Forgetting the reason we go to Mass

[pamnbam]

I came across this Washington Post article this morning:

washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html

It’s not the most unbiased paper, but I was appalled when the mother stated she was “looking for another parish” when her pastor decided to nix female altar servers. They’ve since left their parish and are looking for one that allows female altar servers so her daughter won’t be “left out.”

Maybe it was the way the article was written, but it really seemed like the mother and her daughter, as well as the other mothers who disagreed with the pastor’s decision, felt like the pastor (and/or the Church) actually OWED them the right to serve!

I personally am not used to female servers, but if the Holy Father stated that the decision rests with the bishops and/or parish priests, I can be okay with that.

I can’t be okay with someone who apparently misunderstands the real reason we go to Mass; who instead makes a valid liturgical decision into a personal attack. It’s very irritating to have someone make the pastor’s decision into a “women’s rights” issue for the newspaper. Just one more thing for the media to show the Catholic Church doesn’t strive for women’s equality. . .

Why can’t people just put aside their personal feelings and remember why we’re Catholic and go to Mass?

Thoughts?

 

[Dirt]

Pam, i sympathize with you. What you are seeing is the results of an anthopocentric ideology that is so prevelant in the western culture. it is “all about me” instead of all about God. One may argue that many of the liberties taken under the guise of “spirit of Vatican II” that has lead to this. Changes made in the Liturgy led to a loss of Sacredness and the loss of understanding of what the Mass is, a Sacrifice to God! When recent poles showed a high percentage of regular Mass attendees not beleiving in the Real Presence, one could not but wonder just what they thought Mass was? A comunity meal? A social gathering? Much catachesis is needed to re-educate the laity. That seems to be a large part of what the Holy Father +Pope Benedict is setting into motion with his new evangilization. Timed with the new translation of the Missal, perhaps we can reawaken the sense of Sacredness and Awe at the Mass. Today the OF calender celebrated Christ the King. A good starting point for a re-education.

Pax Christi

 

[Bezant]

I came across this Washington Post article this morning:
washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html
It’s not the most unbiased paper, but I was appalled when the mother stated she was “looking for another parish” when her pastor decided to nix female altar servers. They’ve since left their parish and are looking for one that allows female altar servers so her daughter won’t be “left out.”
Maybe it was the way the article was written, but it really seemed like the mother and her daughter, as well as the other mothers who disagreed with the pastor’s decision, felt like the pastor (and/or the Church) actually OWED them the right to serve!
I personally am not used to female servers, but if the Holy Father stated that the decision rests with the bishops and/or parish priests, I can be okay with that.
I can’t be okay with someone who apparently misunderstands the real reason we go to Mass; who instead makes a valid liturgical decision into a personal attack. It’s very irritating to have someone make the pastor’s decision into a “women’s rights” issue for the newspaper. Just one more thing for the media to show the Catholic Church doesn’t strive for women’s equality. . .
Why can’t people just put aside their personal feelings and remember why we’re Catholic and go to Mass?
Thoughts?

I suspect local parish politics/personal issues played a large part in this. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and the women in the parish went too far to assert themselves, and the priest’s decision is just a reaction to that.

 

[CB_Catholic]

I suspect local parish politics/personal issues played a large part in this. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and the women in the parish went too far to assert themselves, and the priest’s decision is just a reaction to that.

I am picturing some of the soccer/ cheerleading/ dance/ swimming/ you-name-it Moms I used to know when my children were young. I used to pity the coaches.

 

[pamnbam]

Much catachesis is needed to re-educate the laity. That seems to be a large part of what the Holy Father +Pope Benedict is setting into motion with his new evangilization. Timed with the new translation of the Missal, perhaps we can reawaken the sense of Sacredness and Awe at the Mass. Today the OF calender celebrated Christ the King. A good starting point for a re-education.

Yes, I agree. I also found it ironic that the mother was apparently an RE catechist. Those actions sure would send a message to those she’s “educating.”

I suspect local parish politics/personal issues played a large part in this. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and the women in the parish went too far to assert themselves, and the priest’s decision is just a reaction to that.

I hadn’t thought about this. Good point!

I am picturing some of the soccer/ cheerleading/ dance/ swimming/ you-name-it Moms I used to know when my children were young. I used to pity the coaches.

As a former teacher, I know exactly the type! I never imagined that this type of behavior could/would weasel its way into the Church…

 

[johns58w]

Lack of catechesis and victims of “dissenters”. Victims of “crack theologians” following the “Spirit of Vatican II”.

The Washington Post, a secularist newspaper like secular media ,promoting modernist, atheist, ideologues.

Go to www.vatican.va and read the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council.

