Altar servers or Acolytes

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Loren_1of6

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What’s the difference between altar serves and acolytes?
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An acolyte is an instituted minister of the Church; an altar server is not. Lector vs. reader is the same scenario.

An acolyte or a lector must be male (cf. can. 230 §1; GIRM, nn. 100-101). An altar server or reader can be male or female, although permitting females to serve at the altar is a decision left to the bishop of each diocese (cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 47). An altar boy (or girl) “provide service of the altar after the manner of acolytes” (ibid.).

An acolyte is, by his ministry, an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion (cf. can. 910 §2). He is permitted to purify the sacred vessels after Communion (cf. GIRM, nn. 192, 279), but non-acolyte EMHCs may not; only an EMHC who is an instituted acolyte may purify the sacred vessels.

Anyone entering the diaconate must first receive the ministries of lector and acolyte (cf. can 1035 §1).
 
Acolytes and Lectors are two of the four Minor orders of the priesthood which were abolished after Vatican II…Instead of calling them minor orders they are called institutions. For this reason only Men can become one. Lincoln Nebraska is the only diocese in the U.S.A. That institutes “permanent” Acolytes.

I use the word permanent loosely meaning Almost everywhere Instituted Acolytes and Lectors are on their way to diaconate or priesthood. IN lincoln this is not the case. There are many married men who never entered into the diaconate who are instituted Acolytes. I have a good friend who moved to my area that came from Lincoln and he is an Acolyte.
 
Bishop Robert Vasa, in the USA’s dicoese of Baker, also institutes men as acolytes who are not preparing for holy orders. He wrote about the importance of this in an article “Church offices are more than mere functions” of 22 September 2006 in the Catholic Sentinel.

Some things that distinguish an instituted acolyte from an altar server.
  1. Only men can be instituted acolytes, not women.
  2. Instituted acolytes can do the purifications of the sacred vessels in Mass.
  3. Instituted acolytes should be used in preference to altar servers, from the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) “100. In the absence of an instituted acolyte, lay ministers may be deputed to serve at the altar and assist the priest and the deacon;”
  4. Instituted acolytes are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.
  5. Instituted acolytes can also do exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
  6. Instituted acolytes are permanent, compared to altar servers who the parish priest can decide to “sack” any time. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “903 Lay people who possess the required qualities can be admitted permanently to the ministries of lector and acolyte.”
  7. Ceremonial of Bishops, n. 28 has “When necessary, acolytes should instruct those who serve as ministers in liturgical rites by carrying the book, the cross, candles, or the censer or by performing other similar duties. But in celebrations presided over by the bishop it is fitting that all such ministerial functions be carried out by formally instituted acolytes …”. The message is that using altar servers is celebrations with a bishop is not fitting.
More information on instituted acolytes can be found from the 1972 Motu Proprio Ministeria Quaedam, at romanrite.com/Churchdoc.html .
 
Cristiano said:
How can you say that?
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My parish has recently added four men who are “instituted acolytes” and not on the way to the priesthood or deaconate. We suspect they have a lot to do with requesting the extraordinary rite from our diocese. 😃 😃 😃
 
In our diocese we have instituted acolytes and EO Mass at the cathedral every Sunday. This year we have the largest number of seminarian (41) for diocesan priesthood and about 20 more men for religious orders plus about 20 women for the religious orders. It looks like our diocese is moving in the right direction and I hope that one day all the parishes will be aligned in the right direction.
 
I stand corrected. Lincoln remains the only diocese that forbids Altar girls.
 
Bishop Robert Vasa, in the USA’s dicoese of Baker, also institutes men as acolytes who are not preparing for holy orders.
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Bishop Vasa was a priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, NE.
 
Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut and the citations. That really helps. 👍
 
THurifer2 said:
Acolytes and Lectors are two of the four Minor orders of the priesthood which were abolished after Vatican II…Instead of calling them minor orders they are called institutions.
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So basically they are still just laymen, whereas before they were ordained?

If so, it sounds like they are really nothing but glorified EMHC/altar servers. What’s the point? :confused:
 
lepanto said:
So basically they are still just laymen, whereas before they were ordained? If so, it sounds like they are really nothing but glorified EMHC/altar servers. What’s the point? :confused:
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You’re wagging the dog. They are not glorified EMHC/altar servers, it’s the other way around. EMHCs and altar servers fill a void in the absence of acolytes, just as readers fill a void in the absence of lectors.
 
japhy said:
You’re wagging the dog. They are not glorified EMHC/altar servers, it’s the other way around. EMHCs and altar servers fill a void in the absence of acolytes, just as readers fill a void in the absence of lectors.
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OK, but “instituted” acolytes are still laymen whereas before Vatican II they were part of the ordained clergy?

If so, how can the sacrament of orders be altered? (Or eliminated as appears to be the case.)

And why was it done?
 
Who knows why it was done, I personally believe it was done to attack the dignity of the clergy and to deny our faith.

Many good things were done in the spirit of Vatican II and some outright evil things have been done. I just believe this is a misguided attempt to lower the dignity of clergy and minimize it’s foundation and majesty in Christ.

It was purely a pastoral decision that I believe was poorly made, there have been many bad pastoral decisions. It doesn’t change the faith it just can confuse the faithful and is unfortunate.

My diocese has no instituted Acolytes, and we are like (Los Angeles and San Diego) in the bottom 20 of dioceses in vocations. Maybe we need a reform of the reform.

God Bless
Scylla
 
Then it appears that the position of the “instituted acolyte” is silly and pointless. Why not just completely abolish it?
 
lepanto said:
OK, but “instituted” acolytes are still laymen whereas before Vatican II they were part of the ordained clergy? If so, how can the sacrament of orders be altered? (Or eliminated as appears to be the case.) And why was it done?
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As for the change, you’d have to look at Pope Paul VI’s document that made the change: Ministeria Quaedam from 1972.
lepanto said:
Then it appears that the position of the “instituted acolyte” is silly and pointless. Why not just completely abolish it?
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Because the ministry is still used in the ordination process. Before a man is a deacon he goes through the instituted ministries of acolyte and lector. This allows him to assist at Mass in ways laymen cannot (nowadays, specifically the purification of vessels and being a de facto EMHC).
 
lepanto said:
OK, but “instituted” acolytes are still laymen whereas before Vatican II they were part of the ordained clergy?
Click to expand...
I believe the minor orders along with the subdiaconate were not clerics? I could be wrong though
 
THurifer2 said:
I believe the minor orders along with the subdiaconate were not clerics? I could be wrong though
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The 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia article on acolytes begins: “An acolyte is a cleric promoted to the fourth and highest minor order in the Latin Church, ranking next to a subdeacon.” It also refers to the ordination of an acolyte. (See newadvent.org/cathen/01106a.htm ).

But this was changed by the 1972 Motu Proprio Ministeria Quaedam: "… It is in accordance with the reality itself and with the contemporary outlook that the above-mentioned ministries should no longer be called minor orders; their conferral will not be called ordination, but institution. Only those who have received the diaconate, however, will be clerics in the true sense and will be so regarded. This arrangement will bring out more clearly the distinction between clergy and laity, between what is proper and reserved to the clergy and what can be entrusted to the laity. … "

Another article on this issue is the entry on “Holy Orders” in the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org/cathen/11279a.htm . It refers to the 23rd session of the Council of Trent, which is at americancatholictruthsociety.com/docs/TRENT/trent23.htm .
 
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