[Blzbba]

Nobody is "afraid" of altar girls. It's just that it doesn't make sense to have females serving in what is often a first step in the ordination process when they can't be ordained anyway.

It makes plenty of sense if that's all the innocent little 8 year old wants to do - help the priest. Not a single altar boy that I grew up with (I was one from 8-12) ever became a priest...so why should we have been altar boys?

[passive1]

Surveys of Catholic priests have found that as many as 85% of them began as altar servers. It is well known that many priests were influenced to a priestly vocation because of serving at the altar. Kinda makes sense, doesn't it?

[Alberta's Child]

Not a single altar boy that I grew up with (I was one from 8-12) ever became a priest...so why should we have been altar boys?

To serve God in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and in the process to gain a rudimentary understanding of the priesthood.

Not a single kid that I grew up with ever became an archaeologist -- does that mean that those class trips to the Museum of Natural History were a waste of time?