Girls as alter servers

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When somebody said that there were no boys volunteering to serve so the priest asked girls, can you tell me if the priest ever announced from the pulpit that he would like to have boys and/or their father volunteer? I cannot imagine that not one single male would have come up to say that they would like to serve. Did this priest make a real effort? Are there any Deacons or other men helping out at the parish as lectors, KofC, janitorial work, etc that he could have assigned or even ask one of these men to get together with other men and reach out to the boys? What efforts, if any, were actually made?:hmmm:
 
While it’s true that we haven’t any record of Mary serving at the Last Supper, it’s also true that the record only mentions Jews being present. :eek: (j/k!!)

I can follow the logic of having an all-male priesthood, but I don’t think that an all-male alter service team is required. I think there are strong opinions on whether it a good idea or a bad idea and people certainly have preferences; to me, it’s a matter of discipline, not doctrine. I am interested in people’s thoughts and reasoning, but no need to fight. Besides, that hardly ever persuades anyone.
 
In the Eastern Rite, as in Eastern Catholicism, girls are still not allowed to be altar servers. When I was younger I was an alter server for the Ruthenian Catholic church in my area and my sister was mad since she couldn’t be an alter server so she made the argument that our catholic school as in the Roman Rite was allowing girls to be alter servers and therefore they should allow it in the eastern rite too or something like that. I think they brogut the issue up with the bishop or something and the answer was no. I rarely go to and Eastern Catholic church anymore since it just is not convenient but there were some nice aspects to it.
 
Frequently Requested Church Statistics

Reprinted from “THE CARA REPORT” Summer 1998; Vol. 4, No. 1

CARA gets many inquiries from Church agencies and the media about the numbers of vocations, seminary enrollments, and priest and vowed religious. Below are comparative statistics for the past 30+ years. Information is from The Official Catholic Directory, the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church, or CARA records. In 1996, the best available data on current average ages was: diocesan priests 58, men religious 61, women religious 69. Twenty-four percent of diocesan priests were over 70, the average retirement age. Forty-five percent of permanent deacons were over 60.

Diocesan priests
Religious priests
Total priests
Priestly Ordinations
Graduate-level
seminarians
Permanent deacons
Religious brothers
Religious sisters
Total Parishes
Without resident
http://www.usccb.org/images/tab.gifpriest
Total Catholics
Percent of U.S.
http://www.usccb.org/images/tab.gifpopulation1965
35,925
22,207
58,132
994
8,325

0
12,271
179,954
17,637
549

46.6 m
24%1975
36,005
22,904
58,090
771
5,279

898
8,625
135,225
18,515
702

48.7 m
23%1985
35,052
22,265
57,317
533
4,063

7,838
7,544
115,386
19,244
1,051

52.3 m
23%1995
32,834
16,717
49,551
522
3,172

11,452
6,578
92,107
19,723
2,161

60.2 m
23%1998
31,657
15,925
47,582
509
3,158

12,247
6,115
85,412
19,628
2,460

61.6 m
23%

I’ve been too busy to be on the boards for a few days. I’ve read the posts and ask all of you who vehemently proclaim that the advent of altar girls has discouraged boys from being altar servers and subsequently priests to justify your opinion based on these facts. The decrease in newly ordained priests was most drastic in the years 1965 to 1975 – there were 3,046 fewer priests ordained in 1975 than in 1965. The drop from 1975 to 1985 was 1,216. The decrease in ordinations from 1985 to 1995 was 891, and the decrease from 1995 to 1998 was 14. It is clear that a drastic reduction in the number of young men interested in the priesthood occurred well before altar girls were approved, and even further before they were widespread. In fact, the biggest drops in newly ordained priests occurred before the dreaded first altar girls were even born – in fact, the biggest drops were well before. So, how do you in good conscience continue to make this argument?
 
1.) You honestly don’t know what a straw-man argument is, do you? You need to find out because you tried to make one and they are fallacious.
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2.) You were trying to sell her by using a straw-man argument. Woof-woof.
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3.) You have some MAJOR issues if "My son didn’t want to serve and does it out of protest. He doesn’t like it, doesn’t want to be in front of all those people and complains how we make him." Make that HUGE problems…
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4.) Another straw-man! Weeeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaa!
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Altarman, besides barking and making hill-billy noises, could you please respond to the substance of my post?
 
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