Vatican City, 18 January, 2022 / 3:20 pm (ACI Africa).
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will confer the ministries of catechist, lector, and acolyte upon lay men and women for the first time in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.
Candidates from three continents will receive the new ministries during the papal Mass for the Sunday of the Word of God on Jan. 23.
Two people from the Amazonian region in Peru will be formally made catechists by the pope, along with other candidates from Brazil, Ghana, Poland, and Spain.
The ministry of lector will be conferred on lay Catholics from South Korea, Pakistan, Ghana, and Italy.
Each of these ministries will be conferred through a rite prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments that will be presented for the first time, according to a Vatican communique issued on Jan. 18.