The Process of Admission to Ordained Ministry

In previous volumes of The Process of Admission to Ordained Ministry project, Fr. James Puglisi provides an analysis of the liturgical and canonical institutions in three periods to recover an understanding of the complex structure of ordination and the implicit connection between ordained ministry and the structuring of the Church. In this concluding volume, he offers an English translation of the liturgical rites examined in the first three volumes. With the addition of this ecumenical collection of liturgical texts and comparative tables, Puglisi provides a considerable body of supporting evidence to aid churches in their search for mutual ecclesial recognition.

The collection contains the rituals with their biblical readings detailed, together with comparative tables showing the convergence in practice of the ecclesial communions studied. An extensive bibliography of sources and secondary literature, a comparison of the structure of the two liturgical offices of ordination and installation of a bishop and of a presbyter, of the prayers of ordination or installation, of the examination of the elect and of the use of biblical readings in each of the liturgical rites are included. Complete texts of the ordination rituals in literal translation from their original language, with notes that indicate the sources are contained in the appendices.

James F. Puglisi, SA, is the past director of the Centro Pro Unione, a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in Rome. He also served as professor of ecumenical theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas-Angelicum, Pontifical Atheneum, San Anselmo, Rome and the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, Venice.