Message of the Holy Father FRANCIS to Bishops, Priest and Deacons, Consecrated

Persons and the Lay Faithful on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apostolic Letter Issued
“Motu Proprio” Ministeria Quaedam of Saint Paul VI
1. The fiftieth anniversary of the Apostolic Letter issued “Motu Proprio” Ministeria Quaedam of
Saint Paul VI, offers us an opportunity once more to consider the subject of ministries. In a
fruitful yet at times contentious period in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, that document
offered the Church a meaningful reflection that resulted in the renewal, as its title indicated, of
the discipline concerning the first tonsure, the minor orders and the sub-diaconate in the Latin
Church. At the same time, it opened significant perspectives capable of inspiring further
developments.
2. The recent Apostolic Letters issued Motu Proprio with which I dealt with the question of
instituted ministries are to be understood in the light of that decision and the reasons supporting
it. The first, Spiritus Domini, of 10 January 2021, modified Canon 230 § 1 of the Code of Canon
Law regarding the admittance of women to the instituted ministries of reader and acolyte. The
second, Antiquum Ministerium, of 10 May 2021, instituted the ministry of Catechist. These two
documents should not be seen as replacing the earlier teaching, but as further developing it based
on the same principles – consistent with the reflection of the Second Vatican Council – that
inspired Ministeria Quaedam. The best way to celebrate this significant anniversary is precisely
to continue pursuing the reflection on the ministries undertaken by Saint Paul VI.
3. The subject is one of fundamental importance for the Church’s life. Indeed, no Christian
community is without its forms of ministry. The letters of Saint Paul, among others, bear ample
witness to this. When – to take but one example from the many possible – the Apostle addressed
the Church in Corinth, he portrayed a community, rich in charisms (1 Cor 12:4), ministries (1
Cor 12:5), activities (1 Cor 12:6), manifestations (1 Cor 12:7) and gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor
14:1.12.37). The variety of terms employed points to a broad ministerial reality being structured
on two solid principles: that at the origin of every ministry there is always God, who with his
Holy Spirit accomplishes everything in everyone (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-6), and that the purpose of
every ministry is always the common good (v. 7), the building up of the community (14:12).
Every ministry is a call from God for the benefit of the community.
4. These two basic principles enable the Christian community to organize the variety of
ministries that the Spirit awakens in the light of its concrete life situation. This structuring is not
merely functional but rather a careful communitarian discernment, born of listening to what the
Spirit suggests to the Church in one concrete place and in the present moment of her life. We see
illuminating examples of this discernment in the Acts of the Apostles, precisely with regard to
ministerial structures, such as when the group of the Twelve provided for the replacement of
Judas (Acts 1:15-26) and the group of the Seven had to resolve a conflict that had arisen in the
community (Acts 6:1-6). Every ministerial structure born of this discernment is dynamic, living
and flexible, like the working of the Spirit, and must be grounded ever more deeply in that
working, lest dynamism become confusion, liveliness be reduced to extemporaneous
improvisation, and flexibility turn into arbitrary ideological adaptations.
5. In Ministeria Quaedam, Saint Paul VI, applying the teachings of the Council, carried out an
authentic discernment and indicated the direction to follow in pursuing the journey. Indeed,
acceding to the requests of many Council Fathers, he reviewed the praxis then in force and
adapted it to the needs of that moment, and likewise offered Episcopal Conferences the
possibility of requesting that the Apostolic See institute those ministries considered necessary or
most useful in their territories. The prayer for the ordination of a bishop, in its intercessions,
indicates among his principal duties that of organizing ministries: “assigning offices according to
your decree”.1
6. The above principles, deeply rooted in the Gospel and viewed in the broader context of the
ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, are the common foundation that makes it possible to
specify, motivated by attentiveness to the concrete life of the ecclesial communities, those
ministries that here and now build up the Church. The ecclesiology of communion, the
sacramentality of the Church, the complementarity of the common priesthood and the ministerial
priesthood, and the liturgical visibility of each ministry are the doctrinal principles that, thanks to
the prompting of the Spirit, render harmonious the variety of ministries.
7. If the Church is the Body of Christ, the spirit of service (ministrare) of the Incarnate Word
must completely imbue her members, each of whom – because of his or her uniqueness, which
responds to a personal calling from God – manifests one feature of the face of Christ the Servant.
Their harmonious action shows to the world the beauty of the One who “came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). The prayer for the ordination of
deacons uses a significant expression to describe this variety within unity: “the Church, his Body,
adorned with manifold heavenly graces, drawn together in the diversity of its members, and
united by a wondrous bond through the Holy Spirit…”.2
8. The question of baptismal ministries involves a number of aspects that must certainly must be
taken into consideration: the terminology used to indicate ministries, their doctrinal basis,
juridical aspects, the distinction and relationship between individual ministries, their vocational
import, their programmes of training, the means whereby one is instituted in that ministry, the
liturgical dimension of every ministry. From this summary list alone, we can see the complexity
of the matter. Certainly, further reflection is demanded on all these issues. Even so, if we were to
presume to define them and to resolve them before experiencing the lived reality of these
ministries, it is unlikely that we would make much progress. As I noted in Evangelii Gaudium

