Posted on 12/13/2005 11:56:25 AM PST by badabing98
Girls at the altar By MARK NIESSE Associated Press
In some Catholic parishes the majority of 'altar boys' are girls
ATLANTA - As soon as she was old enough, third-grader Ellen Clarke joined the
first wave of girl altar servers, helping break up a club reserved for Roman
Catholic boys for centuries.
Seven years later, the 15-year-old is still serving, but now she's surrounded
by other girls helping out priests and deacons on Sundays at Atlanta's Our Lady
of the Assumption church.
Altar serving has become so popular with girls that they outnumber the boys in
many parishes. That's exactly what some in the church feared when the Vatican
allowed female servers in 1994.
Before girls could serve, many parents pushed boys into altar serving,
especially in churches with shortages. Girls have now taken over in some
parishes, which has made it easy for boys to drop out. That's bad news for a
church already suffering from a priest shortage - because altar serving has
always been a prime recruiting ground for future priests.
"Girls can't do that much in the church. I guess that was a way to get more
girls involved," said Clarke, who wore jeans and a T-shirt while practicing
recently for Easter services. "I do it to give back to the community, and it
makes going to church a lot more interesting."
In less than a decade, girls have flocked to the altar in some churches. At Our
Lady of the Assumption in Atlanta, they make up 44 of the 75 altar servers.
Why is the activity so popular among girls?
"Whenever a group is denied a possibility for doing something, that makes it
particularly attractive in some ways," said Lynne Arnault, director of women's
studies at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit school in Syracuse, N.Y.
Now that they've finally got a chance to serve, girls want to do it, Arnault
said.
No one keeps track of the exact number of altar servers nationwide, but altar
girls have become an increasingly familiar sight carrying the cross, washing
the priest's hands and lighting candles during Mass, say priests and
parishioners.
At least two dioceses in the United States - in Arlington, Va., and Lincoln,
Neb. - still don't allow girls to be altar servers.
Some clerics worry that girls will continue taking over altar serving duties,
simply because boys and girls often don't like participating in the same
activities. Most servers participate between fourth and ninth grades.
Twelve-year-old Molly Rolfes said it doesn't matter to kids who wears the white
robes on any given Sunday because most servers volunteer for similar reasons -
to get more out of church and to be able to participate rather than sit, kneel
and stand for an hour.
"There's not as many distractions - you're paying attention to what you have to
do instead of what's going on around you," she said. "As guys get older, they
think it's uncool."
But many boys said they enjoy serving. "I don't really care about the girls,"
said 13-year-old Andrew Bowman. "The Mass goes a lot faster when you're part of
it."
And priests such as Monsignor Stephen Churchwell say letting girls on the altar
has increased overall youth interest in Mass.
The church still struggles to find boys who might want to become priests, "but
being a server doesn't automatically lead you to be ordained a priest," said
Churchwell, a priest at St. Luke the Evangelist in Dahlonega.
There hasn't been enough time to tell whether fewer altar boys will lead to
difficulties getting men to enter the priesthood, said the Rev. Mark Huber of
the Lincoln diocese.
But it's up to the bishop of the diocese to decide who may become an altar
server, and in Lincoln, he decided to stick with the boys-only tradition, Huber
said.
"There was a thought that having altar boys may help promote the idea of
vocations to the priesthood in the future," he said. "It's certainly something
that helps promote the possibility."
The bishop in Arlington is still praying over the decision of whether to allow
girls, said spokeswoman Linda Shovlain.
"He's going to make a decision when he's ready to, once he's come to a peace in
his heart," she said. "On both sides, there are very strong opinions. It's one
of the divisive issues in our diocese."
Altar girls may be a step toward the Catholic church someday allowing women as
deacons or priests, said Mike Reineck, who trains and schedules servers at Our
Lady of the Assumption.
"It reflects the growing changes in the church, trying to make the church more
contemporary," he said. "As the church grows, they have to continue to recruit
priests - you could double the probable candidates."
But Arnault said that, in the long term, it seems unlikely girls will entirely
take over altar serving duties.
"After a while, the novelty wears off," she said. "I would expect that almost
equal numbers of boys and girls would be interested."
thank goodness we're in Arlington
I'm thankful we have plenty of boys to serve...
Our Parish has 8 masses every weekend and 2-3 altar boys serve every mass.
I'm female and I much prefer seeing well trained young men on the altar.
Which is also why I declined when asked to volunteer for EEM (and volunteered my husband).
Hopefully the Pope will end this experiment and reinstitute the wearing of the cassock and surplice for altar boys.
