The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, has been a study in contrasts in recent years. On the one hand, it’s been regarded as one of the most conservative, especially under the former Bishop John Keating, with the lack of altar girls often cited as an example of that conservatism. Yet it didn’t have a single approved Tridentine Mass within the borders of the diocese.
Both of those situations have now changed. In twin announcements this week, Bishop Paul Loverde has allowed two different parishs to begin celebrating the Tridentine Mass every week, but he has also said that altar girls will now be allowed as well, presumably not at the Tridentine Mass parishes.
Regarding the altar girl development, pastors will now be able to decide whether to allow altar girls for their parishes. They’re supposed to do this only after consultation with parochial vicars, deacons, and parish councils, but when it comes down to it, if a pastor wants to do this, he will whatever anyone else says. Likewise, a pastor who holds out could experience enormous pressure to allow it. I can imagine that the chancery hears enough about it from vocal parishioners, a not-so-subtle suggestion might come down.
Loverde has wanted to do this for some time
Technorati Tags: bishops, Catholic, liturgy, Tridentine
I’m curious about the stats for vocations attributable to participation as an altar server. Is this common wisdom or are there hard numbers?
You can’t just say “many priests were once altar boys so it follows that altar boys have a higher probability of becoming priests”. You’d also have to look at the number of altar boys who never became priests and see if there was a statistically significant difference between those that did and those that didn’t became priests.
In my parish I’d attribute the fall in altar boys (if there is any) to the fall in parish school enrollment. I’m not sure if it’s the same in other parishes but apparently it’s too much trouble to coordinate altar servers who don’t go to the parish school so they only use 5th through 8th graders enrolled in the parish school. And enrollment has fallen by at least 50% over the last two years. When we transferred our 6th grader to a private Catholic school he was invited to not return to altar serving. He was in the Archdiocesan Boy Choir at the time so we didn’t fight it. He was getting a good bit of exposure to the workings of the Mass via the choir. But my point is, how many boys have priests or server coordinators turned off to altar serving because they didn’t go to the “right” school.
I would like to see a study of former altar girls. Altar girls were really politicized at my home parish. The pastor smarmily declared at Sunday mass that since they couldn’t have altar girls, they wouldn’t have altar boys either. He got a standing ovation, including from me. At the time I a young boy who wanted to avoid any possible duty.
When altar girls were eventually allowed, my sister became the only altar server in my family. She’s now an apostate.
Hence my desire for statistics.
Our nine year old son serves at the Altar. I recently asked him if he would want to serve if he had girls serving along with him. His answer was a profound “NO”.
Kevin, nobody’s going to the trouble of compiling statistics unless they have to. You’ll have to settle for a little thing called “conventional wisdom”:
“… [T]he Holy See wishes to recall that it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar. As is well known, this has also led to a reassuring development of priestly vocations. Thus the obligation to support such groups of altar boys will always continue.” – Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Circular Letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences, Prot. n. 2482/93 (March 15, 1994)
No word yet on statistics connecting female acolytes and the call to religious life.
I’d imagine the altar girl phenomenon will have a worse effect on women’s religious vocations than on priestly vocations.
Seeing priests always surrounded by servile young women isn’t likely to make the priesthood look unattractive to young men.
But who would want to leave her place of honor in the temple to go bathe lepers?
I’ve been talking about this all day, both online and in the church vestibule. Since I live in the Arligton Diocese, it has been a hot topic. I’ve written a detailed response here. After sifting through much discussion the gist of the issue is: There is no liturgical or canonical reason to exclude girls. However, there is considerable concern that the presence of girls disuades boys from serving. This decrease in boys as altar servers leads to a decrease in vocations. Others do not accept the idea that boys and girls are mentally different and if the boys have a problem with the girls as altar servers they should just suck it up and get over it. Their discomfort does not warrant the exclusion of the girls. My own humble opinion is that the inclusion of girls most definitely makes the position of altar server less attractive to the boys. This is not a problem with the boys. It is just the nature of boys. Why must the girls do everything the boys do? In the end, they cannot be priests. Let them serve as musicians, cantors, readers, or ushers. It seems to me this is stubborn pride on the part of girls (or more likely their parents)
What possible good can come from girls serving at the altar? The priesthood is an inherently masculine role. It just seems obvious that we should look at service at the atar as an apprenticeship to the priesthood.