1
Pontificale Romanum, De Ordinatione Episcopi, Presbyterorum et Diaconorum, Editio typical altera, n. 47, p. 25:
“ut distribuat munera secundum praeceptum tuum…”
2
Pontificale Romanum. De Ordinatione Episcopi, Presbyterorum et Diaconorum, Editio typica altera, n. 207, p.
121: “Cuius corpus, Ecclesiam tuam, caelestium gratiarum varietate distinctam suorumque conexam distinctione
membrorum, compage mirabili per Spiritum Sanctum unitam…”
(nn. 231-233), realities are more important than ideas, and “there has to be a continuous dialogue
between the two, lest ideas become detached from realities”.3
The other principle that I mentioned in Evangelii Gaudium,4 albeit in a different context, can also
prove helpful: time is greater than space. Instead of being obsessed with immediate results in
resolving every tension and clarifying every aspect, thus running the risk of crystallizing
processes and, at times, presuming to stop them, 5 we should support the working of the Spirit of
the Lord, risen and ascended into heaven, who gave that “some would be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph
4:11-13).
9. It is the Spirit who, by giving us in different and complementary ways a share in the
priesthood of Christ, makes the entire community ministerial, for the building up of his ecclesial
body. The Spirit is at work wherever our obedient listening is open to his activity. Ministeria
Quaedam opened the door to a renewed experience of the ministerial reality of the faithful,
reborn in the waters of baptism, confirmed by the seal of the Spirit and nourished by the living
Bread come down from heaven.
10. In order to hear the voice of the Spirit and not halt the process – out of concern not to force it
by imposing decisions that are the fruit of ideological visions – I consider it useful to share our
experiences of these years, especially in the context of the synodal journey. These experiences
can provide valuable guidance in arriving at a harmonious vision of the question of the baptismal
ministries and thus persevering in our journey. For this reason, I would like in the coming
months, and in ways yet to be defined, to initiate a dialogue with the Episcopal Conferences on
the subject, in order to share the richness of the Church’s ministerial experiences in these past
fifty years, both with instituted ministries (readers, acolytes and more recently catechists) and
with extraordinary and de facto ministries.
11. I entrust our journey to the protection of the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. Guarding in
her womb the Word made flesh, Mary bears in herself the ministry of her Son, which she shared
in a way all her own. Here too, she is the perfect icon of the Church, which amid the variety of
ministries preserves the ministry of Jesus Christ by sharing in his priesthood, each of her
members in his or her own way.
Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 15 August 2022, the Solemnity of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the tenth year of my Pontificate.
FRANCIS

3
Evangelii Gaudium, 231
4
Evangelii Gaudium, 222
5
Evangelii Gaudium, 233
 APOSTOLIC LETTER ISSUED "MOTU PROPRIO"
SPIRITUS DOMINI MODIFYING CANON 230 §1 OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW
REGARDING ACCESS OF WOMEN TO THE MINISTRIES OF LECTOR AND
ACOLYTE
The Spirit of the Lord Jesus, the perennial source of the Church’s life and mission, distributes to
the members of the People of God the gifts that enable each one, in a different way, to contribute
to the edification of the Church and to the proclamation of the Gospel. These charisms, called
ministries because they are publicly recognized and instituted by the Church, are made available
to the community and to her mission in a stable form.
In some cases this ministerial contribution has its origin in a specific sacrament, Holy Orders.
Other tasks, throughout history, were instituted in the Church and entrusted through a non-
sacramental liturgical rite to individual members of the faithful, by virtue of a particular form of
exercise of the baptismal priesthood, and in aid of the specific ministry of bishops, priests and
deacons.
Following a venerable tradition, the reception of “lay ministries”, which Saint Paul VI regulated
in the Motu Proprio Ministeria Quaedam (17 August 1972), preceded in a preparatory manner
the reception of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, although such ministries were conferred on other
suitable male faithful.
A number of Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have highlighted the need to deepen the subject
doctrinally, so that it may respond to the nature of the aforementioned charisms and the needs of
the times, offering appropriate support to the role of evangelization that is incumbent upon the
ecclesial community.
Accepting these recommendations, a doctrinal development has taken place in recent years
which has highlighted how certain ministries instituted by the Church are based on the common
condition of being baptized and the royal priesthood received in the Sacrament of Baptism; they
are essentially distinct from the ordained ministry received in the Sacrament of Orders. A
consolidated practice in the Latin Church has also confirmed, in fact, that these lay ministries,
since they are based on the Sacrament of Baptism, may be entrusted to all suitable faithful,
whether male or female, in accordance with what is already implicitly provided for by Canon
230 § 2.
Consequently, after having heard the opinion of the competent Dicasteries, I have decided to
modify canon 230 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law. I therefore decree that Canon 230 § 1 of the
Code of Canon Law shall in future have the following formulation:
“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. Nevertheless, the conferral of these ministries does not grant them the right to
obtain support or remuneration from the Church”.
I also order the amendment of the other provisions having the force of law which refer to this
canon.
I order that the provisions of this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio have firm and stable
effect, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if worthy of special mention, and be
promulgated by publication in L’Osservatore Romano, entering into force on the same day, and
then published in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on the tenth day of January in the year 2021,
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the eighth of my Pontificate.
Francis