Posted on 08/22/2011 7:47:51 AM PDT by markomalley
The rector of the Cathedral of Sts. Simon and Jude in Phoenix has decided [3]to only allow boys to be altar servers at Mass. The Rev. John Lankeit said the decision was his alone, not that of Bishop Thomas Olmsted. Lankeit cited the historic connection between altar boys and vocations.
The decision is regrettable from every angle. There may be an historic connection between boys being altar servers and some of those boys going on to be priests. Hard to tell. There was also an historical connection between maleness and, say, the American founding. There was, until recently, a connection between being male and running for President. The rector may not have noticed but women do lots of things they did not do previously and it is a misplaced concern for gender differenciation to want to hold on to yesteryear's ways.
The decision also runs the risk of bringing back the "boys club" mentality that has caused great damage to the Church. Altar servers bond. While other boys and girls sleep in or play soccer on a Sunday morning, they get together to help out at Mass. Restricting that activity by gender helps create the wrong kind of gender differentiation, the kind that leads adolescents to grow up to be uncomfortable with women in Church, but any future pastor will likely rely on women to run all sorts of activities in his parish. Boys who are uncomfortable around girls will be inclined to see being an altar boy as a chance to escape their uncomfortability. I would submit that this is not necessarily a good thing to discern, still less to cultivate, in future clerics.
But, there is a deeper concern. Those altar girls who are now barred are baptized. Serving as an altar boy does not have to do with holy orders - and it never has. Yes, in seminary, future priests were installed officially as acolytes and as lectors, but most parishes never had officially installed acolytes. Rev. Lankeit has focused on the wrong sacrament in this decision. One wonders if he has even read the documents of Vatican II which place such a heavy emphasis on the dignity of the baptized.
Bishop Olmsted has not been shy about making controversial decisions. And, generally, most of us think that allowing pastors more say in their parishes is a good thing: micro-managing bishops can be a disaster. But, this is not just any parish. Officially, Olmsted is the pastor of this parish. He should step in and overturn the decision.
Anything that upsets the heretical and condemned National Catholic Fishwrap is a good thing in my book.
What is your problem? Very snotty comments and uncalled for.
That's approx. what I was advocating, good Lord, 40 years ago, when Twiggy was a great runway model because she looked like a 14-year-old boy, and the word "unisex" was used to tout everything from salons to bicycle saddles, and the word "masculine" was seen as rude, prickly and sweaty, and word "feminine" virtually unspeakable except for diminishment and irony.
That was then.
Now I'm more appreciative of practical and symbolic differences. I like sex and despise gender. I find myself nowhere in the alphabetic sequence that starts out LGBT and ends up AIDS and STD.
And---where was I? --- oh yeah, I love the concept of "altar boys" holding patens and cruets, and girls (in the feminine bastion formerly known as the Altar Society) laying out the tablecloths, placing the flowers and lighting the candles.
Why?
Because -- get this --- only when there are real differences can there be real paradoxes.
And in a divine grand scheme-of-things where the first are last and the last are first, where the exalted are humbled and the humble exalted, where many a Pope from Anacletus to Zephryinus will be forgotten but the Little Flower, St. Therese, will never be forgotten --- I like paradoxes best of all.
Parishes in our diocese that restrict altar serving to boys get a lot of interest and typically have as many as four for a single Mass. Those that allow girls to serve always have a shortage; there’s just no interest in it. The article’s comparison to serving as US President is absurd. There is nothing prohibiting a woman to be President (in fact, conservatives would like to see one this time around). Women may not be priests, however. Perhaps this is how liberal Catholics want to bring about that change?
Yep. Who is the most important (solely) human being in the Catholic Church? Mary.
The Vatican, in spite of the excesses of Vatican II, ruled against using girl altar boys a long time ago.
In Europe there are no lay readers either and nuns wear proper habits.
The U. S. franchise is apparently open-ended and without any stipulation on what local pastors and their bishops can do to make the Catholic church look ridiculous.
Share your thoughts on the issue. As soon as I get to my computer, I will share mine.
After reviewing the website and the ascinine articles posted I can see why you call it ‘Fishwrap!’
“In Europe there are no lay readers either and nuns wear proper habits.”
Although at the recent WYD in Madrid, at both the opening and closing masses, except for the Gospel, when a Priest or deacon does the reading, there was at least a lay reader for the first reading and on for Sunday, a lay reader for the second.
Alas, thanks to the times we live in, this is news.
Feminism and Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant) are fundamentally incompatible. Those who don't agree should go to one of the many quasi-christian or crypto-pagan churches that create womynpriests and celebrate homosex. The Lord knows there are plenty of them nowadays.
I found the Catholic Church cared more about Social Justice than Jesus Christ.
Pray for America
My sister’s parish discovered a painless way to remove altar girls. Very rigorous standards. And then, let the attrition occur. No one’s upset, because everyone left willing, but it’s just boys now.
Which is exactly how I want it, as a mother of girls and boys.
My sister’s parish discovered a painless way to remove altar girls. Very rigorous standards. And then, let the attrition occur. No one’s upset, because everyone left willing, but it’s just boys now.
Which is exactly how I want it, as a mother of girls and boys.
Everyone needs to read “Get Us Out of Here” by Maria Simma. In it she is told some of the things that make for unhappy souls.
And altar girls is on the list.
Acolytes only.
I am jealous that we do not have that ruling here. I am tired of seeing altar girls.
Besides having altar boys and then acolytes leaads to vocations to the priesthood!
The Rev. John Lankeit is a treasure.
And I bet they were men or seminarians, correct?
No so. The Catholic Church and the Mass is totally centered on Jesus Christ.
1. Liturgy of the Word, Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament, words of Christ from a Gospel, homily.
2. Liturgy of the Eucharist, which is totally concentrated on the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Please visit another Catholic Church to find out the truth or sit down with a priest who will give you straight answers and get your questions answered.
“Catholic social ministry begins and ends with Jesus Christ,” he said. “If it doesn’t, it isn’t Catholic.”
Archbishop Chaput
“Very rigorous standards.”
All I can picture is a certain number of chin ups in a set amount of time.
Freegards
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