It is true that female alter servers/girls, and indeed female Eucharistic ministers are a relatively recent phenomenon - I believe within my own lifetime - I am 72. I do recall going to a Mass in the 1950s, when a male altar server was not available, and a female ‘server’, appeared to be in representation, BUT that she [a young adult] throughout the Service was on the non-sanctuary side of the altar railings. I was a child, but the unusualness of the situation, the idea of a female ‘altar server’, is still vivid in my memory.
I think that in practical, if not traditional terms, female servers could well have ‘pragmatic’ reasoning, since in many parishes I currently know, fewer men and boys appear to put themselves up for service. Having said that, female servers, also appear to be one of those general licences that ‘crept in’ after Vatican Two. I know folks will explain that the culture of ‘paternalism’ is less strong in society these days, and it was paternalism that drew all folks on the sanctuary side of the railings [I am also aware of the Jewish temple traditions this is based upon], during Holy Mass to be male.
I also wonder what Heaven thinks of the now wide-spread practice/licence of communion in the hand - hands that usually have not been washed in any kind of water since leaving home , [except for perhaps a finger dip in holy water when entering the church, if there is any]; hands that are not ordained, and in all too many instances have been in contact with surfaces that could well have a ‘chequered history’ since last, probably casually wiped. Of such is ‘progress’, and I suppose Mother Church has to keep up with social changes, and the realities of the times???
