Whats wrong with female altar girls?

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The diocese I live in is the last diocese in the nation to not allow altar girls. Everyone that lives here knows why and understands. People from other diocese will come to mass here and freak out. Usually they something along the lines of how sexiest we are or how we oppress women. It isn’t uncommon for there to be 6 altar boys from the elementary school, 2 high school boys from the John Bosco club, 2 acolytes, and 2 priest on the altar during Sunday mass. Its very awesome to witness and really sets the tone to celebrate mass.
 
Jared123 said:
The diocese I live in is the last diocese in the nation to not allow altar girls. Everyone that lives here knows why and understands. People from other diocese will come to mass here and freak out. Usually they something along the lines of how sexiest we are or how we oppress women. It isn’t uncommon for there to be 6 altar boys from the elementary school, 2 high school boys from the John Bosco club, 2 acolytes, and 2 priest on the altar during Sunday mass. Its very awesome to witness and really sets the tone to celebrate mass.
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YOU are in Lincoln?!?! You lucky Catholic!

Try being one of two parishes in a diocese that doesn’t allow Altar Girls.

I have been told that there is “something in the water” at my parish. (and that wasn’t a good thing)

Jared, officially what reason does your Bishop give for allowing boys only?
 
mlchance said:
And in every thread on this subject, I never see any actual proof for this assertion. It’s all just anecdote.

Face it: The problems with the Church now and always have been divided into two large categories. First, there are corrupt, incompetent, lazy priests causing scandal which weakens the Church’s moral authority. Second, there are parents following the example of those priests.

So, rather than sit around whining about how evil altar girls are because boys think girl-things are icky, or that boys who altar serve might get made fun of (O! The humanity!), or that there is a really loud but numerically insignificant group who think altar girls are priestesses in training, I prefer to be a bit more constructive.

Thus, I get my own house in order by the grace of God. I humbly suggest everyone else do the same thing.

👍

– Mark L. Chance.
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Of course altar girls aren’t to blame souly for hurting a diocese, however this is one step in the wrong direction. You ask for proof, do some research on which dioceses are producing the most vocations in the United States. I can tell you the diocese I live in is consistantly at the top of vocations per capitia in the nation. We don’t allow altar girls or EMHC’s, in fact we don’t allow any women on the altar. Women however can commentate but are not lectors.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
YOU are in Lincoln?!?! You lucky Catholic!

Try being one of two parishes in a diocese that doesn’t allow Altar Girls.

I have been told that there is “something in the water” at my parish. (and that wasn’t a good thing)

Jared, officially what reason does your Bishop give for allowing boys only?
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Yes, I am from Lincoln and do feel very lucky. My hat is off to your priest for doing the right thing. He will be blessed as well as your parish. Our Bishop hasn’t ever formally made a statement why no altar girls, but it is understood why. Once girls are allowed to do a job reserved for boys/men the boys will say “no way am I going to do a girls job.” Vocations are produced by serving at mass and standing by a priest while he consecrates the Eucharist. And sorry but a girl will never be a priest. In our parish the boys look at serving with a sense of pride. Look at it through the eyes of a young man. He sits in the pews during mass and looks at 12-14 boys and men serving on the altar and thinks wow that’s cool. Or he can sit in the pews and watch 2 girls stand beside the priest during the consecration. Which is going to have more of an impact on him. We have one man from our parish that will be ordained in two years and two young men a thinking of going to the seminary next year. We currently have 38 young men in seminarys for the whole diocese. We don’t even have deacons since we have enough priests to fill the parishes and offices. I guess we do have two deacons in the diocese but they moved in from other places. Hopefully this is some proof for you mlchance. 👍
 
