Women altar "servers" in the Extraordinary Form

[Augustinian]

When the boys got to be around 12/13 the nuns would then run them off.

I was under the impression that during the Latin Mass era, that age 12/13 was the beginning of an altar boy’s career, not the end.

 

[Maximilian75]

Or the aborrent, polyester albs used in most NO parishes for servers…

 

[Augustinian]

Or the aborrent, polyester albs used in most NO parishes for servers…

Maybe the polyester they use is treated as flame retardant, and help prevent a catastrophe?

 

[AnonymousSinner]

To the best of my knowledge, traditionally a woman could say the altar server’s responses if there were no men who could do the job, although she couldn’t approach the altar. I assume that means she couldn’t bring up the cruets or anything like that.

Here is what the 1917 Code of Canon Law (pre-Vatican II) says on the matter. Keep in mind, though, that the 1917 Code has been abrogated by the 1983 Code.

Canon 813
§ 1. A priest should not celebrate Mass without a minister who assist him and responds.
§ 2. The minister serving at Mass should not be a woman unless, in
the absence of a man, for a just cause, it is so arranged that the woman
respond from afar and by no means approach the altar.

Given that the 1983 Code is even more “liberal” than the 1917 Code, I would assume that it is still “ok” for a woman to say the altar boy’s responses as long as she stays out of the sanctuary, at least in a case of necessity.