Whats wrong with female altar girls?

[Marian_Carroll]

It would be helpful if those posting would stay on the topic, decline to make personal assumptions or take postures in opposition to persons, rather than ideas. Thanks for your help in keeping the discussion on the topic and off of each other.

 

[Strummer]

As one of my home archdiocesan pastors says, having girl altar servers sometimes results in emotional and intellectual child abuse.
Maybe not that drastic…

Well, as you yourself point out, this guy goes beyond the pale. I would go further and say this poor old guy, pious though he may be, is a flipping fool when it comes to psychology and child development.

…let [the little girls] think they can someday be priests or “rule the roost” like some folks want to teach them to do and the fact is that they can’t. We don’t need to train any more washed-up has-been angry old feminists.

:bigyikes:
Wow. What a black-and-white world you’ve painted for yourself. While I’m sure it is comfortable for you, it is but a mere shadow of the reality the rest of us live in. So, I think I’ll just slowly back out of the room and leave you to your twisted little fantasy world.

But before I go…

You underemphasize what the Vatican wants. They don’t say “it would be nice to keep altar boys” rather they said it more like “female altar servers are allowed BUT we want altar boys because it is a laudable and long-standing tradition and a fertile ground for vocations to the priesthood.”

Now, you’re just playing with spin. It is the same thing. Girls are allowed. End of story! Any further argument is just immature whining.

The Vatican has disallowed altar girls for the past 2000 some yrs.

And while you were seeking to answer a different question, you answered this mystery as well when you said:

The Church is run by humans that can screw up or can play their cards in order to prevent bigger problems in disciplinary matters. There are major and complicated politics at play behind the scenes from the simple country parish right up to Vatican City.

You’re just picking different items to fill your tray to suit your pre-concieved ideal. The “Church is run by humans that…screw up” when you do not like what they do but is a stalwart fortress with 2000 years’ of tradition behind it when they decide something more to your liking. How convenient. Who ever said cafeteria food wasn’t tasty?

 

[anamchara]

Did you happen to read earlier in the thread that the Vatican itself has only altar boys. If your parish went on a pilgrimage to Rome and your pastor wanted to say Mass in one of the chapels in St. Peter’s, your daughter would not be permitted as an altar server.

Good Lord, yes Brendan I did read all the posts about the Vatican and what they do. I also know if I went thier I’d have to cover my head. I don’t see the point. I’ve also read several times in here about how great your parish is because it seems to be a priest factory. Well, bully for you!

Do you consider the Pope to be “backward thinking” in this matter.

 

[anamchara]

“Serve at the table of Christ” indeed. So altar servers are glorified waiters?

Why is it whenever I read your posts, I hear a Dickensian voice that would soon be followed with "…well, if they are going to die, they might as well get on with it and decrease the surplus population!! "

 

[Marian_Carroll]

At this point in time, with just about 400 posts on the topic, it appears to have been discussed ad infinitum. As the arguments have become repetitious and circuitous. the thread is now closed and we will be taking a hiatus on the subject for awhile.