Altar Girls - Official or Not?

[scylla]

I am an altar server, and I’m a girl! Woo-hoo! I’m actually the head server; I’ve been serving for almost 3 years.

The bishop makes the decision whether or not to allow girls to be altar servers in his diocese. Even if a bishop does give his permission, priests can still deny girls the right to serve.

I think the denial of female altar servers is unbelievably sexist for this day and age. My brother, who altar serves with me, agrees.

As a matter of fact, out of the 27 active servers at my parish, 14 are girls. I think they do a better job (on average) as the guys, who tend to fool around during Mass and not pay attention.

I encourage everyone who is able to be an altar server. It was the best thing I ever did.

ALTAR SERVERS ROCK!

God Bless you for your service it is a good and holy thing to serve God.
I really don’t think that the majority of people who are against altar girls is a sexist thing at all.
Before I elaborate let me tell you what you are doing and your intent is appreciated, we need more Catholics just like you. It is a good and holy act to serve the Lord.

Let me explain the reasoning behind my response…
Serving the Lord is not a right and has nothing to do with being male of female, but serving Christ. If it serves God and inspires more women to become nuns by wearing habits then most nuns should wear habits, some might not be able to and that is fine.

In the same way we should do our utmost to promote the vocation to the Priesthood. If there is a 10% chance that only boys serving does that, we should do it. This does not take anything away from girls as we all should serve God first not equality, culture or desire.

Now if a girl is serving, she should be supported and never looked down upon in any way. As you pointed out most boys at the same ages of girls develop slower and are more impulsive. It is harder to make them “behave”, they are boys.
Behavior is not a reason to encourage girls or boys over each other but ultimately what best serves God.

We have spent the last 40 or so years discouraging boys to be Priests out of the selfish desire of a whole bunch of butch women who want to be Priests, they are also supported by a whole bunch of effeminate men. It is time we became honest with ourselves and tell these frustrated people to stop messing with the Church and allow us to try and serve God first.

The whole reason the liturgy is being feminized is because many people want to serve themselves first, they want women priests and will seek every way to change the Mass to better push that agenda. That is the whole reason for these threads discussing which should be allowed.

We shouldn’t look to see what is allowed, that is quite an evil mindset, we should look at what is the best for serving God.
If we only have girls fine, that is allowed and if given permission should be supported. But if all this is done to promote an agenda then it is profoundly evil to ignore the agenda and allow it to continue.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Rosewith]

What possible evil do you see in a girl serving God? Canon Law allows persons of either sex to serve on the altar. The Pope himself approved the 1983 revision of Canon Law. Are you saying that the Pope approved an “evil agenda”?

 

[Tracy07]

Hi Im from the uk and in our parish we have girls we have two who serve on a saturday night and one who serves on a sunday all the girls are great in fact when my son began to serve they looked after him and showed him what he had to do until he got used to serving.
There is of course boys serving alongside the girls 5 on a saturday and 4 on a sunday and they all get along fine they work very well together.
I hope your daughter gets the answers she needs.
x

 

[LRThunder]

I am an altar server, and I’m a girl! Woo-hoo! I’m actually the head server; I’ve been serving for almost 3 years.

The bishop makes the decision whether or not to allow girls to be altar servers in his diocese. Even if a bishop does give his permission, priests can still deny girls the right to serve.

I think the denial of female altar servers is unbelievably sexist for this day and age. My brother, who altar serves with me, agrees.

As a matter of fact, out of the 27 active servers at my parish, 14 are girls. I think they do a better job (on average) as the guys, who tend to fool around during Mass and not pay attention.

I encourage everyone who is able to be an altar server. It was the best thing I ever did.

ALTAR SERVERS ROCK!

“Unbelievable sexist for this day and age.”

I’m sure some say the same thing about women ordination and the ban against it.

The Church cannot be concerned about what society thinks of as sexist. Once upon a time, society saw religion as worshipping the Roman emperor. Should the Church have bowed to that as well?

