Girl Altar Servers?

[katherine2]

given we are in the Carnival season, I’ll write something I shouldn’t.

Following your line of thinking, for us ladies, shouldn’t the priest face the aspe if he has a handsome face, but face the congregation if he has a cute rear end? What about us women being distracted? :whacky:

 

[Nota_Bene]

Catholic2003:

If it doesn’t happen within 8 years (by 2013), then female altar servers will acquire the canon law status of “custom”.

So? “Customs” can be changed as well. Not that it would do much good given that sexist-feminists have their own agenda which they certainly hold to a higher level than what the Church actually directs.

 

[Catholic2003]

Nota Bene:

So? “Customs” can be changed as well. Not that it would do much good given that sexist-feminists have their own agenda which they certainly hold to a higher level than what the Church actually directs.

Changing a custom is a more serious matter. Until 2013, the Vatican could just say (in effect) that maybe it’s time to try male-only altar servers for a while just to see if that works out any better in today’s world. After 2013, the Vatican would have to say (again, in effect) that having female altar servers has been a complete and utter failure and there is no question but that we need to go back to male-only altar servers for the long-term future.

(Yes, I know that many posters here believe the second statement to be true. My point is that the standard for changing a custom is much higher than changing something that hasn’t attained the status of custom yet.)

 

[serendipity]

katherine2:

Maybe it would be helpful if we Catholic women all dressed in veils like the Muslims?

There certainly are many people on the aboard who propose that as a solution.

 

[Agomemnon]

Yes another reason why the Old Mass must be restored and the novelties of the new mass must be supressed.

 

[gelsbern]

serendipity:

Maybe where you lived you had plenty of altar servers before they permitted grils to help out. You seem to imply that allowing girls in squeezed boys out. What I saw in my church was maybe there was a boy there at the most, some times two, but usually there was no one, Then there were girls and there were servers. Still there is the occasional boy or two. The number of boys does not seem to have changed. The only thing that has changed is that there are consistently servers now.

…

As was stated earlier, altar servers don’t have to just be boys, they can be young men, and even grown men can be altar servers including the fathers of the altar boys. Why would the boys join if their own fathers won’t even volunteer. I am firmly against altar girls, and won’t attend Mass at a parish that has them.

Also with the scandal in the church over homosexual behaviour, how much of a scandal will arise out of heterosexual behaviour?

 

[Genesis315]

When I started as an altar boy in '91 altar girls were not allowed at my parish. They were permitted after a few years but there was only one or two. When I graduated from high school it was about 50/50. Now, it is a rare occasion to see an altar boy. It is almost all girls. I wonder why this is.

 

[Leeta]

Hey folks, altar girls have only been allowed since 1992. Sure, in Europe and in liberal parishes they were being used in disobedience before then. I Iwitnessed it in Germany in 1977. In the USA, my husband 's parish was using them in the mid-70’s. Two of these early altar girls left the Church and one went on to become an Episcopal priestess. The effect of the 1992 permision was to force all parishes to use altar girls.

I’m sorry, but my sons couln’t be topped when it comes to serving. They had to show the altar girls in training the simplest things. Also, the girls serving in that parish didn’t seem to know about the Real Presence. They wore bows and ribbons in their hair, too. You can’t tell me that girls are better at serving or better at showing up. My sons were there for the daily Masses, sometimes two daily Masses. Before my sons started serving, men, including my husband, served. My husband taught my sons how to serve initially, then our very traditional priest continued it, and then they learned how to serve the Old Mass and were taught by several Fraternity of St. Peter priests and went to altar boy training weekends in Mainz and in Salzburg. When we left, they were often Master of Ceremonies, ( you,re thinking, what is that? The MC directs all the altar boys on the altar and shows the priest where he is to start reading in the Missale, etc.). My five older sons all enjoyed serving the Old Mass so much because there is so much for them to do as compared to the new Mass. My husband really encouraged them and we both reminded them again and again that it is God on the altar and in the tabernacle and one cannot show or give Him too much praise and glory. We had 12 altar boys at almost every Sunday Mass.
Yes, we fought the girl altar servers being allowed, but the Vatican didn’t agree with Fr. Fessio’s aguments that the altar is a “male” place - Christ the Bridegroom, and that the congregation is the Church- “female”.
That is why we started going to an Indult Mass, so that our boys would not be discouraged or distracted (for teenage boys a definite problem) while serving on the altar. If I had a daughter, I would not allow her to serve. Being the only female living with 8 males, i can tell you that they need all the extra help we women can give them to be interested in spiritual things. They are by nature handicapped in this area, unlike us females. So all of you who allow your daughters to serve, be considerate of boys’ need to be close to God, and let the boys and men serve.

My son’s spelling book had this wonderful guote:

“That women are not to come near the altar.”(Canon44)
Canons from the Council of Laodicea, (343 A.D.)

 

[Nota_Bene]

Leeta:

Hey folks, altar girls have only been allowed since 1992. Sure, in Europe and in liberal parishes they were being used in disobedience before then. I Iwitnessed it in Germany in 1977. In the USA, my husband 's parish was using them in the mid-70’s. Two of these early altar girls left the Church and one went on to become an Episcopal priestess. The effect of the 1992 permision was to force all parishes to use altar girls.

I’m sorry, but my sons couln’t be topped when it comes to serving. They had to show the altar girls in training the simplest things. Also, the girls serving in that parish didn’t seem to know about the Real Presence. They wore bows and ribbons in their hair, too. You can’t tell me that girls are better at serving or better at showing up. My sons were there for the daily Masses, sometimes two daily Masses. Before my sons started serving, men, including my husband, served. My husband taught my sons how to serve initially, then our very traditional priest continued it, and then they learned how to serve the Old Mass and were taught by several Fraternity of St. Peter priests and went to altar boy training weekends in Mainz and in Salzburg. When we left, they were often Master of Ceremonies, ( you,re thinking, what is that? The MC directs all the altar boys on the altar and shows the priest where he is to start reading in the Missale, etc.). My five older sons all enjoyed serving the Old Mass so much because there is so much for them to do as compared to the new Mass. My husband really encouraged them and we both reminded them again and again that it is God on the altar and in the tabernacle and one cannot show or give Him too much praise and glory. We had 12 altar boys at almost every Sunday Mass.
Yes, we fought the girl altar servers being allowed, but the Vatican didn’t agree with Fr. Fessio’s aguments that the altar is a “male” place - Christ the Bridegroom, and that the congregation is the Church- “female”.
That is why we started going to an Indult Mass, so that our boys would not be discouraged or distracted (for teenage boys a definite problem) while serving on the altar. If I had a daughter, I would not allow her to serve. Being the only female living with 8 males, i can tell you that they need all the extra help we women can give them to be interested in spiritual things. They are by nature handicapped in this area, unlike us females. So all of you who allow your daughters to serve, be considerate of boys’ need to be close to God, and let the boys and men serve.

My son’s spelling book had this wonderful guote:

“That women are not to come near the altar.”(Canon44)
Canons from the Council of Laodicea, (343 A.D.)

The final decision is actually up to the celebrant of the Mass…

 

[mjdonnelly]

The question shouldn’t be wether or not to have girl altar servers, but why are there not enough boy servers. If there were enough boys for it, girls really wouldn’t have been used very much.

The parents don’t consider altar serving very important, hence, the number of boys has dwindled.