The Church now allows women to be formally installed in the ministries of lector and acolyte.
Girls have been serving the altar since the 1970’s.
My biggest problem with the photo of the altar girls with Pope Leo is that one is wearing sneakers instead of more formal women’s wear.
When I was pastor, altar servers had to wear formal shoes that were dark, black preferably. Girls had to wear dark flat shoes, with hair pulled back.
3 comments:
Father, if having young girls as Altar Servers is good for vocations , why are young boys not dressing up as Nuns and asking to join convents?
I know of no altar girls, starting in the 1970, who have since become priests. I do know that all of my parishes since 1980 have had altar girls and the one parish which produced the largest number of vocations in my time there from 1991-2004 was the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, GA. That parish in my time produced about 10 priestly vocations and a few women religious too and more vocations since that time and there were lots of boys and girls who were servers and served well into college. I made sure the girls wore a different color cassock from the boys.
The use of Altar Girls unfortunately reinforces the false notion that there are no real differences between men and women or the roles that they play in the family and society. Additionally, all of the ministers around the altar should be viewed as an extension of the ministry of the priest, not as the participant of the laity. And because of this the use of boys only is more appropriate.
Post a Comment