Altar Girls

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MJford

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I have seen other forms address the issue but all that commenced was arguing. Please keep the debate polite. I just want evidence for or against altar girls. DO NOT HASSLE OTHER USERS or me.:o:shrug:
 
I think there’s been plenty of posts that point out stuff from both Church teaching and scripture regarding altar girls in the other posts. You just have to weed them out.

Somewhere around the house (I believe) I have a really, really good article by a priest opposing the use of altar girls. If I find it, I’ll post it here.
 
Do a forum search - there is no need to rehash this over and over and over again if that’s all you are looking for.

~Liza
 
MJford said:
I have seen other forms address the issue but all that commenced was arguing. Please keep the debate polite. I just want evidence for or against altar girls. DO NOT HASSLE OTHER USERS or me.:o:shrug:
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I think there are really only two criteria in which to choose potential servers. They are (in order of importance):
  1. Are they able to serve the Mass in a highly competent manner?
  2. Will their serving Mass help to foster a possible vocation as either a priest or deacon?
If they cannot accomplish #1 (with an adequate training period) they shouldn’t be serving in my opinion. Serving is about serving Jesus Christ through the man that stands in His Person on Calvary. It’s not about serving oneself.

Women cannot be ordained. Serving Mass cannot foster a vocation to the priesthood or the permanent diaconate in their case. In fact it might well lead to resentment. If is that fact, and the fact I would want everyone fostering a vocation to serve Mass filling-up all the available places that would make me preclude all females (and older males with no chance of being ordained) from serving Mass if I were a bishop.

Yes, we will hear stories about how there would not be enough servers if females did not serve. To that I say nonsense – there were plenty of servers before females served. Work harder at recruiting and training male servers. Re-build the espirit de corps that used to be so common amongst servers and everyone will have more than enough.

Serving Mass is an powerful way to foster vocations. It should be employed as such.
 
Whats the point of debate? The Holy See says its up to the Local Ordinary. So if the Local Ordinary allows it, who are we to say otherwise?

In issues like this we should leave it to the competence of the Bishops of our Church. They are the ones called to shepherd Christ’s flock.
 
It’s very simple.

Boys and men (regardless of age) should step up and volunteer to serve at Mass.
Volunteer at your local Parish; they will train you.

If there are not enough males willing to serve, girls will have to do the job.

Many Priests have been former Mass altar boys.
 
Spelling said:
I think there are really only two criteria in which to choose potential servers. They are (in order of importance):
  1. Are they able to serve the Mass in a highly competent manner?
  2. Will their serving Mass help to foster a possible vocation as either a priest or deacon?
If they cannot accomplish #1 (with an adequate training period) they shouldn’t be serving in my opinion. Serving is about serving Jesus Christ through the man that stands in His Person on Calvary. It’s not about serving oneself.

Women cannot be ordained. Serving Mass cannot foster a vocation to the priesthood or the permanent diaconate in their case. In fact it might well lead to resentment. If is that fact, and the fact I would want everyone fostering a vocation to serve Mass filling-up all the available places that would make me preclude all females (and older males with no chance of being ordained) from serving Mass if I were a bishop.
I should think the young altar girls might be influenced to become nuns.
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RosalieM said:
I should think the young altar girls might be influenced to become nuns.
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Two distinctly different vocations.

In the end it’s up to the local ordinary and if I was a bishop I wouldn’t allow females to serve because there would be an overabundance of males already serving who might just be fostering a vocation.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Whats the point of debate? The Holy See says its up to the Local Ordinary. So if the Local Ordinary allows it, who are we to say otherwise?

In issues like this we should leave it to the competence of the Bishops of our Church. They are the ones called to shepherd Christ’s flock.
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What the Holy See said is that the Local Ordinary may choose to permit it. The local Ordinary cannot require them, nor can a pastor require an associate pastor (or even a visiting priest) to use them.

So yes, girls may serve at the altar IF
  1. THe local Ordinary permits it
  2. The pastor permits it in his parish
  3. The celebrant of the Mass permits it.
 
