Girls allowed
I went to Mass at a parish out of town a few weekends ago, one with lots of young families (at least during the summer) and a handful of altar servers assisting in the celebration — boys and girls in basically equal numbers, as I recall. After the Mass there was a coffee social in the parish center. When one of the girls who had served at the Mass came out of the sacristy, a woman near me remarked on what a good job she had done. The girl said “Thank you,” politely, and headed for the cookies, and that woman and a couple of other moms fell into a conversation about altar girls. “I always wanted to be an altar server, like my brothers, but I wasn’t allowed to,” one woman said. A few other women nearby agreed. “I was so proud when she started serving,” said the altar girl’s mother. “I told her I never could.” I’ve heard this sort of thing lots of times before, from women just a little older than me — they used to say it to me, back when I was the kid with the ponytail holding the doors open at the back of the church after Sunday Mass.
Last year I wrote in Commonweal:
The Vatican stopped saying no to altar girls just fifteen years ago. But to this day, it has never really said yes. To be more precise, in 1994, the Vatican finally said, “Yes, women are allowed to serve the priest at Mass, according to canon law.” But the pope has never said, “Yes, it is a good thing for girls and women to fulfill this ministry.”
Which is why John Allen’s reports on the recent “International Pilgrimage of Altar Servers” to Rome, and the response in L’Osservatore Romano, came as a pleasant surprise. Allen wrote on the NCR blog that the pope told the crowd of youngsters, “You are not only creating a festive environment in the square, but you are also filling my heart with joy.” If the presence of female severs was objectionable to him, he apparently didn’t let it cloud his joy. (Allen reports that altar girls outnumbered altar boys, 60 percent to 40 percent, for the first time in the history of the every-five-years gathering.)
On top of that, again according to Allen’s blog, L’Osservatore Romano offered the full-throated endorsement of female altar servers that I despaired of ever hearing from the Vatican. (Sure, it’s not directly from the pope, but I’ll take it.) An essay by Lucetta Scaraffia echoed my own experience:
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.
We’ll give her a pass on writing that the inequality “has been cancelled by now for several decades” — it hasn’t been quite that long (unless you’re counting from 1983…but I’ve already been through all the confusing technicalities, in my article and at dotCommonweal). Most grade-schoolers could take or leave a nod in their direction from L’Osservatore Romano, but it certainly brings joy to my heart.
UPDATE: Zenit has a full transcript of the pope’s remarks.
Photo by Markus G. Grimm, Dachau, courtesy CIM.
“The end of any attribution of impurity to their sex…” What a back-handed admission that is.
This may be over the top for these days — but only in this case:
“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.”
From NCR about the time (1983?) when this finally stopped being forbidden.
Mollie – had read Allen’s write up before you posted this. Like you, have had many experiences where folks (mainly middle age women or older) expressed the same sentiments you described. I forwarded Allen’s article to many women who would be interested in this story.
Now, have to suggest that this seems late in coming, at best……condenscending, at worst. Can’t stop thinking about all the old and not so old monsignors in our diocese that forbid girls from serving – some still do. Do they now get excommunicated?
The juxtaposition to the recent canon law update on women’s ordination/excommunication; the continual reinforcement of the celibacy line and “old, worn out” justification; JPII theology of the body, the recent liturgical change that does not permit lay to “do the dishes” as Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist and suggests that women should not be in the sanctuary, etc. Yes, change is welcome but ……..
So, if Rome can move this far towards supporting, if not, outright blessing/encouraging girls to serve, what about all those other issues that Rome pronounces on and then 20 years later changes its mind? Does make one pause about papal/Vatican pronouncements and the clerical ranks who are quick to repeat any and all Roman ways – feels like sheep.
Just a historical question: Have women always been allowed to be EMs and lectors? There was a rumor in an adjacent diocese that the new bishop told his priests to use women as EMs and lectors ONLY if men were not available and to do more recruiting among men for these functions.
At the time it struck me as the produce of someone’s paranoia, but got me wondering whether women were at one time proscribed from these functions.
