www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Altar Girls?

I attended a Roman Catholic mass last weekend for the Baptism of my niece. I was shocked to see a girl as an altar server. Honestly, it made me squirm in my pew all through the service. When did the Roman Catholic Church start allowing girls to serve? I've never seen this in the Byzantine Catholic Church that I belong to. Please tell me this is not happening in other Eastern Churches! Am I over reacting?

Mike Lillie

Vatican II? It's supposed to happen only when boys are unavailable. It has been quite abused. In the BCC it's not permissible. There was a row a while back when pictures came to light of OCA girl altar servers. A letter was sent out to stop that from reoccurring.

Mike,

If you do a search on the Forum, you will see that this topic has been addressed before in great detail. It may help you find the full answer to your questions.

ByzTX is quite correct.

God bless,

Gordo

Sorry to bring up old topics! I will do a search prior to adding new topics in the future.

Mike L.

Mike,

That was not a chastisement from me!

I just wanted to let you know that there had been some discussion on it in the past, and that you can search for it on the forum if you are looking for additional details.

We talk about the same topics quite frequently here. Sorry about the confusion!

God bless,

Gordo

Mike:

Christ is in our midst!! He is and always will be!!

Sorry that you haven't seen this before, but it's been going on for a good long time now. In fact, it was going on when my own daughter was in second grade and that was at least 17 years ago.

If you check some of the previous threads, it is also going on in some Eastern Catholic Churches and, if memory serves, there are some pictures of this kind of thing in some Orthodox Churches, though it is probably very rare there.

In Christ,

BOB

Gordo,

No confusion here, I apologize if I sounded upset.

I really didn't know that this had been going on for such a long time. I haven't been that involved in the Church for quite some time. I recommitted myself to my Faith last year, and had not witnessed this until this past weekend. Then again, I do not attend Latin Rite mass very often. I guess I am catching up on the last couple of decades of old news.

Thanks for your comments!

Mike

Pope John Paul II authorized female altar servers for the Roman Catholic Church in 1992. The Congregation for Divine Worship published the decree publicizing the permission in 1994. Please see this:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdwcomm.htm

Some Eastern Catholic Churches of Syriac heritage have apparently adopted this practice too.

Three years ago, I visited the Ukrainian Catholic parish in Revloc Pennsylvania. There was an altar girl at the altar for the entire Liturgy.

So Revloc has both a UGCC and a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, or is that Orthodox Church in Colver?

Ung (Do you know the story behind the naming of "Revloc"? It came about in the same way the name "Windber" was created )

X.B.! B.B.!

Ung:

There is an OCA parish in Colver, on the other side of the mountain. The priest is a friend of my wife and me.

BOB

I'll never forget the first and only time I saw an altar girl. She had a ponytail and just bounced all over doing her job and her hair was bouncing away. It was really distracting!

That can and should be dealt with by training .

I was, much earlier this year, at Mass served by my young RC Priest friend and chatting over coffee afterwards I congratulated him on his 4 servers - and was told I had miscounted - there were actually seven !!

They were quiet , moved serenely , acted reverently and knew exactly what they should be doing when. No-one fidgeted , they stood and knelt at appropriate times . I'm told that this is the way they always behave - truly a joy to behold. How old were they ? - I would say that oldest would be about 12 the rest were much younger . OH - and most were girls

Given the quite clear language of the materials from Rome so kindly supplied in one of the preceding posts, what is the basis for the assertion by 'Byzantine TX' that "it's supposed to happen only when boys are unavailable. It has been quite abused."

"The Holy See wishes to recall that it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar. As is well known, this has led to a reassuring development of priestly vocations. Thus the obligation to support such groups of altar boys will always continue."

'If in some diocese, on the basis of Canon 230 #2, the Bishop permits that, for particular reasons, women may also serve at the altar, this decision must be clearly explained to the faithful..."

How many Diocese explain to the faithful that that just can not recruit enough boys to serve at the alter and need to use girls also. In fact, I would be willing to speculate that these Diocese just would like to ignore the tradition al together.

If the Roman Catholic Church can not recruit enough boys to serve at the alter then then there will diffidently be a vocation crisis.