COmments on this photo

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“L’habit fait pas le moine.” It’s also an old French saying.

True, but I think that there is a certain amount of “Vocational confusion” for girls wishing to pursue a vocation who are altar girls first. Having girls take on the sort of ministerial office of altar server means that if they become nuns, they’ll be in for a bit of a shock. In essence, they’ll go from fledgling priestly functions to never doing anything on the altar. This is hard enough without having been a server. St. Therese of Lisieux only ever crossed the altar rail when she was baptised, and still had these thoughts. She once said something along the lines of “O Jesus, how I wish I were a priest, and could take you in my hands…but like St. Francis, I must ask for the humility to know that this is not my vocation.”

Also, servering Mass is certainly the first step to the priesthood. Who were the initial supporters of female altar servers? Heterodox people who favoured women’s ordination. If they didn’t believe serving Mass wasn’t a path to the priesthood, why would they fight so hard for women to serve Mass?

As to cassocks, the cassock is the chief clerical garb of the ordained. Once, all priests, Bishops, and Deacons wore cassocks every day. To give this garb to a women, who is ineligible for an only-male office, is the rough equivalent of putting a dress on your son or husband and sending him to mass that way.

For women to serve Mass is not “liberating” them, but rather instituting a sort of gender confusion, and they certainly deserve better. In 1962, there were almost three times the number of nuns as there were Diocesan priests. If we’re going to restore this, we need to find new, innovative ways that hark back to the ancient traditions of our church, which always seem to lead us down the right direction.

Let me finish by saying that like Our Lord, the women in my life–Aunts, Godmothers, mothers, grandmothers, even a few mentors–have had a great effect on me, and have generally proved to be more spiritual than the men I have encountered. The Lord clearly gives them a special office, and to give them something that he seems to have never intended is to deny them Truth, and thereby the full graces and love of Our Lord, something I wouldn’ deny anybody, no matter how “politically incorrect” it may be!
 
Pious_Mat said:
Also, servering Mass is certainly the first step to the priesthood. Who were the initial supporters of female altar servers? Heterodox people who favoured women’s ordination. If they didn’t believe serving Mass wasn’t a path to the priesthood, why would they fight so hard for women to serve Mass?
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I think that you are wrong. Proper catechesis is the first and main step toward the priesthood. If our children (boys and girls) receive proper catechesis then there will not be any confusion even when both sexes will serve at Mass.
 
Cristiano said:
I think that you are wrong. Proper catechesis is the first and main step toward the priesthood. If our children (boys and girls) receive proper catechesis then there will not be any confusion even when both sexes will serve at Mass.
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All priests were at one time prior to ordination a Servant at the altar. I cannot think of one instance of Possibility where a priest didn’t start out as a servant at the altar
 
THurifer2 said:
Gee 50/50? the math tells me if there were not girls then you would have 6 seminarians. Juuuust kidding;) .
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Hmmm, maybe you are on to something there. My parish uses exclusivey males for altar service and we have 6 men in the seminiary 😛
 
Brendan said:
Hmmm, maybe you are on to something there. My parish uses exclusivey males for altar service and we have 6 men in the seminiary 😛
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I would be willing to bet that in general parishes that have male only servers have a higher rate of seminarians… Look at Lincoln NE.

However some WANT a priestly shortage to push the agendas of married clergy and WOmens Ordination.
 
I saw only one young man in those pictures…the rest of the people except for the Priest in the second picture where ladies:eek:
 
Question:

I read this from the USCCB Guidelines for Altar Server:
  1. Acolytes, altar servers, readers, and other lay ministers may wear the alb or other suitable vesture or other appropriate or dignified clothing. (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no.339) All servers should wear the same liturgical vesture.
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So if there are altar girls/women, all servers must wear albs because cassocks are reserved for men only?

Thanks,
SC
 
StatCrux said:
Question:

I read this from the USCCB Guidelines for Altar Server:

So if there are altar girls/women, all servers must wear albs because cassocks are reserved for men only?

Thanks,
SC
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That is exactly the way at our parish. When the girls arrived the cassocks and surplices went into the trash.

Same as at another parish. Give them credit…I remember people chuckled at the though of girls wearing cassocks…that is why they went to ALBs
 
I would have to agree with those who posted that cassocks are not appropriate vesture for girls. The alb is more suitable.

