This is just anecdotal, I know. My now grown son was so eager to serve Mass, he urged us to get to Mass early. Then he went back to the sacristy every single time, hoping one of the assigned altar boys wouldn’t show up. Every once in awhile, his effort was successful. His own scheduled appointments just were not enough for him. At that time, only boys served, and they wore cassocks and surplices. At a point, our pastor announced that the bishop had approved altar girls. I told the pastor that I was afraid if they started having altar girls, the parish would end up with only altar girls. Well, it started, and the cassock and surplice were replaced with those awful white “unisex” robes. My son never served again, and nothing I could do or say would motivate him to do it. He especially hated the idea of “dressing like a girl” in those white robes. For years now, we have had only altar girls. Boys just won’t do it. Like all parishes, we had the explosion of “lay ministers” of every kind. At first there were men among them. Now, it’s all women. My son and the boys of his generation drifted away from the Church; some seemingly forever; some only for a time. With my son, the big turnaround came when he fell in with some Opus Dei fellows in grad school. To be sure, there are women in Opus Dei, but their role is different. Opus Dei for men is very masculine, and very demanding. He did not become a member, but he does follow the discipline of the supernumeraries.
When I was an altar server, it was very exacting; very demanding; very precise. Now, altar servers are really kind of useless appendages. There are no prayers (certainly not in Latin) to memorize; no significant coordinated movements; no precise coordination with the actions and prayers of the priest; no precision in anything.
No one would seriously maintain that girls should be separated from all things feminine. No one but a radical (perhaps gender-confused) feminist would say that females have no attributes or needs peculiar to themselves. But boys? The only specifically masculine things presented to them anymore are (hopefully) their fathers and the sort of corporate, peer outlawry that infects so many of them nowadays. When I was an altar boy, it was clear that it was a kind of “tryout” for the priesthood. For whatever reason, I knew from the very first that my vocation would be marriage and parenthood. Still, we were also taught that a secondary role was (as in ancient Christian times) to be a protector of the priest, the Eucharist and the parishioners. Kind of an overstatement, I guess, but we took it seriously. Among other things, we were taught that one of our fundamental purposes in life was to protect, and particularly to protect girls and women. Seems awfully patriarchal when you say it, but how many marriageable girls nowadays, faced with the way so many young men are now, would be grateful if boys were taught such things from first grade on? How many would welcome a return to a masculine sense of duty and self-discipline? Being an altar boy was not only a recruiting ground for priests.
There is no doubt in my mind that a segment of the Church in the U.S. wants to discourage the centrality of the priesthood. Certainly, many want womens’ ordination. So many actions of various bishops; from virtually no emphasis on vocations; massive “lay ministry” programs; women all over the sanctuary with the priest as a cipher in a corner; ever increasing nun-run parishes; suggest to me that some have decided that they are determined to change the Church to fit a “progressive” image they desire. Trouble is, it serves neither men nor women to impose a pervasive feminist overlay onto the Church.
One of the posters said that Islam is a masculine religion; and so it is. Very excessively so. Many protestant sects are as well. The Catholic Church, uniquely, found a balance; one that brought men to service and women to participation and dignity almost unique in history. Alistair Cooke remarked, wisely, that unlike mosques and protestant churches, traditional Catholic churches are “full of women and babies” in imagery and obvious attention. Over feminization of the Church in the U.S. is, in my opinion, a terrible mistake. Having altar girls is only one aspect of that mistake. Perhaps I’m paranoid, but I think, among some, it’s intentional.
I wanna come to Mass there!
