Jean Gordon of the (Jackson, Mississippi) Clarion Ledger has an informative piece on the growing role of “lay ecclesial ministers” in the American Catholic church.
Over 30,000 lay people, 80% of them women, are “doing everything from running religious education programs to working as church business managers.” This trend is evidently a response to the shortage of American priests, whose numbers have fallen by 30% since 1965. But the movement also reflects the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on greater participation by lay Catholics in the church.
As Gordon notes, these laypeople are acting as “pastoral ministers” only, while the role of “sacramental minister” is still reserved for ordained priests. It’s another story in the progressive Netherlands, where as Italian journalist Sandro Magister reports, lay Catholic ministers of both genders regularly celebrate the Eucharist, a practice recommended in an official booklet recently published by the local province of the Dominicans.