I have nothing against girls being altar servers, but I’d prefer to see more men and boys do it. However, as you said, it’s up to the bishop’s discretion and then the priest. Sexism has nothing to do with it.

 

[Lynn-D]

My daughter wanted me to ask if it is “official or not offical” to have girls as altar servers? She’ll be coming on to read your responses. Please be nice!

In my church not only are the girls ‘altar girls’ but the women also serve the communion and the wine as well to the congregation.

Someone in this forum made the statement that allowing girls to be on the altar is being advanced by butch women or effeminate males. So, in that context might I ask where and what was Mary Magdalene considered when she served at the Last Supper?

I would like to see women as deacons and serving mass as well. I understand the reasoning for the ‘only males’ as priests thinking but I do wonder if this is not a bit sexist. If Mary, the mother of Jesus, were to serve mass I wonder how many would consider her to be ‘butch’ or might claim some other reason for their nonacceptance of her on the altar in communion with her son’s wishes at the Last Supper.

Yes, the Bishop of the Diocese decides if women are to be allowed to assist at the communion. I have been to many churches and in all of them I have seen girls and women serving at mass. I would be in favor of that policy being expanded.

Lynn-D

 

[snhs]

I am an altar server, and I’m a girl! Woo-hoo! I’m actually the head server; I’ve been serving for almost 3 years.

The bishop makes the decision whether or not to allow girls to be altar servers in his diocese. Even if a bishop does give his permission, priests can still deny girls the right to serve.

I think the denial of female altar servers is unbelievably sexist for this day and age. My brother, who altar serves with me, agrees.

As a matter of fact, out of the 27 active servers at my parish, 14 are girls. I think they do a better job (on average) as the guys, who tend to fool around during Mass and not pay attention.

I encourage everyone who is able to be an altar server. It was the best thing I ever did.

ALTAR SERVERS ROCK!

Out of interest is your brother older or younger? And has he ever actually served at a time when only boys were allowed to? As you’re the head altar server I’m guessing you’ve been serving longer so he’s only ever known a system where it was altar boys and altar girls. Is it any wonder therefore that he agrees with you?

Apart from anything else many Altar boys avoid expressing an opinion on it because at the end of the day the Priest has made a decision on it and we need to get along with Altar girls regardless of our own views. It really wouldn’t be particularly good for server dialogue if one side were openly questioning whether the others should be there.

I don’t think most statistics are actually in favour of Altar girls.When I started serving we had 5 Masses, which has since dropped down to 4. At the time we had 7 groups of 6 Altar boys and the Masses we served at rotated with a two week break in between. Now we have 6 groups four of which have 6 Altar servers with 2 and 3 servers on the other Mass. So whereas you might have expected allowing girls to serve would double the pool of servers we’ve actually had a net fall in the number of servers. The number of Altar boys has also decreased.

I also have to disagree with Altar girls being better. I’m quite happy to accept that from a practical standpoint they can do just as well as Altar boys. But having served for almost four times longer than you I’ve yet to see evidence that the girls are better on average. The Altar girls fool around and fail to pay attention just as much as the boys do and in some cases more. I can also say that whilst it was all boys the newer altar servers settled in far quicker and fidgeted less, because they were surrounded by older boys who they learnt the proper way to behave from. We also never had people worrying about their hair, make up etc.

It is a great thing to be an Altar Server but it is worth remembering that no one has a right to be one.

 

[Anthony02]

There is currently only 1 diocese in the U.S. (Lincoln, Nebraska) that does not allow altar girls. The other one that did not permit them (Arlington, VA) decided to allow them a year or 2 ago.

James

I am from the Lincoln diocese. I respect Bishop Bruskewitz so much for his decision to only allow male altar servers.

 

[Tracy07]

I am from the Lincoln diocese. I respect Bishop Bruskewitz so much for his decision to only allow male altar servers.

Hi there can i just ask why you feel it is better to have male only servers? am genuinely curious what your thoughts are.
x

 

[jmcrae]

What I find interesting is that, even though we are all supposed to be equal in Christ, what is a “virtue” for a boy (serving at the Altar) is a “sin” for a girl.

