Peeved Parishioners Leaving SF Catholic Church Over Ban On Girls As Altar Servers

By Da Lin

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A Bay Area church is now under fire over a controversial new policy saying only boys can be altar servers.

The new practice is making waves at the century old church Star of the Sea. Since the ’70s, they’ve used altar girls during masses.

The well-known Richmond District church also has a school serving about 230 kids. When the new priest banned girls from being altar servers, it generated outrage among parents and parishioners alike. The priest admits some parishioners even left the church.

“It’s disturbing,” said churchgoer Connie Porciuncula.

Star of the Sea School parent Tara Widmer agrees. “They’re definitely taking a step in the wrong direction,” she said.

Father Joseph Illo took over five months ago and decided to train only boys to be altar servers.

He said he has no choice but to exclude girls because the future of the church is at stake.

“The specifics of serving at the altar is a priestly function,” Illo said. “And the Catholic church does not ordain women...” (continued)

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• Peeved Parishioners Leaving SF Catholic Church Over Ban On Girls As Altar Servers

This is what they have stolen from you

By Ann Barnhardt @ Barnhardt.biz

I can tell from my email box that the vast, vast, vast majority of people out there have absolutely no fathom what the Mass looked like before 1968. Most Catholics think that the Mass was pretty much like it is today, except in Latin.

Um, that would be very, very, very wrong. The Mass today, the Novus Ordo Mass, has been so radically altered, you can only tell that it is even related to the Tridentine Mass by a few phrases here and there, namely the Gloria, Creed, Orate Fratres (Pray, my brothers and sisters), Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

As I explained it to one person, the Novus Ordo Mass is FAR closer to Superfun Rockband church than it is to the Tridentine Mass. His reply? "I was afraid you were going to say that."

Indeed.

I stumbled across a set of videos made by EWTN, the Catholic cable channel out of Alabama. The videos demonstrate the Low Tridentine Mass (not sung, and with only one server). What is so cool about these videos is the camera work. It is wonderful being able to see the priest's hands and everything that is going on upon the altar.

In these videos the server is an adult. Please understand that in most Masses in Latin Mass parishes today, the servers are young boys - altar boys. I would guesstimate that the youngest boy I have seen serve a Low Mass alone was probably eight or nine years old, and I have seen boys who were probably seven years old serve a Low Mass with another older boy as a team. That includes every movement and every response you see in these videos, memorized in Latin, performed not just by boys, but by sometimes quite young boys.

The sight of boys and teenaged young men not just doing something, but doing something fairly complicated, and doing it with stone-cold excellence is so rare today that it is shocking and beautiful when you see it. Boys have been run out of almost every activity except sports by girls, and they are now even trying to make sports "co-ed". Additionally, boys are hated by the Marxist-lesbian education mafia and are submitted to psychological castration from the time they enter pre-school. One of the big reasons the Marxist-homosexualists hate the Tridentine Mass so much is because it fosters and develops boys into masculine achievers and allows them to attain disciplined excellence.

Now watch this and see, perhaps for the first time in your entire life, what the Mass was for 1900 years, and what the Marxist-homosexualists have stolen from you, and are desperately trying to keep hidden from you. Look at the reverence, the solemnity, the MASCULINITY, the profound humility, the dignity, and the loving care and intricacy. Watch these videos and then contemplate what goes on at your Novus Ordo Mass. Contemplate how your priest probably stands outside the sanctuary in the narthex, fully vested immediately before AND immediately after Mass, and gladhands and socializes with people as they walk in and out - again, desacralizing the Mass AND drawing attention to himself as the "STAR of the SHOW". Because you clearly go to Mass to see Father Liza-Judy, right? I mean seriously, WHO ELSE could you POSSIBLY be there to see if not Father Liza-Judy? Hmmmm?

Contemplate the priest ad-libbing during the Mass, chatting, delivering multiple "homilies" before the readings and after Holy Communion. Compare how the priest carries himself in the Tridentine Mass to the casual and effete comportment of almost all Novus Ordo priests.

Finally, compare the orientation of the Tridentine Mass and priest 100% toward Our Lord in the Tabernacle, or upon the altar, to the self-referential and performance-driven orientation of the priest in the Novus Ordo, who is always facing the people as if on a stage, and thus has his BACK to Our Lord in the Tabernacle for the entire Mass.