I was about 8. No one was in church. I jumped the rail, knelt, bowed my head reverently, and rang the bells three times saying mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.
I re-jumped the rail, genuflected and went on my way. I still picture God laughing at my brave attempt to fulfill my desire!!
LOL!
Ummmm... yeah. That's the problem.
Two Novus Ordo parishes in Greenville, SC with NO ALTAR GIRLS!
We have 5-7 altar boys serving at every DAILY Mass. Fourteen on Sundays. Looking to go to 20!
Oh, and there are NO ALTAR GIRLS at every single Traditional Latin rite of Mass EVER--which we also have at my parish.
We're Anglican, not Roman Catholic, but girls as altar servers is strictly forbidden.
Some clerics worry that girls will continue taking over altar serving duties, simply because boys and girls often don't like participating in the same activities.
Exactly (or at least part of) the answer our bishop gave to a question.
The emergence of girls and women on the altar is if not a conscious, then at least a subconscious effort to inculcate people to the notion of women priests.
You go to mass and see "altar girls", women readers, women bringing up the offering, and women passing out the Holy Body of Christ. So why must the only role exculsively male be the Priest?
"You go to mass and see "altar girls", women readers, women bringing up the offering, and women passing out the Holy Body of Christ. So why must the only role exculsively male be the Priest?"
I had wondered about that myself...(the effort to make this the norm, that is)
Of course he was given a standing ovation, because nobody would boo a priest even if he deserved it. Maybe if he hadn't elevated feminist ideology over his pastoral duties, my peers and I wouldn't have spent our school years without any significant faith formation.
We handled the question simply enough with our family: "Your Dad and I feel it's more appropriate for boys to be altar servers." End of discussion. My oldest son likes it because he doesn't have to sit with his sisters, or have me nudging him when it's time to sing. The second one volunteers when we have baptisms, so he can be closer to the babies - although maybe he won't when our new one is born, since he's allowed to hold his brother, not just look :-).
However, I wonder if the shortage of boys in many locations doesn't have something to do with so many families putting sports ahead of faith. One or both of my boys serves at practically every Mass they attend, because the scheduled servers, whether boys or girls, just don't show up.
Perhaps, but I think it has more to do with Catholic school teachers preferring to let girls out of their classes rather than boys. By and large, their female students are more diligent.
One of the biggest perks of being an altar boy was getting out of class for a funeral or the daily morning mass. Now that the teachers can dismiss a more conscientious student, why bother to volunteer for the job when you'll only be working weekends?
Could be. Many Catholic schools no longer have daily Mass, I understand. We've always homeschooled, so I don't keep up too well with what the schools are doing, but it seems like the promotional materials I see generally say "weekly Mass."
It might be different in areas of the country where the Catholic schools have more Catholics in them. Where we've lived, they tend to be majority-Protestant students. Our parish doesn't have a school, and most of the kids go to public school, so this wouldn't explain our absenteeism problem!
I used to take my children to daily Mass, when there were fewer of them and they had fewer other activities. Maybe someday, when everyone's out of diapers, I'll have the opportunity again!
Guess he didn't get the memo. ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS
There are some parishes that have the boys wear the cassock and surplice while the girl servers wear little nun's habits. I thought that was a good idea.
The cafateria is closed. By order of the German Shepard.
My daughter is an altar server. For those who have bothered to read my posts in "religion," you know that I am hardly a theological liberal (we also do the Divine Office at home). She is under no illusions (and neither am I). It has been very good for her and she has gained enough to be a spiritual leader in her class as the result of this. And, by the way, it is about 50/50 with altar servers in our parish.
I can appreciate that having altar girls is a sorry substitute for altar boys. In an era where there were orthodox female religious around that could provide her a good role model, I am glad that it is open in our diocese. After all, the justification for altar boys is to help young men discern vocations. Well, since there are very few examples of spiritual vocations out there for young women, what do you who criticize female altar servers suggest as something to help young women discern vocations? The parish girl scout troop? CYO? Puhhhleeeesee
Get some sisters (under the age of 200) involved in the schools and in the parishes so that the girls see how they can uniquely dedicate their lives as consecrated women and I'll fully support a complete closure of the sanctuary to females...until such time, this provides about the only spiritual service that a young lady can do
(I know I didn't write this that well, but I hope y'all get my point)
"Altar girls may be a step toward the Catholic church someday allowing women as deacons or priests, said Mike Reineck, who trains and schedules servers at Our Lady of the Assumption."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Not in this lifetime, bub.
Not to brag or anything, but we have 200 Altar Boys at our parish.
Altar Boys, Choir Girls. How life should be.
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