I’ve only been to one Mass that featured an “altar girl” - naturally, a family event not my usual St. Agnes jaunt. That damned brat ran all over the place until the priest corralled her. How different from the little well-trained boys of my youth! That convinced me that No. Altar. Girls. Ever.
Our Bishop Gregory Mansour banned girls from altar service many years ago. Since then, more boys have stepped forward to serve, fully appreciating the importance of their responsibilities. One 5 year ols pleaded with the priest to allow him to also serve. The priest acceded. His grandmother took a surplice and altered it to fit the child. He is now 10 and still serving at the altar. God bless our altar boys!
Altar girls, in my opinion, are not a good thing. However, since they’re permitted, we have to deal with them, and they can be made to behave as well as boys. The priests simply have to have a program that applies to all altar servers.
They have to dress properly. No heels for the girls, their hair should be tied back, and the boys have to be wearing proper shoes as well. But all of them should be strictly disciplined, which is something that would probably self-eliminate most of the girls.
One priest I knew used to have vocation retreats for all the altar servers over about the age of 12. The boys were looking at the seminary and religious orders, and the girls were looking at the (orthodox) religious orders. There actually weren’t any in that particular diocese, but some of them were allowed to send representatives to give presentations to the girls. And they did get vocations.
I thought that was a good way of using your lemons to make lemonade.
My church has girl altarboys. The pastor is trying to get the boys more involved because the ratio is heavily in favor of the girls. He doesn’t understand that you can’t get the boys or their fathers interested until you dispense with girl altarboys.