female “acolytes” during a November 24 Mass, the feast of Christ the King.
“It just seemed to me that we were waiting too long, and there were people here who I felt were already qualified for this role,” Stowe told NCR.
“I thought it was time to have women installed in some kind of a ministry that would be visible in the sanctuary,” the bishop added.
LifeSiteNews reached out to the Diocese of Lexington’s communications office, asking them to clarify why Stowe installed these female “acolytes” without USCCB guidance.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Lexington told LifeSite that they would provide a response from Bishop Stowe, but has not responded to multiple follow-up emails or a voicemail as of publication time.
The Francis-appointed bishop notably has a long history of pro-LGBT activism, which earned him an award from the heterodox New Ways Ministry last month. Earlier this year, he allowed the “transgender” Christian Cole Matson to live as a “diocesan hermit” in the Lexington Diocese.
Last year, after Pope Francis expressed openness to “blessings” for homosexual “couples,” Stowe amplified the Pope’s remarks and said that such a gesture “almost signifies God’s approval.”
Garcia-Siller installed five women as “lectors” and “acolytes” in an August 27 Mass, the feast of St. Monica.
“Your role is crucial in helping the community encounter Christ,” Garcia-Siller said in his sermon.
“Through your proclamation of the Scriptures and your service at the altar, you will make the presence of Christ known, inviting the faithful to a deeper communion with Him,” the archbishop added in the homily.
“The Archdiocese of San Antonio was given the ability to move forward [with the installations] as stated in the Spiritus Domini document from Pope Francis in 2021,” a spokesperson for the archdiocese told LifeSite.
It is worth reiterating that while Spiritus Domini permitted the institution of women to lay ministry, the Vatican instructed the bishop’s conferences to create guidelines for who could serve in these roles in each community, which the USCCB has not yet issued.
LifeSite reached out to the USCCB’s communications office for comment on these bishop’s actions but has not received a response as of publication.
Garcia-Siller, like Stowe, has a history of contradicting Church teaching. In 2013, he declared that the archdiocese did not oppose the spirit of a local ordinance to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the City of San Antonio’s anti-discrimination policy. In 2021, he blocked religious exemptions to COVID vaccine mandates and gave Holy Communion to President Joe Biden while ignoring pro-life Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The archbishop also canceled the Sanctus Ranch, a Catholic family business, and traditional Catholic priests Fr. Clay Hunt and Fr. David Wagner.
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