Second, altar service by females was explicitly banned long, long ago. It was reintroduced after the 2nd Vatican Council by renegade priests and/or liturgists who defiantly disobeyed the laws of the Church to further a secularist-feminist agenda. It was then permitted (reluctantly) by the Holy See when the question was raised to avoid an outcry.
All practices introduced disobediently contrary to the traditions and long-standing practice of the Church should be banned as soon as possible.
We have to be very careful here. We may disagree with something. But we donāt have the right to say that the Church is wrong in permitting something, regardless of how it started. Many things began the wrong way. Somehow, God brought good out of them and they have helped the Church. Female altar servers certainly do not hurt the Church.
If you ask me what I prefer, Iāll say that I prefer male servers. If you ask me what should the Church do? I will say, whatever the hierarchy decides I will obey without questioning and without giving it a second thought. Sanctity is not earned through questions, but through obedience.
I understand the importance of keeping traditions and encouraging boys to have an active role in the Church to encourage vocation to a Priesthood.
Myself, if there was a TLM near me, I would choose to go to that instead of an NO mass. I veil at NO because I believe itās appropriate for me as a woman to do so. Iām fairly traditional for a British convert. Yet still, I believe girls should still be altar servers.
I am no so convinced that there is a direct corrolation between alter service and the number of men entering the priesthood. Allow me two examples.
About 40% of the priests in the Catholic Church belong to religious orders. However, only 10% of the parishes in the Catholic Church are run by religious orders. These men who became religious + priests, were not exposed to religious. They were exposed to secular priests. Yet, they were called to the consecrated life, not the secular life. Thatās an interesting thing to think about.
My second example comes from my own experience. We live inside the boundaries of a parish run by diocesan priests. In fact, they have five priests and four deacons. Weāre a community of religious men. The parish is not our parish. We all work for the diocese. However, we attend mass at the parish and some of us volunteer in different parish ministries: youth, religious education, adult religious education and other. We arrived here in 2009. Since then, seven men from that parish have become religious brothers. The parish is 26-years old and not a single parishioner has become a diocesan priest. Two have become Redemptorists and one joined the Dominicans. The truth is that they have very holy secular priests and they have male altar servers. All seven of our novices from that parish were altar servers there, but they are not called to the priesthood.
One or two of them may be ordained anyway. That will be determined later between the brother and the major superior. For the moment, they come knocking at the door asking to be brothers. They all say that what attracts them is St. Francis of Assisi and the poverty of the brothers. This was funny. One fellow said that he looked at my shoes and thought to himself, āI want to do that.ā. My shoes are 12-years old. Iām diabetic, so I canāt ear sandals and we onlly have one pair of shoes and one pair of sneakers. I thought that was an interesting way for God to get someoneās attention.
If you look at the emerging religious communities of men, the fellows who enter them all come from diocesan parishes. However, they are attracted to the lifestyle of the religious community to which they apply. The fellows who enter the Franciscans of the Eternal Word are attracted to their contemplative lifestyle. Theyāre happy that they will never have to serve in a parish.
The men who enter the Franciscans of the Renewal are attracted to their itinerant life. Theyāre happy that they will never serve in a parish or live a traditional conventual life. They will spend their lives walking the streets, feeding the hungry, preaching on corners, etc.
The guys that enter the Franciscans of the Immaculate donāt want to serve in parishes. They like the life of prayer, the Marian spirituality, the reatreat work, the preaching, teaching and contemplative silence.
We have had many guys leave our diocese to enter the Missionary Brothers of the Poor. They too want to walk the streets picking up the poor. The MOP have a rule that they ordain only 1 in 10 of their men in order to preserve the purity of the religious life. However, their congregation is growing faster than most dioceses.
All of these guys have been exposed to priests on the altar as servers; but they have not followed in the footsteps of these very holy men to whom they have been exposed, nor have these priests tried to persuade them to do so. These priests have been very supportive of their journey toward the consecrated life.
I do believe that serving at the altar has been beneficial to these men. I do not concur that it will lead them to become secular priests, which is where the big shortage is right now, because 90% of parishes are run by secular priests.
The presence of women or lack thereof does not seem to influence the large numbers of men entering the consecrated life instead of the diocesesan seminaries. On the other side, several diocesan seminaries are full with men who come from parishes with many active women.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
