Michael P. Foley presents Eight Reasons Why Men Only Should Serve at Mass. First, I am going to critique the strengths and weaknesses of his supporting arguments, history of altar servers (both male and female) citing papal documents, and then I will give my opinion on the subject.
His first reason - Allowed vs. Encouraged - is a pretty weak argument. This argument displays more of failure on the part of parishes, priests, and vocations to encourage and guide males to become altar servers and the priesthood among faithful boys and men.
Foley's second reason - Liturgical vs. Nonliturgical - is overstated since even before female altar servers were allowed women were allowed and encouraged to participate other parts of the liturgy.
His next three arguments - Mars vs. Venus, Function vs. Symbol, and Holy vs. Sacred - are strong arguments for a return to all-male altar servers.
Michael P. Foley's reason - Good for the Goose, Not for the Gander - is partially correct. The priesthood is not about being a Lord over people but is about teaching, serving, and espousing Christlike values to his flock in the normal day to day interactions, and during the Eucharistic Prayer Christ is speaking through the priest and to His flock while transubstatiation is taking place so in my opinion Foley misses the mark with this argument.
His argument - Top Down vs. Bottom-up - is weak. This is a weak reasoning since our secular society today already thinks the Church is sexist or chauvinistic and is not in sync with Today's Times, even with the Church allowing girl altar servers. The philosphies of both modernism and postmodernism are designed to repudiate, question, put doubt in peoples' minds and chip away at both Tradition and traditional values. As Catholic Christians we need to consistently defend, and promote our faith in order to dispel these attacks on the Church.
In Foley's final argument - Thermometer vs. Thermostat - he makes a good and strong case for all-male altar servers.
Below I have provided excerpts from the relevant authoritative documents.
Liturgicae Instaurationes
Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship
Instruction on the orderly carrying out of the Constitution on the Liturgy, September 5, 1970
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7. In conformity with norms traditional in the Church, women (single, married, religious), whether in churches, homes, convents, schools, or institutions for women, are barred from serving the priest at the altar.
According to the norms established for these matters, however, women are allowed to:
a. proclaim the readings, except the gospel. They are to make sure that, with the help of modern sound equipment, they can be comfortably heard by all. The conferences of bishops are to give specific directions on the place best suited for women to read the word of God in the liturgical assembly.
b. announce the intentions in the general intercessions;
c. lead the liturgical assembly in singing and play the organ or other instruments;
d. read the commentary assisting the people toward a better understanding of the rite;
e. attend to other functions, customarily filled by women in other settings, as a service to the congregation, for example, ushering, organizing processions, taking up the collection.
CITING THE ABOVE REFERENCE, JOHN PAUL II wrote, in Inaestimabile Donum (Instruction Concerning Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, April 17, 1980):
(18.) There are, of course, various roles that women can perform in the liturgical assembly: these include reading the Word of God and proclaiming the intentions of the Prayer of the Faithful. Women are not, however, permitted to act as altar servers.
Because of the way the 1983 Code of Canon Law was worded, some argued that the prohibition of females serving at the altar no longer applied based on the inclusion of both males and females in canon 230 §2: "Lay persons can fulfill the function of lector in liturgical actions by temporary designation. All lay persons can also perform the functions of commentator or cantor, or other functions, according to the norm of law." In some dioceses, girls were allowed to act as altar servers under the new canon law, without any explicit decision on the matter from the Holy See.
The decision came in the form of a circular letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to presidents of episcopal conferences on 15 March 1994, which announced a 30 June 1992 authentic interpretation (confirmed on 11 July 1992 by Pope John Paul II) from the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts. This authentic interpretation said that canon 230 §2 states that service at the altar is one of the liturgical functions that can be performed by both lay men and women. The circular letter, written by the cardinal-prefect of the Congregation, also clarified that canon 230 §2 has a permissive and not a preceptive character, that is, it allows, but does not require, the use of female altar servers. Thus it was for each diocesan bishop to decide whether to allow them in his diocese.
The wording of the 1983 Code of Canon Law was ambiguous since the prohibition was not specifically included and this led the way to a different interpretation (applying a hermeneutic of rupture from Tradition). But, the Code of Caon Law never denied the prohibition either. The 1994 letter by Pope John Paul II retroactively made official that the 1983 Code of Canon Law was in fact a reversal of Tradition with regards to women being allowed to serve at the altar.
Before I reveal my opinion on this subject, I do want to let you know that I was a an altar server for about seven years, while growing up. It was an honor and privilege to assist the priest in his duties. But with saying that, I do believe that it would be much better for the Church and priestly vocations for a return to all-male altar servers to happen. Unfortunately, I don't think there can be an abrupt change back to the hermeneutic of continuity in Tradition though. Plus, I don't think that women altar servers is the root cause of the decline in priests. (I think contraception is more of a cause of the decline of priests than girl altar servers.) Proper Catechesis needs to be taught better to our kids in both Catholic schools and in religious education classes. What percentage of priest's homilies tackle the tough issues like abortion, contraception, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research because the priests are afraid of offending some parishoner? The Church is against all of these and if there is a priest that is afraid to teach the faith from the pulpit on a consistent basis then there is a problem much bigger than the question of whether woman should serve at the altar.
Showing posts with label decline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decline. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Are Girl Altar Servers Having a Bad Effect on the Priesthood Or is Contraception Hurting the Priesthood?
As a someone who used to be a girl altar server and who is proud of participating or helping in the Mass, I must say that women altar servers could be hurting the priesthood. But one must take into account several factors when trying to answer this question. Has there been a decline in births among Catholics over the years? Has there been a decline in the number of Catholics who follow the Magisterium? Has there been a population decline in the Church as a result of Catholics leaving the Church, either for another church or because of those who are fallen away and don‘t attend church period? What are the reasons behind this?
