Posted on 01/28/2015 10:42:11 AM PST by keat
A Roman Catholic church in San Francisco has become one of a handful around the country to prohibit girls from being altar servers.
The Rev. Joseph Illo decided to train only boys to assist him at Mass after he was assigned to Star of the Sea Church in the Richmond district last year because he thinks the primary purpose of altar service is preparation for the priesthood, which women are ineligible to join, Illo told television station KPIX.
"The specifics of serving at the altar is a priestly function," Illo said. "And the Catholic church does not ordain women."
Illo said in a statement posted on the church's website Sunday that boys often lose interest in altar service when the programs are co-ed because "girls generally do a better job."
"I want to emphasize that we are not discontinuing altar girls because females are somehow incapable or unworthy. Girls are generally more capable and certainly just as worthy as boys," the statement said. "It is simply giving boys a role they can call their own, and more importantly recognizing the priesthood as a specifically fatherly charism."
Existing altar girls will be allowed to continue carrying the cross, washing the priest's hands and performing other duties of altar servers until they are phased out through Star of the Sea's new boys-only program, Illo said.
Girls and women have been permitted to serve Mass alongside priests since Pope John Paul II approved the practice in 1994. But a mixed-gender altar service is not a requirement, and the decision is usually left up to local bishops. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone authorized Star of the Sea's move to only having altar boys.
Some churchgoers told KPIX they were unhappy with the change.
"Those who can or cannot serve based on gender, that is discriminatory," parishioner Dunstan Alabanza said.
Two words:
San Francisco.
Which really makes it more remarkable.
What, that they prefer boys to girls? That doesn’t surprise me at all.
If it weren’t for girls we’d have almost no one to serve at Mass in our church.
Alter girls were dismissed because they were distracting the San Fransicko “Priests” during the Annual Running of the Alter Boys.
For close to 2,000 years, the altar staffing was 100% male. Our parish priest loves to say the Traditional Latin Mass and that requires only males on the altar.
Good move.
“If it weren’t for girls we’d have almost no one to serve at Mass in our church.”
In our parish in the northern suburbs of New York, three rites share the church: Ordinary Form, Maronite, and Traditional Latin (Extraordinary Form).
On Sundays on which a High Mass is celebrated (twice a month on average), we usually have 7-10 altar boys for the Latin rite (girls were never allowed in the traditional rite), more for Solemn High Masses.
I don’t think the Ordinary Form has as many boys available to serve Mass.
Perhaps making it a boys-only function will attract more boys to serving Mass.
Not a good move after all the molestation scandals.
I hate to see “altar girls” - actually, untrained little brats who run around embarrassing their families into an early grave. I’ll never forget a Mass in which the priest had to reprimand the little wench.
I have a major problem with all things having to do with ‘God’s message of salvation’ being massaged by way of ‘gender’ filtering. Yes, and that includes all things having to do with God’s work here on earth.
For those of you who enjoy being ignorant about the Bible and Catholicism, this move is a good thing. Female control of, or even participation in, the leadership of the various churches is probably the biggest reason that so many churches are in apostasy.
Here’s his blog which explains his reasoning for the change: http://www.frilloblog.com/
As a former altar boy, I did it to serve the Church. I had no intentions of becoming a priest. If I had thought it was in preparation for the priesthood, I probably wouldn't have been an altar boy.
I would guess that 99% of all altar boys (including my three sons) feel the same way.
When I was an altar boy (in the 70s), my church started having altar girls. I didn't think anything of it.
Leave it to”SanFran Psycho”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband was an altar boy. The priest was always hitting him on the head after the Mass for messing up the Latin responses. Great experience for young boys even if they don’t go on to be priests.
The girls might just get the idea that they can become priests...
Exactly and precisely. There is nothing wrong at all with female participation in the Mass.
Further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with married clergy either for that matter. It is not prohibited in the Bible. To the contrary:
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.”
1 Timothy 3:2
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