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Iohannes
Guest
I have seen female altar servers wear red cassocks and a surplice down in my area.
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kmktexas
Guest
Catholic2003, we are dealing with it. Redemptionis Sacramentum was pretty clear. Boys are to be encouraged. Girls and women are allowed. HUGE difference.
The whole point of this debate is how do we continue encouraging boys to serve at the altar if there is a possibility the allowing girls somehow detracts from the appeal for boys to serve. There is a contradiction that we are discussing.
It doesn’t do the boys any good to just say that it will sort itself out. We have lots of evidence that sorting out ends up with boys feeling discouraged rather than encouraged.
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katolik
Guest
wooden subdeacon??? what is this?
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Andreas_Hofer
Guest
At my home parishes the girls vest in cassock and surplice just like the boys. The church does not have any spare albs sittings around, probably just the one or two for the priest. There’s no war of the sexes going on, I think it was just a matter of logistics - no albs, no capacity to reserve “clerical” garb to males.
That’s not disagreeing with you as to whether those things should be reserved; I’m just pointing out that not every case of their not being properly reserved is one of feminist aggression.
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nolai
Guest
why can’t women have equal right in the church?? Men are not closer to god than women and men are not favored more… we are equal. I think it is ridculis that girls cant not share in the alter serving activities, and I think it is no threat to the males if they do so. The males who think this wrong, are not folowing the teachings.
I went to a Catholic school and I was always treated equal, I was an alter server.
I went to a Catholic school and I was always treated equal, I was an alter server.
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Crusader
Guest
This is not a discussion about “equal rights”, but about doing everything possible to foster vocations to the priesthood and the permanent diaconate.
Secular society’s demands for “equal rights” simply does not trump the Church’s need to foster priestly vocations.
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Iohannes
Guest
Talk to many of the priests, many of them have been altar servers, I am quite sure of that. Even though it is possible to find priests who did not serve Mass as a youth, you may find a large pecentage of them having being altar servers before.
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Jdoc
Guest
i am an Alter server i have bin for 10 years when i went to europe they had no female alter servers. When i asked why a preist told me that Alter servers i the level below a preist. saying that they where preist in training that is why there is only men over the ages of 18 severing in europe. and i am con finsed that is right so i hope i anwered you Question.
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Andreas_Hofer
Guest
Actually, my experience in Innsbruck, Austria made me like female altar servers less and less because I saw how the ranks of servers were comprised of almost entirely young girls. It called to mind the warning that had been raised, “If you let in the girls, the boys won’t want to do it.” You were probably in another part of Europe, but the whole continent isn’t like your experience.
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katherine2
Guest
Andreas Hofer:
The type of boy who would not serve because he would be associating with girls is exactly the type of priestly candidates we need to be fearful of. Recent events in Austria should prove that.
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Andreas_Hofer
Guest
It’s much less about having to associate with girls and much more about losing a niche of religious expression. When the pews are filled with substantially more women than men and women are also the primary religious educators (both within the home and in parish religious education programs), boys are looking for an area of the Church that is not dominated by females. They used to have one, now they do not.
You can argue that this psychology needs changed, which it probably does, but you shouldn’t just throw up a smoke-screen by claiming that boys who were less attracted to serving with girls would probably turn into homosexual seminarians.
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Teresita
Guest
You’re missing the point here, I think. Boys below the age of puberty (which is when most altar boys begin serving) don’t on the whole enjoy girls’ company; this is nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality (or we’d have very few heterosexual men!) - it’s part of the natural development of the masculine identity. In just the same way, girls of eight or nine much prefer the company of their own sex. Believe me - I’ve been teaching for nearly thirty years, and young boys and girls in general (naturally there are exceptions) find the other sex a nuisance.
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spellinggirl
Guest
I am a female altar server. There are currently 23 active altar servers at my parish (not enough for us, but still) and 14 of them are girls. We could never even have Mass without altar servers at my parish. All genders are encouraged to participate, from 5th grade up. If there were only male altar servers, for us, there would be no Mass!
I’m not saying it’s true for other parishes, but at mine, the female altar servers tend to be better. They are punctual, dressed neatly, perform their duties better, and serve longer and more.
ALL ALTAR SERVERS RULE!
I’m not saying it’s true for other parishes, but at mine, the female altar servers tend to be better. They are punctual, dressed neatly, perform their duties better, and serve longer and more.
ALL ALTAR SERVERS RULE!
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Tracy07
Guest
In our parish we have male and female altar servers they work alongside each other and show each other equal respect i think this is important, the girls and boys both have equal roles and jobs are shared around and swapped around each week so everybody gets a turn to do a different job each week.
The girls in our parish are very focused while serving just as much as the boys and none of the boys have a problem serving alongside them, they are all friends and treat each other as such.
They all wear the same both boys and girls wear a white alb with a red rope (or a white at advent)
I dont have a problem with girls being altar servers i think they do just as good a job as the boys all the servers at our church my son included see their role as an important one and an honour to be able to do nobody sees themselves as better or worse then anyone else i think thats highly important.
if father has no problem with it then neither do i.
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The girls in our parish are very focused while serving just as much as the boys and none of the boys have a problem serving alongside them, they are all friends and treat each other as such.
They all wear the same both boys and girls wear a white alb with a red rope (or a white at advent)
I dont have a problem with girls being altar servers i think they do just as good a job as the boys all the servers at our church my son included see their role as an important one and an honour to be able to do nobody sees themselves as better or worse then anyone else i think thats highly important.
if father has no problem with it then neither do i.
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snhs
Guest
I think you may be getting a slightly inflated opinion of your role. A Mass can occur without Altar Servers, or one of the older gentlemen who served in their youth can and often do fill in at Masses during the day etc. And if there were only male Altar servers then they could quite easily serve the Mass, two servers are plenty for most Masses and quite often one can do it alone.
You’ve mentioned previously that you’ve served for three years. For a head Altar Server that isn’t all that long. In addition many boys served for longer prior to girls starting. Again I’d disagree with your view on girls being all round better but given your bias I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.
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