In 2006 there was a survey of Catholic women asking whether they took birth control or not. The poll revealed a stunning and quite horrifying reality - that 9 out of 10 Catholic women have used birth control. If this poll merely asked “Have you used contraceptives?‘ this needed to be deconstructed a little further since contraceptives do have alternative therapeutic uses. People, like myself, may have resorted to use contraceptives at one time or another to treat such female diseases such as endometriosis, so saying “using contraceptives is always immoral or is always intrinsically evil” seems to be an overstatement since the qualifier “always” wouldn’t allow for the therapeutic (and non-contraceptive) use of a substance often prescribed as a means of birth control. But then if a substance isn’t being used to contracept, but for some other legitimate benefit (e.g., treating a disease), then in that case the substance isn’t a contraceptive. Thus, while contraception may be intrinsically evil, a certain medication might not be intrinsically contraceptive, but only contraceptive in relation to those using it in that conventional way. One might say that if a woman uses “contraceptives” to contracept and to purposely avoid procreating or creating life, then that is always intrinsically evil. But, regardless this astounding result is way, way too high among Catholics, and is a serious problem that must be addressed through better education in the Catholic sphere. On this distinction between legitimate and sinful uses of substances that are conventionally used as birth control, I have no statistics, but my intuition is that there could not be nearly that many women with conditions that would call for the medicinal use of such medications.
From the National Catholic Reporter, there are two items that are noteworthy:
‘First, for the first time this year, the female altar servers in attendance outnumbered the males. According to organizers, the balance was roughly 60-40 in favor of females. The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, pointed to the turnout as a symbol of “the massive entry in recent decades of girls and young women into a role once reserved exclusively to males.”’
“Second, Vatican sources seemed eager to bill the gathering of tens of thousands of devoted young Catholics with Pope Benedict XVI as a kind of counter-point to the sexual abuse scandals of recent months.”
It seems like there are simply less Catholics, at least in part due to contraception, and therefore less boys, less altar boys, which ultimately has led to a decline of priests. Maybe, more of those who are faithful Catholics are simply having more girls than boys? Could a backlash against girl altar servers inevitably produce more dissent among those girls later in life, as they become mature women? Shouldn’t we encourage participation among women also instead of stifling it? I believe as long as it is made crystal clear that altar girls can NEVER become priests then it is okay for girls to be altar servers and assist the priest in the Mass.
It is my conclusion that the allowing girls to serve at the altar is not the primary cause for the decline of men entering the priesthood. I also believe that even if the presence of altar girls are having a negative effect that is discouraging young men from becoming priests (which I doubt since most traditional Catholics encourage young men to consider the priesthood as a vocation and one would think that a girl altar server‘s family would most likely be traditional and adhering to the Magisterium), the effect is minimal and miniscule in comparison to the negative effect that contraceptives have had in the past and are having on the decline in vocations to the priesthood.
In 2006 there was a survey of Catholic women asking whether they took birth control or not. The poll revealed a stunning and quite horrifying reality - that 9 out of 10 Catholic women have used birth control. If this poll merely asked “Have you used contraceptives?‘ this needed to be deconstructed a little further since contraceptives do have alternative therapeutic uses. People, like myself, may have resorted to use contraceptives at one time or another to treat such female diseases such as endometriosis, so saying “using contraceptives is always immoral or is always intrinsically evil” seems to be an overstatement since the qualifier “always” wouldn’t allow for the therapeutic (and non-contraceptive) use of a substance often prescribed as a means of birth control. But then if a substance isn’t being used to contracept, but for some other legitimate benefit (e.g., treating a disease), then in that case the substance isn’t a contraceptive. Thus, while contraception may be intrinsically evil, a certain medication might not be intrinsically contraceptive, but only contraceptive in relation to those using it in that conventional way. One might say that if a woman uses “contraceptives” to contracept and to purposely avoid procreating or creating life, then that is always intrinsically evil. But, regardless this astounding result is way, way too high among Catholics, and is a serious problem that must be addressed through better education in the Catholic sphere. On this distinction between legitimate and sinful uses of substances that are conventionally used as birth control, I have no statistics, but my intuition is that there could not be nearly that many women with conditions that would call for the medicinal use of such medications.
From the National Catholic Reporter, there are two items that are noteworthy:
‘First, for the first time this year, the female altar servers in attendance outnumbered the males. According to organizers, the balance was roughly 60-40 in favor of females. The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, pointed to the turnout as a symbol of “the massive entry in recent decades of girls and young women into a role once reserved exclusively to males.”’
“Second, Vatican sources seemed eager to bill the gathering of tens of thousands of devoted young Catholics with Pope Benedict XVI as a kind of counter-point to the sexual abuse scandals of recent months.”
It seems like there are simply less Catholics, at least in part due to contraception, and therefore less boys, less altar boys, which ultimately has led to a decline of priests. Maybe, more of those who are faithful Catholics are simply having more girls than boys? Could a backlash against girl altar servers inevitably produce more dissent among those girls later in life, as they become mature women? Shouldn’t we encourage participation among women also instead of stifling it? I believe as long as it is made crystal clear that altar girls can NEVER become priests then it is okay for girls to be altar servers and assist the priest in the Mass.
It is my conclusion that the allowing girls to serve at the altar is not the primary cause for the decline of men entering the priesthood. I also believe that even if the presence of altar girls are having a negative effect that is discouraging young men from becoming priests (which I doubt since most traditional Catholics encourage young men to consider the priesthood as a vocation and one would think that a girl altar server‘s family would most likely be traditional and adhering to the Magisterium), the effect is minimal and miniscule in comparison to the negative effect that contraceptives have had in the past and are having on the decline in vocations to the priesthood.
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