Jared123 said:
Yes, I am from Lincoln and do feel very lucky. My hat is off to your priest for doing the right thing. He will be blessed as well as your parish. Our Bishop hasn’t ever formally made a statement why no altar girls, but it is understood why. Once girls are allowed to do a job reserved for boys/men the boy will say “no way am I going to do a girls job.” Vocations are produced by serving at mass and standing by a priest while he consecrates the Eucharist. In our parish the boys look at serving with a sense of pride. Look at it through the eyes of a young man. He sits in the pews during mass and looks at 12-14 boys and men serving on the altar and thinks wow that’s cool. Or he can sit in the pews and watch 2 girls stand beside the priest during the consecration. Which is going to have more of an impact. We have one man from our parish that will be ordained in two years and two young men a thinking of going to the seminary next years. We currently have 38 young men in seminarys for the whole diocese. We don’t even have deacons since we have enough priests to fill the parishes and offices.
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Amen!
If it wasn’t so cold there, I would think of moving.
Brrrrr.
 
Cold, it have been 55 degrees the last two days. The weather isn’t bad at all. 👍
 
JimR-OCDS said:
It was a couple years ago, and our paper isn’t on line.
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That’s a pity.
I truly believe the paper was correct.

I guess my question would be, were Altar Girls put in truly because they could not get boys or because they were the girls wanted to serve then it became a shortage of boys?

I have never seen any research on it.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
That’s a pity.
I truly believe the paper was correct.

I guess my question would be, were Altar Girls put in truly because they could not get boys or because they were the girls wanted to serve then it became a shortage of boys?

I have never seen any research on it.
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When allowing girls to serve became legal, they went all out recruiting girls. Slowly, masses ended up having more girls then boys to eventually, no boys.

It’s just the biological nature of boys, not to desire to do the things that they see as a girl thing.

I think the Bishop finally saw the flaw in the social engineering of the ministry and acted to reverse it.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
When allowing girls to serve became legal, they went all out recruiting girls. Slowly, masses ended up having more girls then boys to eventually, no boys.

It’s just the biological nature of boys, not to desire to do the things that they see as a girl thing.

I think the Bishop finally saw the flaw in the social engineering of the ministry and acted to reverse it.
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Oh I get it!
Thanks!
 
Jared123 said:
You ask for proof, do some research on which dioceses are producing the most vocations in the United States. I can tell you the diocese I live in is consistantly at the top of vocations per capitia in the nation. .
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Our parish, which has only altar boys, has about 800 families. Out of that, we have 6 men from our parish currently studying for the priesthood. ( +3 in various stages of the Permanent Diaconate and 3 women who are in Noviate or Postulant programs towards religious life)

We have also had 3 men from our parish Ordained to the priesthood in the last 5 years.

Not too bad for a small parish.

It really would be interesting to compare the vocation rates for parishes with an all altar boys to those that allow altar girls.
 
mlchance said:
:rolleyes:

Not to mention holier-than-thou.
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If you think so.
To me it’s liturgical glee.

When was the last time your parish was specifically mentioned on EWTN?
When was the last time one of their priests was happy to be in your parish for a mission?

If you want to see it as holier-than-thou, there is not really too much I can do about it, but understand that I am just really pleased to be where I am. I wish that everyone could be.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
If you think so.
To me it’s liturgical glee.

When was the last time your parish was specifically mentioned on EWTN?
When was the last time one of their priests was happy to be in your parish for a mission?

If you want to see it as holier-than-thou, there is not really too much I can do about it, but understand that I am just really pleased to be where I am. I wish that everyone could be.
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We want to be there, believe me. But, as MrS once pointed out, there wouldn’t be any room for us. You have too many altar boys! 😃
 
paramedicgirl said:
We want to be there, believe me. But, as MrS once pointed out, there wouldn’t be any room for us. You have too many altar boys! 😃
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There is always room for you Lady!!!
I’ll save you a seat. Some privledge comes with having girls in the choir. I get a seat no matter what.

(great to see you! Is the boss back yet?)
 
Have there ever been any sort of studies examining orthodoxy, altar servers that are male only, and vocations per capita?
 
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