POPE CODIFIES ROLE OF WOMEN

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis, in another step toward greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, on Monday changed its law to codify their roles as altar servers, distributors of communion and readers at liturgies.

The Pope's decree formalized practices already common in many countries. But the change in the Code of Canon Law means conservative bishops will not be able to block women in their dioceses from taking those roles.

The Vatican stressed that the roles were not an automatic precursor to women one day being allowed to become priests.

“This codifies that women are equal to men in these roles and is big because in some cultures women are still considered unclean and cannot be near the sacred,” said Phyllis Zagano, religion professor at Hofstra University in New York State and past member of a papal commission on women deacons.