"Altar Girls": Feminist Ideology and the Roman Liturgy

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First of all, I’m not a feminist and I consider myself an orthodox Catholic, but I don’t consider letting girls serve at the altar any worse than letting women be lectors or serve in any other proper method. The Holy Father is not the type to permit such a thing if it were contrary to Church teachings, etc. - he is the LAST person to cave into politics or social pressures. Perhaps in his wisdom (which is certainly far beyond mine & yours) he saw it as a way for girls to have a special opportunity to learn about & appreciate the mass & the Holy Eucharist.

For whatever it’s worth, my ultra-conservative brother (a former altar boy who started each school day by praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament) & I were at mass last week, & upon seeing a mixed group of boy & girl servers stated that he really thinks that girls make much better servers. Then again, he was known to lock the assistant pastor in the sacristy closet on more than one occasion. 😛
 
Deacon2006 said:
*I posted this on a similar thread earlier by I think it is worth repeating *

I know of a parish that has a mutlitude of girls serving at the altar. They do so, I presume, out of the same desire to participate in the mass as a young boys do. I really don’t think they are trying to get us used to seeing women at the altar to pave the way for female priests. However it is manifest that advocates of the female priesthood heresy hold that first you get in as altar servers then installed to acolyte, then ordained deacons and priests. Clearly the agenda of many has been to push radical change on the Church regardless of what Rome teaches.

These innocent girls, only by their presence and unknown to them, have actually chased the boys from the the altar. If you believe 11 year old boys wants to be bossed around by 14 year old girls then you really don’t understand gender dynamics. The problem is so acute that just about every recently written Vatican document about servers stresses the need to build programs to promote this vocation to boys. The Church is silent on building such programs for girls.

A deacon who once used to say that it is God’s will to have altar girls soon changed his tune when a boy who only saw girls assisting the priest came to him and asked why boys can’t serve at the altar? It was a slap in the face to have such innocence show up his views. All the modernistic ideas he and his pastor used against the faithful in their parish came home to roost. His words now would lead me to believe he is more reserved about promoting altar girls now.

The Church has powerful allies in heaven we must never be afraid to discern our understandings of Church teachings through the eyes of the Saints. Pray and ask for their intercession especially Padre Pio and Mother Thersea to help us with what The Holy Spirit has in mind for those who serve at the Divine Liturgy. God sent us Saints because He expects us to emulate their thoughts and actions as faithful Catholics.

Regardless in the next few years I will swear a life long oath to my bishop and his succesors. If he permits altar girls I will repect it, if they want to reject altar girls I will respect it. Faithful and lawful obedience to your bishop, even though you may not agree, is vital to your spiritual well-being.

Peace and God Bless
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Why have altar girls? They cannot be priests anyway. The vatican itself has said that the noble tradition of altar BOYS should be maintained. Furthermore it says that a local Bishop CANNOT obligate any pastor to have altar girls in his parish.
NO TO WOMEN’S ORDINATIONS.
I am seriously thinking of becoming a member of the Eastern Catholic Right: Byzantine catholic.
 
Keeping altar servers male is a “discipline,” not a doctrine, although altar boys are noted as a “noble” tradition and one worth preserving as a source of vocations to the priesthood.

The celibate priesthood is also a discipline. I would say that this is also a “noble” tradition and one worth preserving.

It seems to me that the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church have spoken as to what their desires are with the former. Since they want to preserve the noble tradition, why have female altar servers become such a norm in our country?
 
Why have altar girls? They cannot be priests anyway. The vatican itself has said that the noble tradition of altar BOYS should be maintained.
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It is a concilation to some women in their 40, 50’s and above who were scarred by seeing their brothers entering the sanctuary and serving the priest while they were confined to the pews- One female EMHC said the reason she always “jumps” at the opportunity to distribute communion is because she was prohibited from the altar as a child and young woman. The other reason for altar girls is simply to make show the church is inclusive- hoping to dispel those constant criticisms of a “patriarchal church”. Personally, I wish they would mandate altar boys again. I have been tired 2/3 of the servers/servettes be altar girls in large parishes- Especially when I see so many of them in flip-flops.

