O
Ottoviani
Guest
Right.I saw altar girls in the Boise diocese in the mid '80s, well before the '94 date given above.
I would guess that, like Communion in the hand and sacrilegious sacred music, this abuse had become so common that it would have caused a great deal of dissention to abruptly set it straight. It was a battle that the Holy Father did not think was worth fighting at the time.
It is darn hard to put toothpaste back into the tube.
That is what seems to happen in the Church nowadays.
Legalise an abuse, then it is not an abuse anymore.