Beatrice Pagliaia prima donna a ricevere l'accolitato

During the 6:00 a.m. Mass in the cathedral, Beatrice Pagliai of the parish of Santomato received the ministry of acolyte from Bishop Fausto Tardelli, a typically lay ministry. Beatrice is the first woman in the Pistoia area to receive it, thanks to the Pope, who has opened the Church (understood as an institution) to women in a stable and institutionalized way. The ministry of acolyte is the ministry of the Eucharist and of service at the altar. That Eucharist is "the source and summit of all Christian life." The Church, in the liturgy of the institution of the Acolyte, with the efficacy that comes to her from the Spirit, invokes a special blessing upon the candidate, so that he or she may faithfully fulfill his or her service by increasingly conforming his or her life to the Eucharistic sacrifice, thus offering himself or herself daily in Christ as a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God, sincerely loving the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the People of God, especially the poor and the infirm.