I hope the Vatican will soon mandate altar boys again- it is inevitable considering the abuse of the 1994 decree. However, it might be a breaking point for schism for Amchurch as Mahony, Hubbard, Clark et. al decide they do not want any part of Rome.
 
They need to count on the obedience of their brother bishops

Yes, and Madonna’s most recent husband can count on her to act chastely.
 
Emmy,

I noticed you indicated that children who have made their First Holy Communion are eligible to be altar servers. Yikes! Here that means they could be as young as 7. WAAAAYYYY too young in my book! They are fidgety and easily distracted at that age. I believe children in my parish have to be 5th grade and above to serve.

We have way too many young girls serving in our parish. Here’s another case in point for slightly older boys only serving at the altar. At the gospel reading our servers hold candles on either side of the priest or deacon as he reads. Now, these are elaborate candles in very heavy holders. In the weeks leading up to Easter, it seemed they had the littlest girls holding the candles. They were quite panic-stricken as the gospel reading went on and on. They were not nearly strong enough to hold the candles for the entire reading! I’m not sure I heard much of the Gospel. I was too busy praying for the little girl trying not to drop the candle!
 
I was an alter server for my parish, as were my 2 brothers before me. I remember looking and learning about serving before I was of age, 4th grade at my parish, with great anticipation. It was a privilage to serve the alter, not a right. When did this all change? I did notice that my parish, Holy Family, seemed to have a hard time getting alter boys when I got into high school and beyond. Because of this, it has allowed girls to now serve. My oldest son, 13, does also. I have 3 other sons coming down the alter server trail, and hope they will follow in their brother’s footsteps. I am wondering if more boys push for the position, will the need for girls be lost and not needed any more? Any thoughts on that?
 
One of the arguments against altar girls is that they cannot be priests. Right, but do you think that they might consider a vocation to the sisterhood on down the line? I believe we are short of sisters, too. In some areas of our diocese, sisters are made parish administers in the absence of a priest. I think serving helps keep them interested in the workings of the church. God bless!
 
but there were many more sisters before Vatican II then now. Maybe we should go back to preVatican II standards for more nuns. Why should we dig a new well when we have a well overflowing with water? Orders of nuns who follow the PreVatican II rules are doing great[as are priests]
 
Davy, it may be ironic, but the parishes that produce more female vocations to be nuns/sisters are the parishes that are very much on the orthodox side of the street and tend to not have altar girls. There is no evidence what so ever that serving on the altar leads to more vocations among females.
 
JNB, you may be right, but I think the downturn in vocations in both the priesthood and the sisterhood has been a product of the morals and lifestyle in this country since the mid-sixties. You must admit that between the life of an average family nowadays, and the teaching in some of our so-called catholic schools, kids are not being taught to be open-minded enough to consider a vocation. They’re being taught that the more money they make the happier they will be, and the me first attitude. Let’s face it. You can’t blame vatican 2 for everything that’s wrong these days.
 
I, as a female, firmly believe that altar girls should not be allowed. The place of a woman is to be in a supportive role. Therefore, men and boys should be priests and altar boys, while women and girls pray for them and support them.
 
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CathyD:
Emmy,

I noticed you indicated that children who have made their First Holy Communion are eligible to be altar servers. Yikes! Here that means they could be as young as 7. WAAAAYYYY too young in my book! They are fidgety and easily distracted at that age. I believe children in my parish have to be 5th grade and above to serve.

We have way too many young girls serving in our parish. Here’s another case in point for slightly older boys only serving at the altar. At the gospel reading our servers hold candles on either side of the priest or deacon as he reads. Now, these are elaborate candles in very heavy holders. In the weeks leading up to Easter, it seemed they had the littlest girls holding the candles. They were quite panic-stricken as the gospel reading went on and on. They were not nearly strong enough to hold the candles for the entire reading! I’m not sure I heard much of the Gospel. I was too busy praying for the little girl trying not to drop the candle!
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They hold up a candle here too but it isn´t that heavy.
Here it is a kind of lantern with a candle inside.

