New Acolytes for the Church

Since I will have little time to blog tomorrow, let me take this opportunity to congratulate Phil Bowen, David Doran and Michael Glover, who will be instituted as Acolytes at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Philip Pargeter this evening.

All three are training for the catholic priesthood at Oscott, and are for the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

Acolytes are mentioned as a minor order (along with porters, lectors, and exorcists) as early as a letter of Pope Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch in 252. They were also mentioned in Cyprian's writings. They assisted deacons or subdeacons at the preparation of the table. Later they carried candles in processions. In Rome they carried fragments of the bread consecrated at the papal Mass to other churches. In the late middle ages, when candles began to appear upon altars, they lighted the altar candles. Eventually lay servers or sacristans performed duties earlier associated with acolytes, and the order of acolyte was normally conferred upon a candidate for priesthood in the course of his training.

Pope Paul VI issued a Motu Proprio, Ministeria Quaedam, in 1972 in which he said the minor orders were now to be called ministries and two, namely reader and acolyte, were to be preserved in the Latin Church. The acolyte is appointed in order to aid the deacon and to minister to the priest, to attend to the service of the altar. Additionally, his role is to distribute communion as a special minister when the ordinary ministers (deacon and priest) are not able to do so.

An acolyte has, in the past, been described as being like an angel, so I like to think we now have three new angels in our midst.

Well done, lads. We are all proud of you.