Women were not even allowed to SING in church.
http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/singers.asp
I came across this three-minute video of the event:
http://www.romereports.com/palio/Pope-concludes-large-gathering-of-altar-servers-in-Rome-on-pilgrimage-english-2534.html
—-
It is good to see the joy of the individuals in this crowd, and I am certainly glad to see the young ladies. Would anyone happen to know the background of the video-producing organization, known either as RomeReports.org or Palio. In the “About Us” link at the bottom of the home page, there is a list of staff, none of whose names I recognize. However, there is a tone in the self-description that seems more evasive, secretive. Is Palio run by the Legionaries, the NeoCats, Opus Dei, or someone in the Curia? It can’t be the Knights of Columbus.
Joe McMahon
I rejoice with you Molly and with the others. You know Paul really had women involved with him in ministry. Someone messed up his texts and made him say those awful things. That is really something that the women were 60% of the altar servors.
Jean: I’m open to correction, but I think lay women have been permitted to serve as “extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist” as long as lay men have. (Which would be…since the revision of canon law in 1983, maybe?) Not so sure about reading from Scripture; I don’t know whether there was a time when lay men could do it, but not women.
I do know that the 1970 instruction Liturgicae Instaurationes withheld permission for female altar servers, but said that women could lector, usher, take up the collection, and lead the singing. (In my experience we have yet to take Rome up on a couple of those offers.)
When I first read that document I was puzzled by the note that “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.” Eventually I realized that must be code for If you can figure out a way for women to read the Scriptures at Mass without entering the sanctuary, go ahead. And I would guess that same concern was part of the holdup with permitting women to serve at the altar, since obviously you need to get past the Communion rail to do that.
I can easily imagine a bishop (or pastor) deciding that men should be the priority — and, where possible, sole — lay ministers of the functions you mentioned, but I’m not aware that there are any (currently in effect) documents to support that reading. As I pointed out when I blogged about this last year, some people also claim the Vatican’s position on altar servers permits girls only when there are not enough boys for the job, even though that’s really not the case. None of the lay ministries now open to women come with a qualifier that says “if there aren’t enough men.”
P.S. Joe McMahon – thanks for the video! I love the German kid who wants to see the Pabst.
How long is it that women have been allowed to be attorneys and physicians? How long has it been since women were admitted to higher education and allowed to receive academic degrees? How long has it been since women were allowed to vote? Historically Rome is not so different in its display of anti-women prejudices, but it does seem to be lagging behind the rest of the civilized world in formally giving such prejudices up. But then Rome has more difficulty that most organizations when it comes to admitting mistakes.
“When I first read that document I was puzzled by the note that “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.” Eventually I realized that must be code for If you can figure out a way for women to read the Scriptures at Mass without entering the sanctuary, go ahead. ”
Interesting. I sometimes attend Mass in the next town over. The ambo is to the congregants’ left of the altar and down a few steps–not in the sanctuary. That’s where cantor stands and the lectors read (often women). Gospel reading takes place by the priest to the right of and next to the altar–in the sanctuary. (This was pretty much the set-up in older Episcopal Churches.)
The Body is offered at the bottom step of the sanctuary. EMs, often women, stand to the far left and right of the sanctuary. It makes for an orderly procession up the center aisle for the bread from the priest, and then for those who receive the Blood, turn left or right and back down the side aisle to your pew.
Never noticed it, but women are out of the sanctuary.
There are no girls who serve at the altar; the old priest wouldn’t allow it, and the VERY young new priest there doesn’t either.
Jean
The original celebrations of the Eucharist seem to have taken place in the dining room of someone’s home. How things have changed!
Any response from Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in Lincoln, NE on his boss’s gracious reception of altar girls?
For those who might care, the aforementioned Fabian B. turns 75 next month. Lincoln freed the slaves, will someone now free Lincoln?
An addition to the prayers of the faithful throughout the Lincoln diocese when the Fabulous Fabe hits the road should be:
Free at last!
Free at last.
Thank God Almighty -
Free at last!
Halleluuuuuuuuuuujah!
However, methinks that Fabe’s type of Father Bishop Knows Best is what those folks like.
Alright, guys, give it a rest.
Lest anyone forget that the predecessor of Bishop Bruskewitz, Bishop Glennon Flavin, banned women as lectors back in 1981.
It has been suggested by some that women refrain from participating as lectors, EMs, and altar servers in order to get more men and boys to participate in these activities (concerns over the “feminization” of the Church, which apparently puts off men).