What does trouble me is the second picture. I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt regarding the priest. I hope that he was one of the concelebrants. If he was, in fact, the celebrant, I hope that this photo was taken before he put his chasuble on or after Mass concluded. According to Redemptionis Sacramentum:
[123.] “The vestment proper to the Priest celebrant at Mass, and in other sacred actions directly connected with Mass unless otherwise indicated, is the chasuble, worn over the alb and stole”.213 Likewise the Priest, in putting on the chasuble according to the rubrics, is not to omit the stole. All Ordinaries should be vigilant in order that all usage to the contrary be eradicated.
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[124.] A faculty is given in the Roman Missal for the Priest concelebrants at Mass other than the principal concelebrant (who should always put on a chasuble of the prescribed color), for a just reason such as a large number of concelebrants or a lack of vestments, to omit “the chasuble, using the stole over the alb”.214 Where a need of this kind can be foreseen, however, provision should be made for it insofar as possible. Out of necessity the concelebrants other than the principal celebrant may even put on white chasubles. For the rest, the norms of the liturgical books are to be observed.
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[125.] The proper vestment of the Deacon is the dalmatic, to be worn over an alb and stole. In order that the beautiful tradition of the Church may be preserved, it is praiseworthy to refrain from exercising the option of omitting the dalmatic.215
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[126.] The abuse is reprobated whereby the sacred ministers celebrate Holy Mass or other rites without sacred vestments or with only a stole over the monastic cowl or the common habit of religious or ordinary clothes, contrary to the prescriptions of the liturgical books, even when there is only one minister participating.216 In order that such abuses be corrected as quickly as possible, Ordinaries should take care that in all churches and oratories subject to their jurisdiction there is present an adequate supply of liturgical vestments made in accordance with the norms.
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Since the women are holding candles, I take it that they are serving as altar servers. This is sort of a big grey cloud. If they are, in fact EMHC’s, then, they should only be performing one duty.

The lack of the Corpus on the cross also sends up some huge red flags.
 
StatCrux said:
Question:

I read this from the USCCB Guidelines for Altar Server:

So if there are altar girls/women, all servers must wear albs because cassocks are reserved for men only?

Thanks,
SC
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Just wondering: do “guidelines” from the USCCB trump the GIRM?
 
Now that I’m able to see the full version of the second picture, it looks like the priest in question is a concelebrant. Nonetheless, if this is a big liturgy (as I think I can see what appears to be the main celebrant in the background), why are these women serving as altar servers? I would think that there would have been ample regular servers if this is, in fact, a Mass and not an Episcopalian service.

The kids in the first picture do look rather odd. I am still bothered by the fact that the Corpus is missing. This seems to be an Episcopalian group. Although, I am not sure if Episcopalians (or Anglicans, for that matter) have the crucifix or if they simply have a cross.

Neither picture sets well with me.
 
THurifer2 said:
All priests were at one time prior to ordination a Servant at the altar. I cannot think of one instance of Possibility where a priest didn’t start out as a servant at the altar
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What logic are you using now! You are turning the consequence of an event into its cause. Of course any priest before being ordained had to serve!
 
Cristiano said:
What logic are you using now! You are turning the consequence of an event into its cause. Of course any priest before being ordained had to serve!
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Not sure what you mean but I will point out that Logic tells us female altar servers likely will not foster a vocation to the priesthood for the girls serving. And if people think being a girl altarboy has any correlation with the consecrated religious life they are grasping at straws. Why have a girl serving at the altar end up a religious who never serve at the altar.
 
THurifer2 said:
Why have a girl serving at the altar end up a religious who never serve at the altar.
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Because there are other important things than serving at the altar? Vocations for women are important, even if they are not priests.
 
I shudder to see this photos (with the exception of the one in your signature). How dreadful.
 
pnewton said:
Because there are other important things than serving at the altar? Vocations for women are important, even if they are not priests.
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I agree with you 100%. Vocations are very important so why not have them do somthing that they can relate to. Prayer groups, blessed imelda societies, altar linens etc. But please don’t dress them up like mini-priests. For every girl on the altar is one less boy and every one less boy is a chance of snuffing out a vocation to the priesthood.
 
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