No Girls Allowed

[puellapaschalis]

Altar servers are supposed to be clerics; it's only in that there are usually not enough clerics around that laymen have been permitted to serve.

 

Girl altar servers started as a disobedience and turned into a hijacking. It is good that people realise what serving at the altar is about, what it means, is, and signifies.

[Katiebobatie94]

Not sure how much this matters, but I was an altar server for almost eight years & as I got older I was given the jobs for the "big boys" (i.e. incense, directing the younger servers at big Masses, assisting with the rehearsals for the big Masses, etc) simply because I knew what I was doing. Never once did I think to myself "I wish I could be a priest", or anything like that. I knew my place in the bigger picture of things. Being a server gave me a sense of responsibility & commitment, and it taught me that people watch what I do on and off the altar, and that they would associate my actions with what they saw me doing at Mass. It also gave me a lot of confidence to defend my faith when my friends would ask me about different things that Catholics do. (The priest who trained us, didn't just teach us how to serve the Mass. He taught us the meanings behind why we did what we did.) 

 

Maybe its me, but I don't really think there is anything wrong with a girl serving. I know I didn't really pay attention to the Mass until I started serving. It helped my faith to grow so much. 

 

I also tend to think that altar serving in general raises the question of a vocation, both in boys and girls. The thing is, regardless of gender, when you are serving Mass and you are actually aware of what is going on, you learn so much about Love. And about sacrifice. You learn about the beauty, and value, of both of those things. Serving raises the question of "If God asked Father to be a priest, and he said yes, what would I do if he asked me to serve him as a priest of a sister?" 

[Lilllabettt]

Not sure how much this matters, but I was an altar server for almost eight years & as I got older I was given the jobs for the "big boys" (i.e. incense, directing the younger servers at big Masses, assisting with the rehearsals for the big Masses, etc) simply because I knew what I was doing. Never once did I think to myself "I wish I could be a priest", or anything like that. I knew my place in the bigger picture of things. Being a server gave me a sense of responsibility & commitment, and it taught me that people watch what I do on and off the altar, and that they would associate my actions with what they saw me doing at Mass. It also gave me a lot of confidence to defend my faith when my friends would ask me about different things that Catholics do. (The priest who trained us, didn't just teach us how to serve the Mass. He taught us the meanings behind why we did what we did.) 

 

Maybe its me, but I don't really think there is anything wrong with a girl serving. I know I didn't really pay attention to the Mass until I started serving. It helped my faith to grow so much. 

 

I also tend to think that altar serving in general raises the question of a vocation, both in boys and girls. The thing is, regardless of gender, when you are serving Mass and you are actually aware of what is going on, you learn so much about Love. And about sacrifice. You learn about the beauty, and value, of both of those things. Serving raises the question of "If God asked Father to be a priest, and he said yes, what would I do if he asked me to serve him as a priest of a sister?" 

 

 

It's wonderful that you had that experience - but what about the boys?  We all know that girls mature faster than boys. We all know that many younger boys will hesitate to join a group that includes girls. We all know there is something special that happens when a group of men and boys learn from each other, together.

 

There are many places in parish life where girls gather -- many groups that are all women. Why not let altar service be a place for boys? I'm not denying that altar serving can have be beneficial for girls. But a space for boys will not happen naturally. If we want boys to practice, we must make a space for them. 

[puellapaschalis]

I (a puella) was an altar server and MC for years. Altar service is not a place for girls and/or women.

[MarysLittleFlower]

I think its best for boys to be altar servers. It helps vocations and its less confusing. My understanding is that the Holy See considers it more ideal to have altar boys - based on a letter from 1994 calling it a noble tradition that should continue.

Even if something is allowed by Rome or a Bishop as an indult doesn't mean its equally helpful spiritually as the traditional or normal way. Statements on altar girls are not prescriptive and Bishops or priests are free to not allow them.

[MarysLittleFlower]

Just to add to that, I think its much more beautiful for women to simply pray as Our Lady did by the Cross... Its an imitation of Our Blessed Mother. That can't be wrong. I much prefer that to serving at the altar as a woman because it is more like Our Lady. If I were a boy I would want to serve I think.

[little2add]

More news from San Francisco
Archbishop of San Francisco defends morality codes for Catholic schools

State of californa demands archbishop nix morality statement used in catholic schools

The statement outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is "gravely evil."

lawmakers on Tuesday urged the archbishop of San Francisco to remove from a teachers' handbook morality clauses they say are discriminatory and divisive.
The lawmakers said in a letter to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that the clauses "foment a discriminatory environment" and send "an alarming message of intolerance to youth."

LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Lawmakers-urge-archbishop-to-remove-morality-6086158.php

Edited February 22, 2015 by little2add

[Nihil Obstat]

In a related story, it turns out that Archbishop Cordileone is actually Catholic. Diocese of San Francisco shocked. Several liberals publish angry screeds.

[Ark]

Anything that restores the ancient ways of the Church is a healthy change. Because of the modernization of many Churches and the attitudes which are currently condoned many forget that there is a sanctuary that is designated as a sacred space. It's really a space reserved for priests being that they are dedicated to the holy sacrifice of the mass. Any layperson given the honor to set foot in the sanctuary is acting in substitute for a priest, which is why even young altar servers in the ancient rite would wear cassocks, an attire exclusively reserved for clerics. The fact that altar-girls do not dawn cassocks is probably the one thing I can say was a prudential decision. 

 

I also think it's a healthy because it restores a proper understanding of gender. Modernity has a tendency to promote a sort of androgynous outlook, as if there were not differences between men and woman, but clearly there are two genders for a reason and although we are all called to participate in the economy of salvation, a man's role is particularly different from a woman's. God became a man and not a woman for a reason, and that reason was that a man caused the fall of our race. So the priesthood is a function reserved for men as both a symbolic and literal reference to the work of the Second Adam restoring us from the First Adam's sin. 

[little2add]

When did the preaching of basic christian morality become discriminatory and divisive?

[truthfinder]

st, which is why even young altar servers in the ancient rite would wear cassocks, an attire exclusively reserved for clerics. The fact that altar-girls do not dawn cassocks is probably the one thing I can say was a prudential decision. 

 

Maybe where you are, but in many places girls did (and do) wear cassocks to serve.

[avemaria]

I think it's really because it gives the young girls a false identity of their vocation. It has also been boys only in all of church history, and there is no good reason to change that. 

[Ark]

I've seen girls in robes but never cassocks.

[elizabeth09]

Maybe because it's San Francisco.

Or maybe not. I hope that where I live, there will be an increase in boy servers then girls.

As an alter server, no one had ask if I thought girls would become priests. But as soon as the Latin Mass became real to me, the more I don't want to serve.

[Nihil Obstat]

Nice to see you again, Elizabeth.

[chrysostom]

I serve at my church back home when I visit.  It's all boys and the occasional older guy.  Our priests are heroes to them (to me too!) and there's a lively boyish camaraderie there too.  They are learning to be reverent, that it isn't "sissy" to dress in cassocks and surplices or to pay attention to finer considerations of posture, etc.  Participation is high. This is indeed a little space for them and it's wonderful.

[vyvy07]

I myself served daily masses and Sunday masses. My church and many churches in my diocese allows female servers. I have never felt the want or thought of becoming a priest, but being a server has definitely made me more aware of the sacredness of the altar and the Eucharist. Through my experience of altar serving, I have wondered about my possible vocation to the religious life. For the most part and with other female altar servers I know, none of us have ever wanted to become priests. My own cousin is currently a seminarian, and I believe very strongly that the priesthood is only for males. 

[Norseman82]

When did the preaching of basic christian morality become discriminatory and divisive?

​When it "hits too close to home" for some of the hearers.

[little2add]

If these critics don’t want to be Catholic anymore, maybe they should become Protestant

http://www.sfgate.com/news/item/Catholics-Ad-38983.php

 

[NadaTeTurbe]

I myself served daily masses and Sunday masses. My church and many churches in my diocese allows female servers. I have never felt the want or thought of becoming a priest, but being a server has definitely made me more aware of the sacredness of the altar and the Eucharist. Through my experience of altar serving, I have wondered about my possible vocation to the religious life. For the most part and with other female altar servers I know, none of us have ever wanted to become priests. My own cousin is currently a seminarian, and I believe very strongly that the priesthood is only for males. 

​Me too ! 

I am an altar girl... It have always been the case in my parish, I think. We're a good group with something like 50/50. I felt my religious vocation while being an altar server. And I don't feel like a protestant.