I think perhaps it would be salubrious for all if women to accommodated this notion for, say, a year, and also refrained from doing other unpaid tasks, such as decorating the Church, coordinating memorial masses, serving funeral luncheons, laundering altar cloths, making coffee, typing up the bulletin, teaching CCD, volunteering to clean the rectory, participating in the choir, making food for the parish picnic, running the annual rummage sale fundraiser, and the like.
All in the interests of re-masculating the Church, of course.
I’m sure the fellas would do just fine, and we would all learn a good lesson about the proper role of women.
Regarding the history of women as readers:
In the early years of the liturgical renewal, the expectation was that men would fulfill all of the liturgical ministries that take place within the sanctuary, as had been the case prior to the 2nd Vatican Council.
In what presumably was seen as a major concession in the aftermath of the Council, women were now permitted to perform mnistries outside the sanctuary (think usher or choir member).
What’s more, national conferences of bishops were permitted to extend the ministry of reader to women, but Rome seemed uncomfortable with women in the sanctuary; the conference of bishops was to designate a “suitable place” for them to read. (Tedious documentation to all this at footnote [1] below.)
To its credit, the US national conference did allow women to read, and what is more, gave them permission to read in the sanctuary. (Lengthier tedious documentation at footnote [2] below).
Still more on this: in the old way of things, candidates for holy orders went through a series of minor orders before becoming a deacon and then a priest. One of those minor orders was the order of lector. Paul VI supressed the old minor orders, but replaced them with ‘permanent ministries’ (rarely found in the US, except among candidates for holy orders). Thus, while there is no longer a minor order of lector, there is now a permanent ministry of lector to which a reader could be instituted. The lay readers at mass in our parishes, though, have not received this formal institution into the permanent ministry of reader. A rite exists for this institution, though, and as I say, candidates for holy orders are so instituted, by a bishop. Here’s the kicker, though: cthe permanent ministry of rader is *only open to men.* (sorry, no time to hunt up documentation on that one).
As for women as extraordinary eucharistic ministers: note the word “extraordinary”. People my age and older can remember a time when, as it was almost time to distribute communion, there would be a little informal procession of priests down a side aisle into the sacristy, so they could vest and help distribute communion. Laypersons didn’t distribute communion – it was reserved to priests.
A lot of things we take for granted now – communion in the hand, communion under both species – have been with us for only a few years, relatively speaking.
[1] From the 1975 GIRM (http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/girmch3.html):
“70. Laymen, even if they have not received institution as ministers,
may perform all the functions below those reserved to deacons. At the
discretion of the rector of the church, women may be appointed to
ministries that are performed outside the sanctuary.
“The conference of bishops may permit qualified women to proclaim the
readings before the gospel and to announce the intentions of the
general intercessions. The conference may also more precisely
designate a suitable place for a woman to proclaim the word of God in
the liturgical assembly.[55]”
[2] From the US national conference’s appendix to the 1969 GIRM (http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/girmappxus.html):
“The Conference of Bishops has given permission for women to serve as
readers in accord with no. 66 of the (November,
1969).
“In February, 1971, the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy prepared a
commentary on the liturgical ministry of women:
“a. With the exception of service at the altar itself, women may be
admitted to the exercise of other liturgical ministries. In
particular the designation of women to serve in such ministries as
reader, cantor, leader of singing, commentator, director of
liturgical participation, etc., is left to the judgment of the pastor
or the priest who presides over the celebration, in the light of the
culture and mentality of the congregation.
“b. Worthiness of life and character and other qualifications are
required in women who exercise liturgical ministries in the same way
as for men who exercise the same ministries.
“c. Women who read one or other biblical reading during the liturgy of
the word (other than the Gospel, which is reserved to a deacon or
priest) should do so from the lectern or ambo where the other
readings are proclaimed: the reservation of a single place for all
the biblical readings is more significant than the person of the
reader, whether ordained or lay, whether woman or man (cf. , no 272).
“d. Other ministries performed by women, such as leading the singing
or otherwise directing the congregation, should be done either within
or outside the sanctuary area, depending on circumstances or
convenience.”
I can’t understand people who, even after they have gotten what they want, continue to complain and dwell on how awful it was in the past.