How can the exact same activity be “virtuous” for one person, just because he is a boy, but “sinful” for another person, merely because she is a girl?

 

[spellinggirl]

In reply to SNHS, my brother has not altar served when there were only boys allowed. He is younger than me, by the way. We used to go to a parish with only boys allowed to serve, but he always questioned it. This was a long time before he and I started serving.

Also, I was not trying to imply that girls EVERYWHERE are better altar servers than boys. I was just speaking, ON AVERAGE, about my own parish. There are a few girls who do tend to mess around during Mass…

P.S. If any girl at our parish worried about her hair or makeup during Mass, our priest would take care of it right away. He doesn’t put up with that stuff at all!

P.P.S. Many people may have served a lot longer than I have, but many parishes rotate, i.e. you serve once a month, or so. I serve almost every weekend, except for when I go on vacation. This morning, I served at 2 consecutive Masses.

 

[scylla]

What I find interesting is that, even though we are all supposed to be equal in Christ, what is a “virtue” for a boy (serving at the Altar) is a “sin” for a girl.

How can the exact same activity be “virtuous” for one person, just because he is a boy, but “sinful” for another person, merely because she is a girl?

I don’t think anyone has ever said that it was a sin for a girl to serve, as most girls do so out of a sense of service to God and are allowed to do so right now.
(just because they are allowed doesn’t make the reasons right or the supporters right as it is driven by an anti-priest mentality which therefore is quite sinful)

We are equal to God in our allowance into heaven, not in our roles in serving God, we are not the same, men and women are different.
Men are called to be Fathers and Women to be Mothers. Regarding Martha, scripture sums it up nicely, Luke 10:38-42.

We should be doing all we can to support the Priesthood and boys to become Priests. It is quite wrong to promote women to want to become Deacons, Priests, as that is denying the Churches prohibition against ordination of women and the fact that Jesus instituted the Church in this way.

Event the common cultural arguement against this is rooted in denying the fact that Jesus as God decided things this way and set up the Church in this way. As Jesus was God He could have done anything He wanted, to support that He set up the Church this way because of cultural reasons is to subordinate God to man and to make Jesus not really God, but a person who followed cultural trends. It is essentially a minimization of God to see the Church as a function of society to just serve one another over serving God. (I would suggest reading the Ratzinger Report)

We should look at what best supports the Male Priesthood which in turn is honoring Jesus in His incarnation, every little step away from that, is a way of remaking Jesus in our cultural image and denying God by placing desire over obedience to God. We should honor Christ in the Priesthood, unfortunately Satan seeks to undermine the Priesthood with attacks in every way possible.

I do applaud all the girls, for their love, who do serve. as most of them do so out of a love of God and not in support of the wacky agendas of the feminists.
(I call them wacky because ultimately it is an insult to God to support their position, and that is foolishness)

God Bless
Scylla

 

[muppet729]

I’m sorry that I haven’t had a chance to read all of the posts so forgive me if I repeat something…

I would support the Church in whatever decision She made about female altar servers. I served from the time I was in 4th grade. The capacity that girls were allowed to have changed over the years.

My comment is that to me this is just females serving at the Lord’s table- just like they did in Jesus’ time. It was a woman who washed his feet with her hair and women who were with him on the way to Calvary and to annoint his body in the tomb. I am in no way thinking that girls need to become priests, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed to serve. Isn’t the natural progression from not allowing girl servers to not allow women to read at teh lector or to distribute the Eucharist? (I was at a parish in college who believed that too- and yes I realize that the preferred distributer of communion is a priest or deacon)

 

[scylla]

Isn’t the natural progression from not allowing girl servers to not allow women to read at teh lector or to distribute the Eucharist? (I was at a parish in college who believed that too- and yes I realize that the preferred distributer of communion is a priest or deacon)

Think of the opposite of that statement, what is the natural progression, what do those who promote altar servers. Women Priests, that is the goal an attack on the Priesthood.