Emmy
 
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CathyD:
I noticed you indicated that children who have made their First Holy Communion are eligible to be altar servers. Yikes! Here that means they could be as young as 7. WAAAAYYYY too young in my book! They are fidgety and easily distracted at that age. I believe children in my parish have to be 5th grade and above to serve
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The tradition in the parish where I grew up, was that anyone who’d made 1st Communion could serve. Our priest liked to pack the sanctuary as full of boys as he possibly could. About 10 could fit on the altar, and if more than 10 showed up, some would sit in the front pew. No one ever complained about anyone being too young.
 
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davy39:
One of the arguments against altar girls is that they cannot be priests. Right, but do you think that they might consider a vocation to the sisterhood on down the line? I believe we are short of sisters, too. In some areas of our diocese, sisters are made parish administers in the absence of a priest. I think serving helps keep them interested in the workings of the church. God bless!
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I agree with this. If altar girls have been approved, I don’t have a problem with it, as long as they are old enough to be dignified.
In my parish, we have about an equal number of both. Having girls does not seem to have put the boys off at all, and I’m delighted to say that both sexes serve on the altar well into their teens. If we don’t do whatever we can to involve our young people in the Mass (and in my parish, some of our ex-altar servers are now lectors (late teens, if they can read well, of course), then we have only ourselves to blame if they leave the practice of their faith. They are the future of the Church, after all. And we have our Holy Father’s very frequent words along these lines to remind us.
A Te numquam separari permittas - never let me be separated from You
 
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ATeNumquam:
If we don’t do whatever we can to involve our young people in the Mass (and in my parish, some of our ex-altar servers are now lectors (late teens, if they can read well, of course), then we have only ourselves to blame if they leave the practice of their faith. QUOTE]

BTW, I didn’t mean we should do ANYTHING and everything to involve them; not to let them hi-jack the Mass, for example. Our young parishioners provide the music only once a month (no electric guitars or drums).
It’s more a matter of harnessing their talents to keep them involved in the life of the Church, and making sure they feel appreciated. (I know I’m straying from the theme of this thread!)

One of our teens is a great flower arranger so she does the flowers; another makes the most beautiful applique banners, lecturn covers etc., fit for a cathedral, and she gets a lot of kudos for that. Our pastoral assistant, a Sister of Mercy, is also pro-active in finding things for some of the young guys to do around the parish. These kids will be very unlikely to be priests and religious (same problem with secularism as you have in the U.S., only WORSE) 😦 , but hopefully they will at least be future parishoners. Our parish priest often comments on anything that has been done around the place by one of the younger parishioners at the end of Mass. It all helps.
Sorry for digressing! Maybe we need a thread on how to involve young people.🙂
A Te numquam separari permittas - never let me be separated from You
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Part of the reason there were so many more nuns in pre-vat2 times isn’t necessarily because the Church was more conservative. Back then women had very few options in life. If you were a woman and wanted to enter a profession, you didn’t have many choices. Being a nun was one of the few ways a woman could be a professional - usually a teacher or healthcare worker. If you go back a really long time, like the middle ages, joining a convent was the only way a woman could usually be educated and she didn’t have to worry about starving to death or dying in childbirth like so many did back then 😦 Nowadays, a woman doesn’t have to be a nun to get an education or be professional, so alot of women who would’ve been nuns 100 years ago don’t become nuns. This certainly isn’t the only factor - I agree that the secularization of the culture has done alot of damage. But it is important to note. On the bright side, the women who become nuns today are doing it because they truly want to, not as a meal ticket or an escape from marriage (not that all women who became nuns in the past did so because of that - but sadly many did)
 
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