Minor Clergy

[Nihil Obstat]

I was reading the thread about female diaconate, and the answerer mentioned minor clery, including... acolytes and lectors, I believe.
What is it?

Nice short, simple question.

[cappie]

The lower degrees of the hierarchy are designated by the name of minor orders, in opposition to the "major" or "sacred" orders.

Although several medieval theologians regarded minor orders as sacramental, this view is no longer held, for the fundamental reason that minor orders, also the subdiaconate, are not of Divine or Apostolic origin. The rites by which they are conferred are quite different from ordination to holy orders. Minor orders are conferred by the presentation to the candidate of the appropriate instruments, in accordance with the ritual given in the "Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua," a document which originated in Gaul about the year 500. We do not know how even in Rome the porters and exorcists were ordained in former times. Lectors received a simple benediction; acolytes were created by handing them the linen bag in which they carried the Eucharist; subdeacons by the reception of the chalice.

[b]The minor orders as stages before holy orders were suppressed following the Second Vatican Council by Paul VI on the 15th August 1972 throught the moto proprio " Ministeria Quaedam", though candidates for the priesthood and diaconate must still be instituted into the "ministries" of lector and acolyte before ordination, as noted by the apostolic letter;" Ad Pascendum" of the same year [/b] The duties formerly performed by members of the minor orders are now usually performed by the laity (altar boys had acted in liturgy as acolytes for centuries).

These orders are still bestowed upon Traditionalist Catholic (e.g. Society of St. Pius X) seminarians as they prepare for the priesthood. Indult Catholic seminaries have papal permission to do so (e.g. Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter).

Edited December 31, 2008 by cappie