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PDF versionVatican paper comes in praise of altar girls
by John L Allen Jr on Aug. 06, 2010
Earlier this week, more than 50,000 young altar servers from around the world flocked to Rome for a gathering with Pope Benedict XVI. It's a regular event, but this year there was a twist: For the first time, altar girls outnumbered the boys roughly 60-40.
On the front page of Saturday's edition of L'Osservatore Romano (which is released in Rome Friday afternoon), the official Vatican newspaper, essayist Lucetta Scaraffia styles the post-Vatican II acceptance of altar girls as an important breakthrough, saying that it marks the end of "any attribution of impurity" to females, and corrects a "profound inequality."
Here's the relevant section from Scaraffia's essay, in NCR translation:
"Being an altar server was always understood as a service but, at the same time, as a privilege, because it leads one into the heart of the liturgical celebration, in the space of the altar, to direct contact with the Eucharist. The exclusion of girls from all this, for the sole reason of belonging to the female sex, has always weighed heavily and signified a profound inequality within Catholic education, which fortunately has been cancelled by now for several decades. Even if perhaps many pastors have been resigned to altar girls only in the absence of available boys, for young women overcoming this barrier was very important, and in fact that’s how it’s been understood: the presence of a female majority at the tenth gathering of 'ministrants' which recently took place in the presence of the pope demonstrates it."
"For girls, entering into the space of the altar has meant the end of any attribution of impurity to their sex, it’s meant the possibility of living this formative experience of extraordinary importance in religious education, and it’s meant a different kind of attention to the liturgy as well as coming closer to the faith by drawing near to its very heart."
As another essay earlier in the week by Gian Maria Vian, the editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore, also did, Scaraffia suggests that the gathering of young altar servers with the pope offered a counter-point to the sexual abuse scandals which have recently swirled around the Vatican.
"These happy youth, celebrating and proud of their role, who came to Rome in order to bring Benedict XVI their affection and enthusiasm were – certainly not on purpose, but in fact – a concrete and positive response to the accusations, true and false, which have been launched against the church in these months," she wrote.
Interesting. Now, if only
Interesting. Now, if only Lincoln, NE would allow altar girls...
And the cathedral of the Fort
And the cathedral of the Fort Worth diocese and Clay and Montague Counties, Texas.
Being an altar boy used to be
Being an altar boy used to be a natural way for working priests to recruit youngsters to the priesthood. Somebody better tell the altar girls that carrying towels and water is as close as the good ol' boys are going to allow them to get.
MAYBE THE EDITORS of
MAYBE THE EDITORS of L'Osservatore Romano should be told the inequity continues in many cases. Some priests and bishops flatly refuse to use girls as altar servers from parish to parish, diocese to diocese. The contrast in attitudes can be stark in side-by-side parishes. The traditionalist (pre-Vatican II) movement tends to support this basic anti-female approach.
As far as altar girls being a counterpoint to the clerical sex abuse, that is nonsense.
Does this make the L'Osservatore's nice praise ring hollow?
Tragically, it does. Maybe NCR should say so editorially.
The piece is in the Vatican
The piece is in the Vatican newspaper, and does not constitute a formal statement from the Vatican. For all we know it is merely the opinion of the editors.
I am personally 100% female altar servers. They pervert the the very reason for having severs at the altar: which is to encourage vocations to the Priesthood. Since females cannot ever be ordained, and since the Church has no authority whatsoever to ordain females, it should be males and only males serving at the altar for they alone have the possibility of ordination.
Maybe you missed this earlier
Maybe you missed this earlier Blog:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/two-notes-rome-rally-altar-boys-and...
Welcome to the ranks of us dissenting Catholics! You can scroll down and see my take on the bs you posted insinuating that girls on the altar magically discourage future vocations among boys. I think you, too, need to watch more ESPN and less EWTN.
Mr. Tom317 has a case of bad
Mr. Tom317 has a case of bad historical and theological understanding. He forgot to use the word "against" female altar servers, but his point is clear. There is no evidence that Jesus ever ordained anyone. He chose some disciples, among which were many prominent women. Boy altar servers did exist for several hundred years in most places of the church. Priestly vocations came from the community, not any heirarchical structure (such as altar boys, seminarians, priests,etc.) Women in the early chuch were very involved in the eucharistic meal. As far as the church's authority, the tradtionalist view should be that it has all the authority on earth or else there would be no need of a church to decide anything.