I know many people just see it as a nice thing to do and have no intention of promoting women priests, but that is the agenda behind the promotion.

The preferred distributor of Holy Communion is the Priest or Deacon but will that be the result with the constant attack on the Priesthood. If we are not 100% committed to promoting more Priests and Deacons, respecting and honoring their institution we are allowing ourselves to fall away to less than the best for God.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Brendan]

What possible evil do you see in a girl serving God? Canon Law allows persons of either sex to serve on the altar. The Pope himself approved the 1983 revision of Canon Law. Are you saying that the Pope approved an “evil agenda”?

No, but Spellinggirl seems to think so.

She seems to think that it is ‘sexist’ for a priest or bishop to use a Canonical right that Pope John Paul II gave them to refuse the use of females at the altar.

 

[snhs]

In reply to SNHS, my brother has not altar served when there were only boys allowed. He is younger than me, by the way. We used to go to a parish with only boys allowed to serve, but he always questioned it. This was a long time before he and I started serving.

Also, I was not trying to imply that girls EVERYWHERE are better altar servers than boys. I was just speaking, ON AVERAGE, about my own parish. There are a few girls who do tend to mess around during Mass…

P.S. If any girl at our parish worried about her hair or makeup during Mass, our priest would take care of it right away. He doesn’t put up with that stuff at all!

P.P.S. Many people may have served a lot longer than I have, but many parishes rotate, i.e. you serve once a month, or so. I serve almost every weekend, except for when I go on vacation. This morning, I served at 2 consecutive Masses.

Thought so, but there is a vast difference between questioning something and supporting it one way or another. A young child could question for example why their mother couldn’t say the Mass, that wouldn’t necessarily indicate support for it just a child questioning things. And an older sister he got along with might well bias it. I’m not sure I’ve ever found an Altar boy who was particularly supportive of it, although that may having something to do with the age of new Altar boys or never having had an older sister and brother serving.

Not sure where you got once a month from, just now its either weekly or fortnightly depending on the Mass (I do one of the weekly ). I really don’t have anything against Altar girls in general though, apart from anything else it is the Priest who decides.

I’m not sure your argument holds up jmcrae, after all there are certain things that are virtuous for girls to do, like wearing skirts, but we would rather not have boys doing and vice versa.

 

[jmcrae]

I’m not sure your argument holds up jmcrae, after all there are certain things that are virtuous for girls to do, like wearing skirts, but we would rather not have boys doing and vice versa.

That’s not related to virtue; that’s a fashion thing. I’m Scottish, so I know lots of boys who wear kilts at least some of the time.

 

[snhs]

That’s not related to virtue; that’s a fashion thing. I’m Scottish, so I know lots of boys who wear kilts at least some of the time.

Kilts are not skirts, they are completely different. If you remember we had a fight with the EU about their exact classification (and won ).

 

[jmcrae]

Kilts are not skirts, they are completely different. If you remember we had a fight with the EU about their exact classification (and won ).

Well, they’re definitely not trousers. in any case, my point was that skirts have nothing to do with virtue.

 

[snhs]

Well, they’re definitely not trousers. in any case, my point was that skirts have nothing to do with virtue.

Well I think there is an argument that can be made from the Old Testament that it is. Nonetheless there are quite a few other examples, e.g. you wouldn’t want a boy having a romantic relationship with another boy (I hope we can both agree that would be a sin) whereas if proper conduct were observed it could be perfectly acceptable, and indeed virtuous, for a girl to do so.

 

[jmcrae]

Well I think there is an argument that can be made from the Old Testament that it is. Nonetheless there are quite a few other examples, e.g. you wouldn’t want a boy having a romantic relationship with another boy (I hope we can both agree that would be a sin) whereas if proper conduct were observed it could be perfectly acceptable, and indeed virtuous, for a girl to do so.

Well, the virtue is to seek a relationship with a person of the opposite sex, and it holds equally for both sexes; there is no double standard where one sex is permitted to get romantic with persons of the same sex while the other isn’t.