Some of the questions which must
occur spontaneously to many Catholics, I’m guessing, are questions to which we
all know the obvious answers.
Like when the Vatican says boy altar servers are ‘very
appropriate’ but only ‘permits’ girl altar servers, why are there more girls in
the sanctuary than boys? Because girls can do anything. Preferring boys to
girls is sexist. Girls provide gender balance. Girls like it more than boys. They
do it better.
But wait on. If/when you were a boy, would you want to get dressed
with a bunch of girls in long frocks and parade into church together all dressed
the same? When they were worn only by boys, servers’ robes were seen as
masculine like priests’ robes were, and still are in the Catholic Church. Now
altar boys have to wear the same gear as their sisters, it has to be sissy.
Girls can’t ‘do anything’. They can’t become priests and as
the Vatican has acknowledged, altar serving leads to priestly vocations. What’s
the introduction of girl altar servers done for priestly vocations in Aotearoa
New Zealand? Warning against false prophets, Jesus said ‘By their fruits you
shall know them’ (Mt 7.16). Think about that.
Boys can’t ‘do anything’, either. They can’t become mothers.
Should we say God is sexist then, because he prefers girls as future mothers
and boys as future priests? Which role is more important, when the former
produce the latter?
Girls like altar serving more than boys do because they like
dressing up and obeying instructions and parading more than boys do, and that’s
why they do it better. Which only makes it worse for the boys.
Where was the ‘gender balance’ at the Last Supper? Not even
Mary was present. Her role was
different, more exalted than the apostles’ – because she was more humble.
‘Ah’, as Teresa of Avila cries, ‘humility’! Where there’s no
humility there’s no love of God or neighbour, no charity. Vocations are lacking
because humility is lacking, because the priesthood must be lived out of love propter Deum: love of others because of
love of God.
One could be excused for thinking altar girls are a Trojan
horse for women priests. That wouldn’t be the prime motivator, but we have to
realise there are forces at work which are beyond our immediate control or
understanding. For one thing, we are attached to our ideals of sexual equality,
and attachments are a handy vehicle for the devil to drive.
The Holy See recommends that as far as possible, the custom
of having only boys as servers be retained, that if a bishop has special
reasons for permitting girl servers his decision must be clearly explained,
that his priests are not required to use them in an act of worship in which no
one has any inherent rights. That sounds to me like an attempt to shut the
stable doors after the horse of girl altar servers had bolted. Like Communion
in the hand, it’s born out of dissent and disobedience (Innocent IV and
Benedict XIV) – ‘an exercise in charity’. 71% of US priests served as altar
boys. It’s not rocket science. The recent trend has been to relax (weaken) law
and doctrine (communion in the hand). Countries with flourishing priestly
vocations generally do not have female altar servers.lysih: igrXo h
The only diocese in the US not allowing girls as servers is
Lincoln Nebraska, where very few Catholic families have asked for the
privilege. The reason? Wait for it. The diocese focuses from a young age on
‘the serious vocation of laity to full … participation in the Mass through contemplation, thanksgiving and adoration’
(my emphasis).
In the end I think we must accept that all the reasons
advanced for girl altar servers are prompted by an influence beyond human
reason.
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