Sometimes it doesn’t, but it doesn’t take much to figure out that if half the altar servers are female, then that reduces by 50% the potential servers who may be inspired to go on to become priests
Altar servers aside, I do think there is an issue with the sanctuary becoming ‘feminised’ with the priest often ending up being the only man there, surrounded by a bunch of (usually middle-aged and elderly) women
What signal is this sending young boys who may be potential future priests? If they see the priest as a man surrounding himself (often not through choice) and chatting with a bunch of old women, is that likely to be seen as an inspirational male role model for a young boy?
It would be interesting to see if there was any data regarding altar boys and seminarians from FSSP and ICKSP that can be compared like for like with OF parishes
As a priest, I must say this has to be one of the most deplorable posts I have read on this forum and that is saying much
First, thinking back to the parish where I was baptised and confirmed, that parish has given more or less 25 priests to the Church in something over the past seven decades to which I can give witness. That is a splendid statistic for a parish. However, that parish had THOUSANDS of Altar Servers across those decades
The corps of altar servers should never be treated as though it is a pass through to priesthood. It is a thing of itself, the vast majority of whom do not become priests or consider priesthood
Most of us who are priests served Mass in youth. But we’re very aware that we may be the only ones from the whole period when we served who even considered the priesthood
Women and girls have served my Masses since the clarification of canon 230 in 1994…and they’re most welcomed. Also welcomed to serve are adult men who are married. I did insist, before I retired, that only those who want to be there
of their own desire would be allowed in the sanctuary
Second “If they see
the priest as a man surrounding himself (often not through choice) and chatting with a bunch of old women, is that likely to be seen as an inspirational male role model for a young boy?” is a statement so ugly, so grotesque, it is to be condemned…and in the strongest terms
For this once upon a time young boy of decades long past, it was the “old women” so active in the service of the parish who taught me about the care of the sacristy from top to bottom and one end to the other – the linens, the vestments, flower arranging for the sanctuary, the whole lot…and they did it well enough that I was sacristan of the seminary from my first year…applying perspiration linen guards with needle and thread on stoles and chasubles among many other duties that I had learned from these “old women”. What they taught me served me in very good stead
These “old women,” as a group, were moreover the ones who set up burses to underwrite the seminary students educational expenses. Others of that parish contributed from time to time, to be sure, but these “old women” organised themselves specifically for that purpose. They were heroes to all seminarians directly helped by them – and cherished by those who had not needed the help but appreciated their incredible generosity in favour of priestly vocations
With the reform and the renewal of the liturgy, I’m delighted that those who have long been the most devoted to the parishes behind the scenes have the opportunity to do different forms of ministry according to their tastes…from traditional sacristy type work or religious education to serving Mass, lectoring, as well as distributing the Eucharist at Mass or in hospitals or to the home-bound. And that is something that should be modeled to every young person – because that is the reality of the Church at the parish and diocesan level
Third, moving from days long past as a seminarian to when I was ordained to when I was a formator, the ones I was most leery of were those “encouraged” to consider a vocation. Immediately behind them, however, were those who were simply delusional about what was really our life, either in seminary or post-seminary – they lived in a sort of Romantic delirium
Those whom a parish priest will mostly work with are women. And that is becoming more true, not less true, as women’s roles in the Church expand
- Women diocesan chancery officials
- Women seminary professors
- Women canonists
- Women theologians
- Women employed by the parish offices and religious education programme
Fourth, since seminarians spend significant time in parish assignments throughout the course of their studies and from the beginning, as part of the diocese’s discernment if this man has a vocation at all, those responsible assess a seminarian’s ability to work with the various people and situations he will be paired with in assignments as a measure of what to expect when and if he is eventually called to ordination
Fifth as far as a comparison to either the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter or the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest…the former has some 300 priests incardinated. For the perspective of Americans, that is less than half the number of priests incardinated in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – and the United States has approximately 200 dioceses. And that is one country. The number I gave is their total for the whole world. And they have existed for almost thirty years
The latter institute is significantly smaller that the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter…less than a hundred priests incardinated. We have abbeys with more priests than there are priests incardinated in the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. But then, these societies only serve those attached to the
vetus ordo, which is an infinitesimal number when compared with the statistics of the rest of a diocese
