Pope toying with ideas to change the priesthood

Francis has put the debate on ecclesiastical offices on a new track.

Changes to the priesthood? The Pope's plans for lay ministries

In Germany, Catholic reformers are calling for women to be ordained to the priesthood, seeing it as equal rights. But Pope Francis has taken a different path that could radically change the entire priesthood.

Quietly, Pope Francis has set the debate about ministries in the Catholic Church on a new track this year with three short letters. While in Germany the Synodal Way and demonstrations of "Maria 2.0" call for the admission of women to all ecclesiastical offices - but at least to the ordained diaconate - the Pope from Latin America has opted for a completely different path.

On Wednesday, he explained theologically where the journey should go and classified it in terms of church history. For Francis, the starting point is the innovations introduced by Pope Paul VI in the 1970s shortly after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This Pope, to whom Francis is theologically oriented, abolished the so-called lower orders and the sub-diaconate in the Roman Church in a controversial decision in 1972. Since then, only the diaconate, the priesthood and the episcopate have remained of the sacramental ordination of clergy. Francis has now begun to refill and re-shape the space thus freed up for other ecclesial offices without ordination.

Pope wants consultation on lay offices in the Church

On 10 January, with the decree "Spiritus Domini", he first redefined the offices of Lectors and Acolytes and explicitly opened them to women. This was followed on 10 May by the letter "Antiquum ministerium", which newly created and established the office of Catechist. This is also open to men and women. The Catholic laity, sometimes also called catechists, have been very active for decades, especially in Africa and Latin America, where they actually lead thousands of parishes and have long since found their own role.

Now, with his letter of Wednesday, the Pope has called on the Bishops' conferences all over the world to discuss these and other lay ministries. The timing was hardly coincidental: next week, all the cardinals of the universal Church will be debating questions of church policy in Rome. Surprisingly, the Pope again brought up the possibility of regionally adapted solutions in his text. He recalled that already at the Council 60 years ago, it was demanded that the respective Bishops' conferences could propose to the Pope the creation of offices that are adapted to the respective regional and cultural requirements.

In his reflections, Francis wants the Bishops to start from real-life experiences in the parishes and not from abstract considerations.

In the German-speaking countries, the new professions of pastoral and parish ministers were created in many dioceses in the 1970s on this basis. This led to the situation, unique in the world, that there are permanently employed lay people with a degree in theology and paid almost like clergy, who are nevertheless not priests and not "shepherds" of their parishes. A Vatican Instruction in 1997 once again emphatically stated this restriction.

This special path of the financially-rich churches in German-speaking countries is hardly an option for the Bishops in other countries, if only for lack of financial resources. In his letter, the Pope left open which other offices he had in mind. However, he has made some basic principles clear. Theologically, he is concerned with implementing the Council's approach, which is often quoted but has so far been given little life, according to which all the baptised share in the universal priesthood. He leaves no doubt that the expansion of the offices of the "general priesthood" will also have an impact on the special, ordained priesthood.

Real-life experiences as a starting point

In all these considerations, he, typically Francis, wants the bishops to start from real-life experiences in the congregations and not from abstract considerations. In this context, he urgently warns against "ideological" guidelines.

He also leaves open whether he is aiming at the "right of access" argumentation of German theologians who interpret the issue of women's priesthood as a question of equality. With his new approach, Francis is moving along a line that had already been taken at the beginning of the pontificate.

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