A FEMALE IN CIVVIES GETS OUT OF THE SANCTUARY

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Having laid down the law on 'females in civvies doing the readings' in my post FATHER JOE GRAYLAND SETS HIS PEOPLE FREE, I really need confess to being one of those females myself - as recently as Pentecost Sunday.

Bishop Emeritus Peter Cullinane might be surprised to learn that as one of those "Latin Mass folk" who he says "absent themselves from the Novus Ordo", not only do I - like Sharon Crooks - attend the Novus Ordo in my parish but am embedded in it, so to speak.

I can't compete with Sharon, but in the interests of enlightening +Cullinane on the parallel universe of 'Latin Mass folk', I can say I've washed altar linen, cleaned the church, welcomed the Sunday assembly, composed and led Prayers of the Faithful, made cups of tea, served my orange cake and asparagus rolls, arranged flowers, proclaimed Readings, taught others to proclaim the Readings, played the organ, been sacristan, thurifer (only once, because I wasn't too clever at it, but at least now some parishioners know the meaning of the word 'thurifer') and as 'Minister of the Eucharist' also taken Holy Communion to the sick, and attended Holy Mass daily. 

Of  'active participation' outside the church building I'll just say I've tended the church and presbytery grounds, planted a hedge and trees - which have since been removed and cut down. Four trees, to be precise. Large trees. I don't tend the grounds any more.  

Having established my credentials I should explain that I did ministries like the 'Welcome', POF, swinging the incense and distributing the Eucharist in ignorance, misled by the 'Spirit of Vatican II' as invoked by a succession of parish priests. 

For years though, I've inveighed against girls as 'altar servers' because I could see their harmful effect in regard to encouraging altar boys. But in another sense it was very inconsistent of me, because I was invading the male domain of the sanctuary myself on a regular basis. It's only very recently that I learned women have no place in the sanctuary.

Doh. That's been the case in the Church for nearly 2000 years, and before that was observed by the Israelites. The sanctuary (Holy of Holies) was set completely apart from the rest of the temple and open only to the high priest. Not even Jesus Christ Himself could enter it.

Now of course, the sanctuary contains (or should contain) the physical Presence of Jesus Christ, and even after Pope Paul VI's doctoring of the rules, the formal ministries of acolyte (server) and lector (reader) are still open only to men and boys, for the simple reason that only men can be priests, so only males assist them in their priestly functions. 'Ministers' are men set apart by the Church for those functions which are not to be filled by laymen - or even less, laywomen.

Before you start, yes, St Paul did say that "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female" but he was talking about the grace conferred by baptism, not the way the Church is organized for worship. Christ is the Spouse of the Church, the Head of His Body. In Christ, women  receive and bear fruit. To say otherwise is to deny Pope JP II's Theology of the Body.

And how many Catholics know - as any good Protestant does -  that St Paul also said, "Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent" (1 Tim 2: 11,12)?https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3439


Which all goes to show that in allowing these age-old distinctions to be airily dismissed - "we'll take out those sanctuary rails"; "Julia, you can be a 'Special Minister', women are better at it"; "it's nice to see girls on the altar" - priests are displaying a woeful ignorance which seminaries and bishops have a duty, Vatican II says, to enlighten. 

In Some Highlights of the Liturgical Renewal Initiated by Sacrosanctum Concilium, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, stated that: "Clerics must themselves be properly formed in the liturgy. So should religious personnel, catechists and other pastoral agents. No one can give what the person does not have." 

Sacrosanctum Concilium itself states that "no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.

Cardinal Arinze went on: "It is clear that inculturation does not encourage banalization or trivialization of the sacred liturgy. Spontaneity run wild can manifest itself in many ways. 

"At the beginning of Mass the priest can trivialize by amusing the people on the weather, by saying "Good morning everybody" instead of "The Lord be with you" or "The grace of Our Lord… ", which are the proper liturgical opening greetings. 

"He can banalize by an exaggerated autobiographical introduction and trite jokes in his misguided effort to warm the people up for worship! He may not realize that he is now drawing attention to himself instead of to God and the liturgical celebration of the day …


"If the seats are arranged as in an amphitheatre or as in a banquet (as in the 'Easter arrangement' at Our Lady of Lourdes, Palmerston North), the undeclared emphasis may be horizontal attention to one another, rather than vertical attention to God. In this sense the celebration of Mass facing the people demands from the priest and altar servers a high level of discipline, so that as from the offertory of the Mass it be seen clearly that both priest and people are turned towards God, not towards one another. 

"We come to Mass primarily to adore God, not to affirm one another, although this is not excluded.

"Some people think that liturgical renewal means the removal of kneelers from Church pews, the knocking down of altar rails or the positioning of the altar in the middle of the sitting area of the people. The Church has never said any such thing." 

(Ahem. Here's where I confess my most egregious wrongdoing: as Chair of the Parish Council at a time when I didn't know Grade A from a bull's foot about liturgy, I presided over the removal of the kneelers from St Joseph's under the enthusiastic direction of a priest who if I remember rightly was a member of the National Liturgy Commission. Who was I to say nay to such an august personage?) 

But back to Cardinal Arinze, a cardinal after my own heart:

"Nor does liturgical restoration mean iconoclasm or the removal of all statues and sacred images. 

"These should be displayed, albeit with good judgment. 

"And the altar of the Blessed Sacrament should be outstanding for its beauty and honored prominence, otherwise in some so-called restored churches one could rightly lament: "They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him " (Jn 20:13)."  



Leo Leitch says:

Julia, most chairmen of parish councils are ignorant about The Faith and its implications.