Those encrusted...

I was stumped, today, for a while.

The worst of our lay readers (and that really is quite a distinction!) having mauled Exodus and corrected (!) St Paul, proceeded in the Bidding Prayers to ask that we pray for our Holy Father and those encrusted.

I was wondering if that was meant to mean the curia - but didn't believe whoever drafted the prayers would be either so acerbic or so witty.  After a long stage wait, he added, '... with teaching the Faith' or something.

All of which led me, once more, to wonder why we do that.  What is the point of getting the illiterate (or even the literate) to come up from the congregation to read; when the priest has studied Scripture at seminary, has grace of state, and is the one offering the Sacrifice.  The Second Vatican Council was clear about the unity of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist: 'The two parts which, in a certain sense, go to make up the Mass, namely, the liturgy of the word and the eucharistic liturgy, are so closely connected with each other that they form but one single act of worship.' (SC §56) Why then this disintegration?

I think it is done in the name of inclusiveness and active participation.  I suspect part of the agenda was to find a way to get women into the sanctuary.  But I see it as liturgical infantilism, as I have mentioned before...