The non-existent problem of female altar servers

In the various Catholic-oriented Facebook groups I'm in, sometimes the issue of female altar servers comes up. In reading the threads in these groups, it appears there are some close-minded, far-right-wing conservatives who specifically blame the priest shortage on the practice in the U.S. of female altar servers.

REALLY?

When I point out to these people that the decision to allow girls to be altar servers is up to the local bishop, they all of a sudden slightly change the subject to something else. They’ll say things like “well, girls can serve their parish in other ways”. Big deal; so can boys! It appears none of them has the courage to approach their Bishop over this issue; they’d rather complain like spoiled children on the pages of Facebook instead! One of my posts in a Facebook Catholic-oriented group was even removed because it was “rude”; in other words, it was being censored because I presented facts that were irrefutable! I stopped commenting on the thread anyway, so that I wouldn’t further embarrass those who want to deny girls the opportunity and privilege of being altar servers.

I remember when this decision was made by the Vatican back in 1994 to allow the practice of female altar servers in the U.S. The Vatican made it extremely clear that each individual Bishop had the authority to either allow, or not allow, this practice in their dioceses just like the practice of Communion in the hand, introduced in 1977 (the subject of a future article). Far-right-wing conservative Catholics, led by Mother Angelica of EWTN, immediately denounced this decision! They made it sound like some major Church doctrine was being changed. In watching her nightly show on EWTN soon after the decision was made, I thought her head was going to explode over the extreme anger she expressed over this new PRACTICE! Mother Angelica even encouraged her viewers to write, in protest, to the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery that issued the decision, presumably approved by St. Pope John Paul II himself! They sounded no different than their extremist counterparts on the left end of the moral and political spectrum. They predicted all kinds of immoral doom and gloom within the Church, including their prediction that boys won’t want to be altar servers alongside girls; that priestly vocations would suffer; and the biggest fairy tale of them all, that women will demand the right to be ordained priests (an issue the Vatican has declared no longer open for discussion; case closed)! I asked these far-right-wing conservative Catholics in a recent Facebook post what they would say to young nuns who first heard the call to religious life as an altar server at their parish; the question was never directly answered! The best they could do was say things like “well, girls can serve the parish in other ways”. I’ve seen teenage girls in my parish assist with taking up the collection, a traditionally male role (at least in the parishes I’ve belonged to), yet no one has ever complained about that.

I readily admit that there’s a priest shortage in the US, but it started way before the Vatican’s decision in 1994 to allow girls to be altar servers in the U.S., so far-right-wing conservative Catholics can’t use that argument. And there are dioceses in the country where seminaries are bursting at the seams; female altar servers don’t seem to be a problem there (in dioceses where it’s allowed by the Bishop).

I myself was never an altar server, but at this point in my faith life, I wish I had been! What a privilege it must be, for both genders, to be an altar server and have an up-close and front-row seat to the miracle that takes place on the altar during the Consecration as the priest calls upon the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ! The best I could ever do occurred on my wedding day in 2013 as I knelt in front of the altar witnessing this miracle with my new wife. Even my young nephew, who was an altar server at my wedding, had a closer view of this miracle than I did!

Regarding the weak argument of boys not wanting to serve alongside girls; come to my parish and see how it works! My guess is my parish has about a 50-50 mix of girls and boys who are altar servers, from the 5^th grade right through high school seniors. We often see brothers and sisters serving alongside each other, which I think is great!

Those far-right-wing conservatives who’ve been predicting doom and gloom over the practice of allowing girls to be altar servers need to get a life and start worrying about real problems in the Church, such as liturgical abuses like hand-holding during the Lord’s Prayer at Mass! They need to stop obsessing about the gender of the altar servers, and start focusing on the miracle of the Consecration taking place on the altar instead! If they choose to deny their daughters the opportunity and privilege to witness the Consecration up-close at Mass as an altar server, then that’s their choice! Allowing girls to be altar servers is a valid practice that the Church in the U.S. is privileged to be able to do, no different than Communion in the hand. If encouraging boys to be altar servers is a way to spark discernment to a vocation as a priest, then allowing girls to be altar servers might also spark a discernment to religious life as a Sister.

And the Church will be better for it.