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My, my, my. It's not just the women in power that do the things described here. I can name several men, heterosexuals with big families, that would insist on the sort of hootenanny described. And woe betide those who interfere (going on in my former parish right now).

Listen, the world is not all honky-dorrey all the time when men are in charge. It depends on the men. Some have no concept of hospitality. Some just are not organized and many don't pay attention enough to detail to make it all come off well (we won't get into the last time the altar boys' surplices were ironed). Fortunately, when it comes to the vestments, the sisters that serve the archbishop take care of cleaning, repairing, pressing, etc.

It comes down to the pastor and how well he has things in control. I'm not talking about being a tyrant or a "pray, pay and obey" sort. I mean a man who has the gift of being able to lead the people well and right and somehow get the women WANT to do other things. A lot of times, the happy clappy places are the parishes left open to house the revolutionaries to keep them out of the rest of the archdiocese. Even here, in the Rome of the West, where there are at least 10 Latin Masses every weekend and liturgical correctness tightens more every year, there are a handful of parishes that are abominations liturgically. The newer mega-churches out in the county are hideous. Each Newman center at the various universities is, to be kind, experimental. Up on the north side, one of the most famous churches is really a Redemptorist mission that ROCKS on Sunday and one devout daily Mass-goer I knew was convinced it wasn't really a Catholic Church.

So, even those of us who are in places where Canon I is the norm with bells and incense and organ and chant, etc., can be one parish away from crap. I just feel bad for the women who are convinced that in order to fully participate in parish life, they have to be "on stage" at Mass. To be honest, it can be wearing week in and week out.