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?
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.
After reviewing the website and the ascinine articles posted I can see why you call it ‘Fishwrap!’
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.
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.
The Rev. John Lankeit is a treasure.
Yeah ... I bet "Michael Sean Winters" is uncomfortable around girls.
Jus' sayin' ...
So they used to have girls, but are reverting to all boys? I wonder how that’ll go over with the parents of girls who are currently serving.
One factual error - Arlington also had only boys as diocesan policy until a few years ago, when Bishop Loverde said it was up to the pastors. Our parish has girls, but at least they’re not in the same cassocks as the boys. I do wish they’d quit playing with their hair.
Aww The Fishwrap is upset. Bonus.
once you start mixing with girls at that age, the boys see being an alter server is a “girly” thing and you end up with all girls.