No one answered it that well in things I have seen before. They just gave opinions for or against. Could someone give me some encyclicals or Bible verses (from the New Testament). Maybe something in canon law. Anything you say is helpful if you are polite.
Peace,
Michael

PS Personally I don’t like them but I can not do anything about them, it is up to the clergy.
 
I refuse to participate in the poll. You stilted the questioning to suit the results you want. It is very disingenuous and dishonest of you. The only way one can answer yes is by agreeing to your nonesense that one “thinks they are cute” when someone may have legitimate reasons.

Grow up.
 
Spelling said:
Two distinctly different vocations.

In the end it’s up to the local ordinary and if I was a bishop I wouldn’t allow females to serve because there would be an overabundance of males already serving who might just be fostering a vocation.
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I totally agree that they are two distinctly different vocations. But they are vocations nonetheless; and both the young boys and young girls have the opportunity to be inspired to a vocation by being part of the liturgy in a way they would otherwise not experience.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Whats the point of debate? The Holy See says its up to the Local Ordinary. So if the Local Ordinary allows it, who are we to say otherwise?

In issues like this we should leave it to the competence of the Bishops of our Church. They are the ones called to shepherd Christ’s flock.
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Above is your official answer. This is probably as far as we need to go in terms of this debate.

You can hold your opinions, and here is mine: People here have said that altar serving can inspire boys to become priests, which is true, but it is not guaranteed, and not the 1st and most natural end of altar serving. The 1st in most natural end, (in my humble opinion), is to know, understand and love the mass more fully and to serve. Altar serving is not a vocation, it is a ministry or service. Nothing that I’ve ever heard or read has said that the altar serving ministry bars certain sexes from participating.
 
PowderBear said:
Above is your official answer. This is probably as far as we need to go in terms of this debate.

You can hold your opinions, and here is mine: People here have said that altar serving can inspire boys to become priests, which is true, but it is not guaranteed, and not the 1st and most natural end of altar serving. The 1st in most natural end, (in my humble opinion), is to know, understand and love the mass more fully and to serve. Altar serving is not a vocation, it is a ministry or service. Nothing that I’ve ever heard or read has said that the altar serving ministry bars certain sexes from participating.
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Exactly. Yes, many priests were alter servers, but not all alter servers become priests (the male ones). That’s called the correlation fallacy.

Look at many young people, including myself. I was an alter server at least a dozen years ago. I then took “time off Church” for the entirety of my teen years.

You’re really missing a component. The home life is what truly inspires vocations for young people; having parents who open their children to the possibility of a vocation. People who have a vocation from a young age most often come from a strong religious family or community. Young people are extremely subject to peer pressure, and no amount of alter serving is going to inspire them (in many cases) if their family or friends are apathetic to religion.

The other group you will find that has strong vocations is the reverts who come back to the Church at university age (or later) after taking “time off” and rediscovering their faith. These are the people who will often feel that something’s missing in their lives or that they want to live a fuller expression of the faith.
 
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having alter girls as well as boys. People say it should be boys only to try and inspire them to become a Priest, but surely then using the same logic girls should be involved as it may inspire them to become a religious?
 
I wish that when I was a child, I would have had the opportunity to be an alter server. (I was the type of kid that would go sit up front on my own to see and feel a part of everything that was happening). I believe that being allowed to serve would have made a huge difference in the way I ended up leading my life in my teen years.
 
RosalieM said:
I totally agree that they are two distinctly different vocations. But they are vocations nonetheless; and both the young boys and young girls have the opportunity to be inspired to a vocation by being part of the liturgy in a way they would otherwise not experience.
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But the problem is, while serving at Mass is somewhat similar to the celebrant’s perspective, it is nothing like being a nun. If it is about being involved, why not find something else to be involved with? And if it is about the vocations, they aren’t going to be priests, so I’m not seeing the logical conclusion whichever way you look at it.
 
we need more priests. we need to send the message to boys, “this is where you uniquely belong.” i vote boys only.
 
captainmike said:
we need more priests. we need to send the message to boys, “this is where you uniquely belong.” i vote boys only.
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That is how our parish is (boys only). For a parish of about 950 families, we get one of our former altar boys going into the seminary about every year.

In the past 10 years, we have had 8 men ordained to the priesthood.
 
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