![]() ![]() In Rome itself this office attained to no particular development, as a large part of these duties, namely the actual work necessary in the church building, what is now probably the duty of the sexton, was at Rome performed by the attendants. In Latin Western Europe, outside of Rome, in the late Roman era and the one following, the ostiaries were still actually employed as guardians of the church buildings and of their contents. When, from the end of the second century, the Christian communities began to own houses for holding church services and for purposes of administration, church ostiaries are soon mentioned, at least for the larger cities. In the Roman period all houses of the better class had an ostiarius, or ostiary, whose duties were considered very inferior. Porter denoted among the Romans the slave whose duty it was to guard the entrance of the house. It is within this context that we come to understand the first of the minor orders – Porter. What is more, given the fact that the Church continually faced persecution from the Empire, the membership requirement to attend the liturgy was a means of protecting the faithful from recriminations by the imperial powers. Christianity came into being during a time when religions across the Roman Empire employed secrecy to membership in the various cults and temples. In the early Church the liturgy was an event strictly for members only. A review of these ministries and their historical contexts will help to see how the Church in modern times adapted them to the needs of the Church in our times. ![]() It is perhaps helpful to briefly describe each minor order to understand its function and why such a role existed in the early church. Admission into one of these ministries did not constitute entrance into the clerical state, nor did they require a promise of celibacy as did ordination to the major orders. Simple rites of acceptance into these offices existed, but none were seen as sacramental ordination rites when such distinctions came to be made. These ministries assist the bishop in his liturgical function, but they possess no such assistance in the administrative functions of the Church. The minor orders, by contrast, are not mentioned in the New Testament and arose in the Church to perform specific liturgical functions. Removal from such a clerical state in each major order requires a lengthy canonical process. These three offices all have rites of ordination specific to their office, each one signifying those who receive ordination into one of these offices that they are members of the clergy or clerical state. Both the office of deacon and priest flow from that of the bishop and were created to provide assistance to the bishop both in his sacramental and administrative duties in the Church. The three major orders – deacon, priest, and bishop – have their origins in the New Testament, and after a certain evolution they came to be seen as sacramental by their very nature. A review of the history of the minor orders, however, suggest a position taken by Popes Paul VI and Francis. ![]() They often cite the long tradition of the minor orders within the Church as support for such a position today. Predictably, such decisions have met with resistance from groups within the Church attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Liturgy, as well as other integralist groups who insist that such ministries belong to men only, and most appropriately, in their view, to clergy. Outside that narrow experience of the Church, both the Code of Canon Law and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal recognize the laity as functionaries of these ministries, and most recently Pope Francis made official what has been common practice for the past forty years in stating that women can exercise these ministries officially within the liturgy of the Church. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI suppressed the minor orders and transformed their offices into ministries, though the office of Lector and Acolyte are still instituted offices within the seminary system as steps toward ordination. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |