Posted on 02/28/2011 5:35:55 AM PST by verdugo
Makes sense. Then as long as boys are given priority at altar server spots over girls then it is ok to have female altar servers (as long as there is a slot open for a girl that is not filled by a boy)?
I don't agree with that.
If, in fact, being an Altar Boy is taking the first step toward the priesthood, then no girl should ever be an Altar Boy. To allow her to take that first step is to lie to her and to the entire Church, that she could complete the journey. Better to have no Altar Boys, than to have girl Altar Boys.
I was an Altar boy for five years. I did it out of love for Christ, a need to participate in my parish and a sense of duty. No other reason...I had no intention of becoming a priest. I hope you don’t think that I was lying to my entire Church, because my 11 year old son is an Altar boy because of love of Christ, parish participation and duty - not as a calling.
We've been there and done that the last 30 years. It does not work, because the job becomes effeminatized.The boys start dropping like flies, and the girls start to take over. Moreover, the girls will never become priests, so the whole purpose of altar servers is lost. The sancuary is no place for women.
We've been there and done that the last 30 years. It does not work, because the job becomes effeminatized.The boys start dropping like flies, and the girls start to take over. Moreover, the girls will never become priests, so the whole purpose of altar servers is lost. The sancuary is no place for women.
I presume that you're female? (On the internet, nobody knows ...)
If I presume correctly, then read my previous post carefully. I did not say that you lied to anybody. I said that the folks who permitted a girl to dress up like an Altar Boy, and to play the part of one, lied to her.
Bluntly, somebody 'in charge' in the parish where you were a girl Altar Boy lied to you.
I’m afraid I would take it a step further and say no women on the altar at all. This is a personal preference. I don’t want women up there doing the readings. I’m all for a male comeback in the Catholic churches. I am blessed to have found a parish in our area that has a huge homeschool community. Our family with 5 kids is one of the smaller families in the parish. On any given Sunday you will find a minimum of 4 but most likely 8+ altar boys serving at Mass. There is about a year waiting list to be trained by Monsignor to become a server. You have to be 12 years old, too. No little guys up there! It makes my heart swell to see it every week.
What I explained is not theoretical, it is historical, the Latin was never ad-libbed during the 60's. What the innovators did before the New Mass, during the early 1960’s, was vernacularize more and more portions of the mass, till by 1968, the change over to the New Mass in totally vernacular, was not as big a change. They NEVER ad-libbed the Latin, and still don't today! The New Mass in it's original form is in Latin, and you don't see anyone ad-libbing in Latin. If they ad-lib, it's done by vernaculizing first, then it's further changed to ad-lib.
Remember, the Gregorian Latin mass was used all over the world. If I went to mass in California, Chile, Japan’ India, or Mozambique, the mass was the same mass in the same language from 6 am to 11:59 am, all the same mass. Very difficult to ad-lib. ,p>
I didn't realize that pants suits from JC Penney = Thai stripper. Now I know. I guess my church clothes (blue jeans, black shoes, plain jacket) are like going naked.
Apparently to be Real Catholics (TM), we all have to wear lace doilies on our heads when we go out. And we have to sit in the wimmen section.
Pat is brilliant at spelling and anything else one can learn with photo-memory. Anything that takes actual thought is harder, because he doesn’t think the way ordinary humans do.
I haven’t attempted to teach James to spell, yet. I think he’ll just stare blankly at me and mumble about dinosaurs, but I could be surprised.
You can just say you’re the bouncer ;-), like when we had the enormous police officer who would stand at the back of the church smiling gently at anyone who tried to leave before Mass was over.
No. Real bouncers show their tattoos. I cover mine up unless it’s hot.
I am male.
I had valid reasons to be an Altar boy (Christ/parish involvement/duty), but I never intended to become a priest. I don’t like anyone thinking that my parents lied to me; they never had any intent to push me towards the priesthood.
When I was in training to be an Altar boy, I was never asked if it was my intent to become a priest. Nor was it ever stated that it was the first step to the priesthood. There were lots of calls for the priesthood in CCD classes, but not in altar boy training.
While becoming an altar boy may be the first step to the priesthood, I have seen nothing that indicates that it is the exclusive reason to be an altar server. As such, calling female altar servers a “lie” is excessive.
In addition, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, confirmed in 1994 that service at the altar is one of the liturgical functions that can be performed by both lay boys and girls. If you believe that the Pope is Peter’s successor and the primacy of Peter, then how can a girl altar server be a “lie” when papal-approved Canon law allows it?
OK ... then nobody lied to you, and I wasn't talking about you personally.
In addition, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, confirmed in 1994 that service at the altar is one of the liturgical functions that can be performed by both lay boys and girls. If you believe that the Pope is Peter’s successor and the primacy of Peter, then how can a girl altar server be a “lie” when papal-approved Canon law allows it?
OK, it's a prudential judgment, by the Pope, and therefore warrants respectful consideration. Upon respectful consideration, I consider the decision to have been unwise. I note historically that those who pushed for girl Altar Boys were the same folks as were pushing for female Priests. That alone is cause for suspicion. To the extent that being an Altar Boy is (perceived to be) a first step toward the priesthood, allowing girls to take that first step is lying to them. It is telling them, implicitly, that one day (when the Church is more "enlightened") they too may be ordained.
I was an Altar Boy from about age 8 to about age 18. I was never asked if I wanted to be a priest (surprising, in retrospect). I thought about it, but did not have that vocation. Still, there was a pervasive understanding that while not all Altar Boys become Priests, virtually all Priests had been Altar Boys. First step? I think so.
Canon Law permits girl Altar Boys. Therefore, they are permitted. The decision is above my paygrade. It is, however, not a doctrinal definition and I am free to think it unwise.
Why are you keeping Michael Moore in your basement?
In whose opinion? :-)
Or maybe it's a reaction to so many gay priest who basically preached 'forgiveness' without repentance or change ( in short, priests teaching liberal theology - as opposed to Christian theology )...
Pope JPII must have thought the same thing. Two months after the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments clarified Canon Law about girl altar servers, the Pope issued his statement that men-only priests was a matter of Divine Law and this CANNOT be changed. He drew a line in the sand.
Yes. He did. And when the line was questioned, he held firm. He was the Pope, that was his job. He also threw a few bones to the heretics (girl Altar Boys, Holy Communion in the hand). I wish he had not, but it was his call.
hmmm... ok — we can discuss this over freepmail and perhaps after Great Lent. There are quite a few anti-Catholic posters who would like nothing better than for us to get filled with rage during Lent, so they will post articles that aim for us to fight.
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