Adult Altar Servers

[plato3]

I enjoy serving at the altar as I was not allowed to as a kid, because only the Catholic school boys got to serve. I did not attend Catholic school. I have seen the altar server situation decline, and am glad to have anyone help. At one Sunday Mass, we often have 4 altar servers, all boys. The boys seem to all like that Mass. The pastor and I would like to see a priestly vocation from this group. So far they just want to be permanent deacons. At another Mass, we have just one server, a 12 year old girl. At our bi-lingual Mass we have girls and boys together and there is a list that want to help. 4 servers are picked each Sunday for this Mass. Our Sat. night Mass usually has an older woman serve. It’s hard to get the young people to come to this one. We seem to have all the options.

Deacon Tony

 

[JKirkLVNV]

I disagree with this strongly. I think fathers and sons should be encouraged to serve *together. *It would be something that they could share and a boy would have the opportunity to see his father offering humble service to Our Lord in the Holy Sacrifice, kneeling, reverent, etc. I’m less fond of the idea of women servers anyway (for many boys, serving at the altar was a springboard to at least consider the priesthood), but as it is allowed by the Holy See, I can’t really grumble at the idea of mothers serving with their children.

 

[lmpower]

I am in charge of the altar servers at our church. It is a small church, but we have 32 servers at this time. Sometimes parents are not supportive of their children becoming servers, but I also know of many examples where the parents and grandparents are supportive but the child declines to serve. Their reason for declining is that they are either fearful or lacking interest. We only use adult servers when there are no children available.