Women at the altar

It’s a lot, but just a little. It’s little, but also a lot.

These are the contradictory feelings that one has when reading Pope Francis' new “motu proprio” that allows women to be invested with the ministries of lector and acolyte.

The decision may seem surprising in those places where it’s normal for women to read at Mass and distribute communion. 

In this case, the pope’s decision merely codifies in the Church’s law what is already a common reality.

But the new text, which is titled Spiritus Domini, has a symbolic, as well as a practical value. And, in this sense, it is very important.

Symbolically, it affirms that women have a rightful place at the altar.

This is not something that is taken for granted in many countries, such as in Italy or Poland, where priests, and they alone, distribute holy communion.

And in other places, such as France, there are parishes where priests do not allow girls to be altar servers or women to give communion.  

Spiritus Domini is only a small step forward in the sense that it concerns ministries of lesser importance, those that used to be called "minor orders".

And in his accompanying letter to the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the pope also reaffirms that the Church “does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination”. 

Although he does not suggest it, Francis does not exclude the possibility of women being ordained deacons or lay people (including women) being allowed to preach at Mass.

Only the future will tell whether such steps can be taken.

What is important on this path is that men and women together have "the firm will to serve God and the Christian people".

Guillaume Goubert is La Croix's editor-in-chief.