Many times Catholics blogging at NCR have no historical knowledge of the church beyond their own experience and have no theological understanding except their own. That makes for much conflict in the church.
Tom, both of your assumptions
Tom, both of your assumptions are hopelessly wrong. When Paul VI convened a gruop of theologians, they rightly concluded there was no theological basis for excluding women from the priesthood.
Also, by your "logic" women should not be allowed to attend Mass either. They, like Teresa of Lisieux, might want to become priests.
Now that B16 has recognized
Now that B16 has recognized the contribution of female altar servers, will the bishop of Lincoln do the same?
Or will Bruskewitz defy the example of his pope?
On the whole altar service is
On the whole altar service is a great way to include young people into liturgical ministry while at the same time opening their hearts to a call to other ministries in the church and for service to others in the world. That the presbyterate is one of these ministries goes without saying, but the point of altar service is not the presbyterate, rather it is service to the Body of Christ.
Utter nonsense. The purpose
Utter nonsense.
The purpose of having altar boys is to recruit some of them as future priests. Inviting girls to serve at the altar means to arouse theit interest for a career that remains close for them: ultimately, this is bound to end in frustration.
I think that at the time when girls were first admitted to serve at the altar, the intention was to set a first, seemingly harmless, step towards the ordination of femail deacons, priests and bishops. In the meantime, it has been clarified that the Church has no authority to ordain women. This being so, it would seem advisable not to have girls as altar servants any more.
Another new dissenter!
Another new dissenter! Welcome aboard! I look forward to other postings from you helping us to understand how B16 is screwing things up.
And I suppose the only
And I suppose the only purpose for marriage is to procreate lots of little boys who can grow up and become little priesty boys?
What a load of utter nonsense they must teach you in Austria. No wonder people are leaving your church in droves.
Finally the truth comes out.
Finally the truth comes out. The priesthood is not about a call from God, it's more about recruitment like in the military. What's next a compulsory draft?
Why not just stop baptizing
Why not just stop baptizing females and be done with it? No more double messages, no more agonizing
over equality, no more confusion.
Condescending. Very late.
Condescending. Very late.
Is the purpose of having
Is the purpose of having altar servers to encourage priestly vocations?
It would seem to me that the role of an altar server is a ministry unto itself. I think that to view any liturgical ministry (altar server, lector, EME, etc.) as merely training for something else is a great injustice to that particular role.
I think that having joyous, interested, personable clergy is as much a source of generating interest in the priesthood as being an altar server.
In the 1980s, right after the
In the 1980s, right after the Vatican gave approval for altar girls, this very paper published this little ditty (maybe in "Cry Pax?") --
"Ladies, Ladies, soon you'll agree
This altar girl crumb from the Holy See
Gives truth to the adage that you'll always be,
Rarely the dog, but most often the tree."
Now it seems a bit over the top, unless you apply the thought to women's ordination.
Notice the ratio of 60 - 40
Notice the ratio of 60 - 40 in favor of girls. The process of ghettoization of altar servers which I predicted is well on its way to completion. It's a very sad occurrence & it shows that Benedict leaves a very lot to be desired from the conservative viewpoint.
The Catholic Church continues to be a post conciliar mess. The only good news is that females are not allowed to serve in the extraordinary rite & the abandonment of the Novus Ordo rite (now at 75% of Catholics in America) continues apace. In most European countries Mass attendance is below 10%. Rather than an outpouring of the Spirit following Vatican II, it looks like a near total surrender to secularism in Europe at least.
My God paulte! First it was
My God paulte! First it was JPII's stand on the death penalty and now it's B16 on altar girls. You've dissented against the papacy twice in as many days. I've always believed in the power of conversion, and you have reaffirmed that for me today. BTW, let's see how many European Catholics come flocking back to the Church now that the good ole Tridentine mass is officially back in the good graces of the Vatican.
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