 

[johns58w]

Pam, i sympathize with you. What you are seeing is the results of an anthopocentric ideology that is so prevelant in the western culture. it is “all about me” instead of all about God. One may argue that many of the liberties taken under the guise of “spirit of Vatican II” that has lead to this. Changes made in the Liturgy led to a loss of Sacredness and the loss of understanding of what the Mass is, a Sacrifice to God! When recent poles showed a high percentage of regular Mass attendees not beleiving in the Real Presence, one could not but wonder just what they thought Mass was? A comunity meal? A social gathering? Much catachesis is needed to re-educate the laity. That seems to be a large part of what the Holy Father +Pope Benedict is setting into motion with his new evangilization. Timed with the new translation of the Missal, perhaps we can reawaken the sense of Sacredness and Awe at the Mass. Today the OF calender celebrated Christ the King. A good starting point for a re-education.

Pax Christi

 

[Bezant]

I am picturing some of the soccer/ cheerleading/ dance/ swimming/ you-name-it Moms I used to know when my children were young. I used to pity the coaches.

That’s why I always knew I would never be a teacher. Dealing with parents can be as stressful as dealing with the students.

 

[Bezant]

As a former teacher, I know exactly the type! I never imagined that this type of behavior could/would weasel its way into the Church…

You were a teacher? Bless you

I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen more often. More and more religious communities, even fairly traditional ones, are admitting women to the clergy and community leadership. Since this is simply never going to happen in the Catholic Church, the non-priestly roles and tasks may be seen as an entitlement–not just by lay women, but men too.

But a lay woman can’t get away with asserting the same privileges as a man. The buck stops at the priest, and some of us are more comfortable dealing man to man. Sorry but that’s just the way it is.

 

[promethius]

I came across this Washington Post article this morning:

washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html

It’s not the most unbiased paper, but I was appalled when the mother stated she was “looking for another parish” when her pastor decided to nix female altar servers. They’ve since left their parish and are looking for one that allows female altar servers so her daughter won’t be “left out.”

Maybe it was the way the article was written, but it really seemed like the mother and her daughter, as well as the other mothers who disagreed with the pastor’s decision, felt like the pastor (and/or the Church) actually OWED them the right to serve!

I personally am not used to female servers, but if the Holy Father stated that the decision rests with the bishops and/or parish priests, I can be okay with that.

I can’t be okay with someone who apparently misunderstands the real reason we go to Mass; who instead makes a valid liturgical decision into a personal attack. It’s very irritating to have someone make the pastor’s decision into a “women’s rights” issue for the newspaper. Just one more thing for the media to show the Catholic Church doesn’t strive for women’s equality. . .

Why can’t people just put aside their personal feelings and remember why we’re Catholic and go to Mass?

Thoughts?

First, she’s a far cry better catholic than the dissenting rabble that fell to sedavacantism rather than be obedient when the OF was introduced.

Second, while it is within the priest’s right to state that female altar servers are not allowed, it is also within her right to go to a different parish as a visitor there.

Third, perhaps she feels her daughter has something to learn by serving mass and that serving is a way of teaching her daughter subserviance and catechising her to the details of the mass. We have no way of determining that the mother is a liberal on a women’s rights warpath, and no right to publicly denounce her as such.

The ruling that only boys may serve is disciplinary at any rate, and she’s allowed to disagree with that ruling so long as she doesn’t try to violate the policy.

 

[Contarini]

I came across this Washington Post article this morning:

washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html

It’s not the most unbiased paper, but I was appalled when the mother stated she was “looking for another parish” when her pastor decided to nix female altar servers. They’ve since left their parish and are looking for one that allows female altar servers so her daughter won’t be “left out.”

Maybe it was the way the article was written, but it really seemed like the mother and her daughter, as well as the other mothers who disagreed with the pastor’s decision, felt like the pastor (and/or the Church) actually OWED them the right to serve!

I personally am not used to female servers, but if the Holy Father stated that the decision rests with the bishops and/or parish priests, I can be okay with that.

I can’t be okay with someone who apparently misunderstands the real reason we go to Mass; who instead makes a valid liturgical decision into a personal attack. It’s very irritating to have someone make the pastor’s decision into a “women’s rights” issue for the newspaper. Just one more thing for the media to show the Catholic Church doesn’t strive for women’s equality. . .

Why can’t people just put aside their personal feelings and remember why we’re Catholic and go to Mass?

Thoughts?

Well, if you follow a strictly traditional Western Catholic approach, perhaps you’re right that this has nothing to do with the purpose of Mass. But if you accept the idea that the Mass is, among other things, about our coming together as the Body of Christ (an idea which is deeply rooted in the Fathers and, rightly understood, does not in any way undercut traditional Catholic teaching on the Real Presence), then actions that seem to say that females aren’t full members of the Body do take away from the purpose of the Mass.

I certainly disagree that one should leave a parish over this. But it is one concern that I have about Catholicism, as the father of at least one daughter (I say “at least one” because my wife and I have an unborn child whose sex is not yet known to anyone but God!). I don’t want her to think that she is not a full member of the Body of Christ.

Mind you, she already seems to think that women can’t be priests, just because the only priest she sees celebrate the Eucharist on a regular basis is a man. She’s been to a couple of Episcopal liturgies presided over by women (one of them the Presiding Bishop of the denomination), but that doesn’t seem to have made much of an impression. And at this point this doesn’t seem to bother her–she’s quite comfortable with the idea that boys do some things and girls do others. . . . .

Edwin