The typical mass in the typical American parish in its superficial details is bound to be offensive to the kind of healthy males we want to attract to the priesthood. Why make the problem worse than it is?
Our nine year old son serves at the Altar. I recently asked him if he would want to serve if he had girls serving along with him. His answer was a profound “NO”.
My eight year old isn’t an altar server yet but he does go to church with us. On Sunday I asked him if he wanted to go to Mass. His answer was a profound “NO”.
Maybe the problem is not the girls but the parents who would allow their sons to make a choice as to whether they would serve or not. When the time comes my son will be told he will be serving at the altar just as my other son and my daughter did. And if my son says he doesn’t want to serve because girls serve I’ll tell him two things:
1) Girls do not have cooties and
2) Put away your pride and humbly thank God you have been given the chance to serve the Body of Christ.
What possible good can come from girls serving at the altar?
My daughter was an altar server and performed very well. I think she came away from the experience with a deeper understanding of what was happening at the Mass and also a deeper understanding of her faith. An understanding that will serve her well as she now goes out into the secular world (of college) and has to live and defend that faith. And believe me, she is given ample opportunities by fellow students and instructors to defend her faith.
The priesthood is an inherently masculine role. It just seems obvious that we should look at service at the atar as an apprenticeship to the priesthood.
What is obvious to some is not obvious to others. It seems obvious to me that we should look at service at the altar as a way to connect our youth to the Church and to educate them in the workings of the Mass. I believe we have seminaries for apprenticeship to the priesthood. How about we apprentice our children to the faith first.
What ever happened to Paul’s belief that women should be silent in church. I believe he said that they should cover their heads also.
“I believe he said that they should cover their heads also.
Which is what I’d require the ladies to do if they served in my parish (albeit before I ever showed up). After all, the custom is still “on the books.”
Chalk up another one for the boys and girls are the same camp!!
Little boys are not little girls and vice versa! Little girls grow up to be women, daughters of Eve if you prefer, and little boys become, sons of Adam, men (we hope). Reading the Theology of the Body (JPII) you see the consequences of this drawn out—men and women are not the same but rather they are complementary. Little boys are ordered to becoming fathers, this is the way that they realize themselves as creatures made in the image of the Father—and little girls are ordered to becoming mothers in the image of God who in his most true Trinitarian life is maternal. Fathers go out into the darkness they make, plant, fight, they do. Mothers stay close to the nest, they too work, in fact they do the most important and yet unseen work of the family, of the whole, but their work is aimed more at “being in relation with” than at doing a specific task. We know the Father and son (masculine images) as father and son because of His exitus and reditus, His going out and returning to the Godhead, but the more mysterious God is the God who in His maternity is the source of all creation, indeed the source of Trinitarian life.
At this point I would like to propose to any of you who think me sexist to consider if the problem does not lie with a under-valuing of motherhood caused by an over valuation of masculine “roles.” As I like to point out Mother Teresa and the holy Father JPII had very different roles and yet in the life of the Church I honestly think they are of equal importance.
Service at the Altar is a privilege, which no one has a rite to (similar to holy orders). So when the Church calls people to serve at the Altar it is always a privilege, one that girls and women can fulfill. However as Catholicmom pointed out just because you can it is not necessarily the case that you should. Serving at the altar is ordered to the service of the priesthood. The server, we believe, is meant to accompany the priest, but where is the priest going? Into the cloud of unknowing, into heaven, where he, united with Christ, offers the sacrifice to the Father. While true, the whole assembly comes with the priest to share for a moment at the heavenly table, it is the priest, with the deacon and the server who dares, like the ancient Jewish priests, to enter the Holy of Holies as the agent for the people. If the server is meant to assist the priest with his Ministry, a ministry of going out to God, of fighting the battle, of doing the sacrifice, then clearly this service is a masculine service. Can girls do it, sure, but truth be told, boys gain more from the experience, because they are learning about what they are called to be fathers, either physical/moral or spiritual.
Finally we come to my point: Christians are called to a sharing of goods, of talents and responsibilities, based on need. Because it is intrinsically a masculine service that they provide, unless there is a dearth of boys available girls should defer to boys simply because in their spiritual life they need it more. Although an immature boy may say, “ooh girls have coodies!!” What he means is really quite profound. It means that he has recognized that girls are quite different than he, and having come to that realization he has begun to ask himself what it means to be a son of Adam, a necessary step before he can see and engage the goodness, beauty, and otherness of the daughters of Eve.