Women altar "servers" in the Extraordinary Form

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As was mentioned above, Pope Benedict XVI mandated the use of the Missal of 1962 for celebration of the Mass in the EF. Would this not exclude female altar servers from such Masses, regardless of whether the parish where they are celebrated also offered Mass in the OF and allowed girls and women to serve at the altar for those? 🤔
 
UpUpAndAway said:
As was mentioned above, Pope Benedict XVI mandated the use of the Missal of 1962 for celebration of the Mass in the EF. Would this not exclude female altar servers from such Masses, regardless of whether the parish where they are celebrated also offered Mass in the OF and allowed girls and women to serve at the altar for those? 🤔
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If you read the 1962 Missal, I doubt that you’ll find anywhere in it where it states that the acolytes must be male.
 
I have no “evidence”. Nothing that I can cite anyway. Its just 30 years experience.

Its always women that do readings etc. in the OF. Plus the Church has been accused of being sexist. There must be a link. No?
 
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I haven’t got one. I’ve just heard rumours and gossip.

Oh well, looks like you win 😉
 
Not nonsense and not harmful, I know it to be true in certain parishes. However, I have no evidence to show you, not even anecdotal evidence.
 
I have been told that females from the congregation have approached the priest after Mass and said things like we have enough men in the sanctuary, can we not just have female readers?

Now seriously can we forget about this please?
 
St Catherine Emerich used to do that when she was a nun at the convent.
 
Augustinian said:
I don’t see why it wouldn’t be permitted for women to do altar service at a Latin Mass They are allowed elsewhere, it isn’t a problem.
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From what I understand from a diocesen priest who celebrates only the EF, we are not allowed to “mix rites.” While the Extraordinary Form is simply a Form of the Roman Rite, the rubics are different.

Priests are supposed to follow the rubrics and GIRM for each form of the Mass, and they differ.

Have a female acolyte in the EF would go against the rubrics for the EF

God Bless
 
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PeterT said:
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UpUpAndAway:
As was mentioned above, Pope Benedict XVI mandated the use of the Missal of 1962 for celebration of the Mass in the EF. Would this not exclude female altar servers from such Masses, regardless of whether the parish where they are celebrated also offered Mass in the OF and allowed girls and women to serve at the altar for those? 🤔
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If you read the 1962 Missal, I doubt that you’ll find anywhere in it where it states that the acolytes must be male.
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Women weren’t allowed in the sanctuary during Mass. Even when women started being readers in the OF, the rules said they had to do it from outside the sanctuary – not that every parish followed the rule.
 
Phemie said:
Even when women started being readers in the OF, the rules said they had to do it from outside the sanctuary – not that every parish followed the rule.
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I doubt any of them followed that rule, since almost every single ambo / pulpit is inside the sanctuary - plus many of the lecterns where the cantors sing from too.
 
What was the rule prohibiting women from entering the sanctuary and how was that defined? I’m guessing that, rather than a written rule, it was just a natural consequence of the fact that, since they did not hold those liturgical offices that would be inside the sanctuary, they would have no business in there.

I say this because the sanctuary was not always clearly defined.

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Maximilian75 said:
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Phemie:
the rules said they had to do it from outside the sanctuary
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Do you have a source for this?
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From Liturgicae Instaurationes
Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship
Instruction on the orderly carrying out of the Constitution on the Liturgy, September 5, 1970

If it was a given that women would proclaim the readings from the ambo, there would have been no need for the part in bold in 7. a.
  1. In conformity with norms traditional in the Church, women (single, married, religious), whether in churches, homes, convents, schools, or institutions for women, are barred from serving the priest at the altar.
According to the norms established for these matters, however, women are allowed to:

a. proclaim the readings, except the gospel. They are to make sure that, with the help of modern sound equipment, they can be comfortably heard by all. The conferences of bishops are to give specific directions on the place best suited for women to read the word of God in the liturgical assembly.

b. announce the intentions in the general intercessions;

c. lead the liturgical assembly in singing and play the organ or other instruments;

d. read the commentary assisting the people toward a better understanding of the rite;

e. attend to other functions, customarily filled by women in other settings, as a service to the congregation, for example, ushering, organizing processions, taking up the collection.[29]
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Did your Bishop’s conference make a proclamation regarding this? I’m not doubting here, just interested
 
I have no idea; I was still in high school and about 27 years away from any knowledge of the existence of Church documents.

I remember coming across a later document that gave women blanket permission to read from inside the sanctuary but I can’t find it right now. I’ll keep looking.
 
ProVobis said:
Impressive work, Phemie! You’re the best at research. 🙂
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Thank you.

I find Church documents fascinating. One thing I find particularly interesting is how the English translation of documents changes with the years. Where it said “instituted reader” in early documents, it’s now translated “instituted lector”. Where we now have “extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion”, the first document allowing them called them “Special Ministers of the Eucharist”. That was changed in later versions of the same document.
 
Having witnessed girls, usually with unfettered hair, serving at the altar in the recent past, I have wondered if any of them have become singed of ablaze. A quick turnabout and those loose locks come close to candle flames.
 
I remember hearing how in the past the nuns at certain all girls schools used to have a lot of toys around. They invited the little boys of the area to play there so that they could have a ready supply of altar servers at mass. When the boys got to be around 12/13 the nuns would then run them off.
 
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