Posted on 01/13/2007 10:09:52 AM PST by Dennis Paul Morony
For all it's been going on for years now, not everyone agrees with me that using girls (and young women) as altar servers might be worth keeping in the future.
There is EVERYTHING wrong with altar girls. The thing is that in many(probably the majority) of parishes, serving at the altar is now seen as a female role now, and with this, boys have less of a chance to interact with the priests, therefore, there is a great possibility of vocations being lost. And again, parishes that have strong altar boy programs such as SS Cyrill $ Methodius and Assumption Grotto, both in the Detroit archdiocese, also produce the most female religous as well.
I am not just opposed to altar girls(and in general with the exception of altar boys who serve the priest during mass) but I am opposed to all lay involvment in clerical roles. It is the biggest reason why I mostly attend the TLM, not because of language, but I am sick of lay and female involvment in what should be roles reserved for the clergy.
I lived in Italy for a while and attended Mass at St Peters and the other great basilicas quite often and not ONCE did I see any altar girls at these masses.
I wonder why the Vatican allows it in other dioceses around the world, yet refuse to allow it their OWN backyard?
Maybe because deep down they KNOW it's a bad idea??
Since both boys AND girls are serving, precisely WHY would "serving at the altar [be] seen as a female role"??
"And again, parishes that have strong altar boy programs such as SS Cyrill $ Methodius and Assumption Grotto, both in the Detroit archdiocese, also produce the most female religous as well."
And is it not possible that those parishes have an overall strong catechistic effort, which is actually what results in both???
"I am not just opposed to altar girls(and in general with the exception of altar boys who serve the priest during mass) but I am opposed to all lay involvment in clerical roles. It is the biggest reason why I mostly attend the TLM, not because of language, but I am sick of lay and female involvment in what should be roles reserved for the clergy.
And what roles would those be?? Certainly "altar serving" is no such thing.
At first I did not like it, but I do like it now. The girls seem to take it much more seriously than the boys. It is here to stay so why we are discussing it seems unnecessary.
Why not? Are they priests?
There is no such thing as the "American Catholic Church". And, no.
The lady of the house pointed out that for many girls in such small out of the way places, training to become an altar server is the closest girls (as well as boys) can ever get to a Catholic Religious Education.
What, they have no parents?
Who cares if the girls take to it, the thing is that female altar servers came asd a result of feminist pressure, and sadly teh Vatican on this issue caved, but even then the Vatican said that boys serving on the altar is strongly preferred, but sadly in terms of liturgy, most US parishes are disobidient.
I am not sure how permanent it is, because many of the parishes that strongly pushed for girls on the altar now lack servers in general.
The FACT is that altar serving is by in large in many parishes seen as a female role, and hence, it has become VERY difficult in many parishes to recruit males for those roles.
The presence of girls renders boys less likely to wish to assume the role of altar server. Boys prefer to do "all-boy" type things and when you add girls into the mix it starts to seem girly to them and they flee. Girls have no such bias against doing boy things. So when you start adding girls to a group you very often end up with the group dominated by girls. This has happened or is happening to most intellectual and cultural pursuits in our civilization today, leaving boys and men with only sports, the military, and other physical pursuits seeming "truly" masculine, and girls are even encroaching in this area (did you know some schools are making some of their sports teams co-ed now). It's a huge problem, because boys naturally gravitate towards male-dominated areas and away from mixed-gender areas. But with the feminization of our culture, there are very few male-dominated areas in our society left, in which they can feel comfortable. Serving in the sanctuary should be one of those areas left to males as it is meant to lead to the priesthood.
As for girls being better and more dedicated altar servers, you can chalk that up to the feminization of our culture too, in which boys are either forced to feminize or left by the wayside, rather than being taught manly virtue.
Female altar servers should be continued, and I say that as a former altar boy.
P.S. One hundred years ago, cheerleading was an all-male activity.
Opposed suh, unalterably opposed.
(From "Advise and Consent" for the multitude of you too young to remember).
Yo, Larry!
Thanks a bunch for that info. Going over 30 was one of the worst things I've ever done, CRS "Can't Remember Stuff" gets ahold of you and won't let go.
Such being the case, if THAT is a "patten," then what do we call the small gold plate in the priest's hands he uses to offer the host?
Thanks for the input,
Dennis
Wow!
Or "Guau!" as we say the same sound in Spanish: to think that there is at least one other of "us" to whom Allen Drury was (or better is) a living memory.
But!
Speaking of CRS -- was the character saying "Opposed suh, unalterably opposed" one of the lucky ones to wind up at the business end of a Soviet KGB (or was a GRU?) firing squad after "The Big Takeover," or did he have the bad luck to windup up in the Funny Farm as an anti-Soviet 1096?
Thanks!
Dennis
I like the idea of separate retreats and encouraging the girls to be nuns. That would get rid of some girls, pronto!
Somehow the retreats encouraging boys to become priests does not seem to threatening to boys.
Sorry, don't believe it.
If the boys "interest" is that easily derailed, they have no vocation in the first place.
Believe what you want, but the FACT is that the number of altar boys dropped dramatically in the last 12 years once females were allowed to serve at the altar. I,unlike you, am not blind to reality.
I've heard it, too. From a church musician who definitely knows about this stuff.
Once it's perceived as a "girl thing," the boys vanish.
And there weren't other things going on that might also have contributed?? But somehow you KNOW that, incontrovertibly, it just HAD to be the admission of girls. Sorry, but you can call black "white" all day, that doesn't make it "white".
What you have is called an "opinion"---not a "fact".
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