Deacons vs Altar Boys

[Bob_Aliano]

Just wondering, not enough to do I guess; in the TLM the altar boys are responsible for learning the mass responses in Latin, many of the priests Mass parts as well. I know when I was an altar boy in the 1940’s-1950’s I was sufficiently wrapped up in the liturgical union of priest and altar boy that I seriously considered a priestly vocation. In the VII Mass the altar servers’, can’t say boys anymore, function has been reduced to that of a gofer due to the expanded use of deacons and the use of congregational responses. I wonder if there is any data indicating any correlation in numbers of vocations between the traditional altar boy in a Latin Mass and the altar server in the modern Mass? Perhaps there are seminarians on the forum with a feel for such data.

 

[Phemie]

Just wondering, not enough to do I guess; in the TLM the altar boys are responsible for learning the mass responses in Latin, many of the priests Mass parts as well. I know when I was an altar boy in the 1940’s-1950’s I was sufficiently wrapped up in the liturgical union of priest and altar boy that I seriously considered a priestly vocation. In the VII Mass the altar servers’, can’t say boys anymore, function has been reduced to that of a gofer due to the expanded use of deacons and the use of congregational responses. I wonder if there is any data indicating any correlation in numbers of vocations between the traditional altar boy in a Latin Mass and the altar server in the modern Mass? Perhaps there are seminarians on the forum with a feel for such data.

I can’t see deacons having much impact since their role is very different from that of the altar servers. What the deacons do at Mass, the acolytes have never been able to do AFAIK so it should be a non-issue.

The responses by the assembly, OTOH, have meant that the altar servers haven’t had to respond in the name of the assembly as they did in the non-dialog EF. Has that really changed the way they perceive themselves? Might be a difficult question to answer.

 

[Bob_Aliano]

I can’t see deacons having much impact since their role is very different from that of the altar servers. What the deacons do at Mass, the acolytes have never been able to do AFAIK so it should be a non-issue.

The responses by the assembly, OTOH, have meant that the altar servers haven’t had to respond in the name of the assembly as they did in the non-dialog EF. Has that really changed the way they perceive themselves? Might be a difficult question to answer.

I agree, the deacons are ordained. I think the only answer could be in numbers and they are probably not available, likely not a question one would ask a seminarian. Like I said, I was just noodling.

 

[Phemie]

I agree, the deacons are ordained. I think the only answer could be in numbers and they are probably not available, likely not a question one would ask a seminarian. Like I said, I was just noodling.

I’m just thinking of my birth parish which produced two priests in its 116 years of existence before Vat. II and none since.
My present diocese has produced one priest in ~70 years of existence, that back in the late 1990s.

Do either of those figures have anything to do with what altar servers did? I couldn’t even tell you whether or not the two men ordained from my parish were ever altar servers. My late dad would have been the last person to be able to tell me that since they would both served within the same 27 years that he served, one in the early stages of his altar server ministry and one at the end.

 

[JReducation]

Service at the altar certainly influenced many boys who eventually entered the diocesan seminaries. It does not seem to be the case with young men entering the religious life. Most young men entering religious life always refer to one of three great influences:

1. Charism of the founder
2. Apostolate of the order
3. Contact with a member of the order

If you stop to think that 40% of priests are also consecrated men, not just priests, then 40% of that population of men who became priests were influenced by the way of life in the order that they joined and not by the priest at the altar where they served. Most men who enter religious orders to be priests or brothers, come from parishes run by seculars, not by religious.

The numbers seem to vary from place to place. I’m currently assigned to within a diocese that has more men entering religious life to be brothers, than entering the diocesan seminary. It is only when you put the numbers of secular men and consecrated men together that you come up with a larger number or priests than brothers. But in some dioceses, if you break them down that ranking of numbers is something like this: brothers, diocesan priests, regular priests. This is a very interesting phenomenon which only happens once every 500 years or so, where male religious life sores. That seems to be the case since 2000, especially among religious communities that do not do parish work. More men seem to be drawn to work among the poor and on the streets than work in parishes.

Even in large religious orders the younger religious are saying that they don’t want to do parish work. They want to do the work of the founders. This is their canonical right. The question is how did young boys who were altar servers end up joining religious orders instead of entering the diocesan seminary, when this was the usual for altar servers.

Altar serving is certainly a wonderful way of getting vocations for the diocesa priesthood and it needs to be cultivated among boys. But there is also the other fact, our younger men are responding to the call to live and work among the poor and among the lost souls, rather than the traditional parish model. There are less of those men. We may have to stop and ask what is it about the parishes that is no longer attractive to the young?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF