Do you think the relationship between the two has been de-emphasized greatly in our current time period? Most of the diocesan seminaries I know of usually bracket altar serving along with EMHC, lector, and other liturgical/Church roles when it comes to looking at statistics for current seminarians. They will say “80% of our men lectored, 75% altar served, and 70% distributed Communion as an EMHC.” Trust me, those other liturgical functions are important too; nonetheless, as a young man who has considered the priesthood, I have to say that based on my own personal observations, there is a huge connection between priestly discernment and altar serving, and I think it deserves its own unique genus or category. I feel like over the years, there has been a watering down of the sacred privilege of serving the Lord at the altar; it is almost as if it doesn’t have anything to do with discernment to the priesthood anymore.
Now, I am not trying to start a second debate as to EF vs. OF or “Knights of the Altar” vs. “altar servers.” This is simply my observation as a male Catholic in college. I feel like if we did a better job with encouraging reverent service to the altar, more young men would consider priesthood.
Please let me know your thoughts. I occasionally serve a Low Mass at 7am on Tuesday mornings, and I was shocked at the number of high school men we get to show up; most of them if not all have considered the priesthood and religious life.
I think this “intimate connection” you speak of is essentially de-emphasized, in a certain sense, with allowing girls to serve. Since women will never be allowed to become priests, yet they are allowed to serve at the altar, there is certainly the implicit conclusion to be drawn that there is no connection between priesthood and altar serving.
I guess the interesting discussion to be had, then, is, What
is the purpose of altar serving? There are probably a number of ways to answer that. I am not sure I’d say that discernment of priesthood is
the purpose - i.e., the only purpose - because otherwise then we wouldn’t allow married men to serve. Although I don’t know, maybe to be consistent, I’d be open to the idea that married men shouldn’t usually be serving - but discussion would be needed to expound on that idea.
I was literally just talking to someone yesterday who mentioned his son refused to serve because the girls that were always serving were “too bossy”. Lol. Though that is “just an anecdote”, I think it’s still accurate to say that allowing girls to serve does, in some cases (obviously not all), “scare off” boys from doing it. And someone might say “well that boy’s attitude needs to be fixed” - and I don’t know, maybe there’s some good discussion on that point as well. Or “that girl’s attitude needs to be fixed”…lol. I mean, my first two years of serving I served with girls periodically, in fourth and fifth grade. I guess that didn’t scare me away. But since Catholic grade school I have never done so, since when I was scheduled on weekends I was always scheduled with one of my four brothers. The college I attended (Ave Maria) did/does not allow female altar servers, and my current parish and another parish I frequent (FSSP) does not allow them. So obviously this is just because I haven’t done it since 2003, but to me now it would seem extremely odd to serve with a girl, and when I am on occasion in a different parish, it is always odd to me to see them serving.
I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t have made this all about girls serving, but I think it is probably one of the most important aspects of the discussion on whether there is/ought to be a connection between serving and the priesthood. There is also probably the related question of whether anyone who “serves” in the sanctuary should also be all-male. In my mind, to be consistent with the idea that serving should be reserved for boys, I would probably have to make the argument that lectors and EMCHs (though those should be rare…) should also be male. I don’t know.
Regarding low amounts of vocations, I’m all with you that in general, a reverent Liturgy would attract more men to the priesthood. If the Liturgy, the context in which we receive the source and summit of our Christian life (the Eucharist), is not something sacred and beautiful, men will have a hard time perceiving it to be something for which they would want to fight and give up the goods of the married life. In short, if there is not the fullest of the Catholic faith expressed in the Liturgy, if there is not that example for men, they will be much less inclined to fight for it and give up their lives for it.
Edited to add: kind of to re-word some of that last sentence, with regards to “giving up their lives for it” - I mean to say, they will be much less inclined to perceive the good things the Lord has in store for priests which result from choosing to forego the goods of marriage.
