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Thirteen Seminarians Installed into Ministry of Reader
by Jeremy Meuser
Seminarians in their second year of theological studies and men preparing for the permanent deaconate received this ministry as a step in the formation process. The Institution of Readers is a required step towards Holy Orders. The man instituted does not make a permanent commitment towards ordination, but does make a permanent commitment to proclaim the faith. There are no promises to celibacy or obedience, as with diaconate, but rather the acceptance of the responsibility to teach the faith.
"The Ministry of Reader does not end," says Mark Hornbacher, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Detroit who was instituted in the Ministry of Reader. "We are taking up part of the ministry of the Word that is more fully and progressively taken up with the ordination to the diaconate and priesthood."
Prior to 1972, the Ministry of Reader was known as the Minor Order of Lectors and ordination to this minor order was reserved exclusively to those in formation for priesthood. Pope Paul VI revised the discipline of the minor orders to more clearly distinguish between what is proper to Holy Orders, as we understand them today, and the functions proper to the laity as a right and duty of Baptism. Reading the word of God and evangelization are not exclusively reserved to clerics but, through the common priesthood of the baptized, are the responsibilities of all the faithful. Readers are designated and instituted as those who especially have "an increasingly warm and living love for scripture" (Paul VI, Ministeria quaedam no. 5).
"We have a permanent commission to proclaim the word of God. That commission is renewed, deepened, and broadened, with Holy Orders, adding the responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel and preaching," says Hornbacher.
Bishop Quinn reminded the newly instituted of the importance of the ministry of the word and he urged them to continue in the formation process: "The Church needs you!"
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