The homosexualist priests will never, ever relinquish their ability to "perform" and be "on stage" as the "star of the show" - and the same goes for the lesbian nuns, who rage at the fact that they are denied full "performance" rights. They WILL schism the Church, and it will be over the Mass itself. Homosexual "marriage" and "gay rights" are merely wedge issues designed to get the ball rolling. The final schism will be over the rubrics of the Mass because it HAS to be all about THEM. It HAS to be the "Father Liza-Judy Show", and the Marxists, who recruited the homosexualists, gleefully approve because the Marxist objective is to destroy the Mass and the Church from within by desacralizing the Mass, and eliminating the priesthood. (Remember, no priest, no Mass. No Mass, no Eucharist.) They do this by denying the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist by making the whole Mass so casual, sloppy, sacrilegious and self-centered that the people who WERE taught the faith lose it by the very example of the clergy.

Finally, after four decades, the objective has been achieved - there is absolutely no denying that. The laity has NO IDEA that the Mass is Calvary made present, and are clueless that Jesus Christ is actually, physically present in the Tabernacle, upon the altar after the consecration, and in the Eucharist which they casually receive thinking It (He) is a mere "symbolic community meal".

When you watch these videos, you should feel awe at the beauty - even though this is a mere instructional set, and you should also feel burning ire at what has been stolen from you, and what is being actively hidden and suppressed by the majority of bishops yet today. THIS is how Mass was said in EVERY CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE PLANET UNTIL 1968 - exactly, precisely like this. A person could walk into any Catholic Church anywhere on the planet and be 100% oriented and comfortable, because every priest said the Mass exactly like this every day - from the tiny little town in Kansas to the largest cathedral in Europe to the remotest chapel in South America or Asia. Every word, every gesture, every prayer - completely consistent and unified, JUST. LIKE. THIS:

These videos just cover the actual rubrics. They do not cover the MASSIVE meaning and referential symbolism contained in literally every word and gesture. If you want to learn about that symbolism, St. Thomas Aquinas covers it all in the Summa Theologica.

If you want more info, a great resource is SanctaMissa.org, and I also recommend everyone buying a 1962 Hand Missal, which contains EVERYTHING, including every Mass for the entire year with English translations. Baronius Press is the main publisher these days, and 1962 Missals can be purchased easily through Amazon and most online booksellers.

But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written. John 21:25

Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.
2 Thessalonians 2:15

Link:

• This is what they have stolen from you.

Related:

• The Emasculation of the Priesthood - by Father James McLucas
• Men - Emasculated by the Culture
• Feminization of the Church
• Altar Girls?
• Altar girls and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass - Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei States They Are Not Permitted
• Kerfuffle! Wisconsin parish nixes altar girls - predictable outrage ensues before sanity prevails
• Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz is Keeper of the Flame
• Bishop Morlino Warns Dissenters to Stop Calumnious Inciting of Hatred of Priests, the Faith, and Himself — or Else
• Phoenix diocese cathedral won't allow girl altar servers
• Some Catholics Fear Girls Are Scaring Boys Away
• Archbp. Burke on altar girls and EMCHs in the Extraordinary Form
• Altar Girls

Bishop Morlino Warns Dissenters to Stop Calumnious Inciting of Hatred of Priests, the Faith, and Himself — or Else

The action by Bishop Robert Morlino, which two Catholic scholars called highly unusual, appears to include the possibility of offenders being prohibited from taking part in church sacraments such as communion, confession and burial.

DOUG ERICKSON | Wisconsin State Journal

Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino has moved to quell a backlash against a group of conservative priests in Platteville by warning parishioners they risk formal church censure unless they stop spreading "rumors and gossip."

The action by Morlino, which two Catholic scholars called highly unusual, appears to include the possibility of offenders being prohibited from taking part in church sacraments such as communion, confession and burial.

The warning came in a five-page letter Wednesday from Morlino to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Platteville. The congregation has been roiled by opposition to the traditionalist priests, who began serving the parish in June 2010.

Within months, church donations fell by more than half, and about 40 percent of the church’s 1,200 members signed a petition seeking the priests’ ouster. The church’s 77-year-old school is set to close June 1, a loss many parishioners tie directly to the collapse of donations.

The letter, in which Morlino raises the prospect of invoking the church’s Code of Canon Law against dissenters, has stunned many parishioners.

"There’s almost shock and awe," said Myron Tranel, a member of the church’s finance council. "But mostly, there’s a lot of disappointment that the bishop has decided to deal with it this way."

Others applaud the bishop’s move, saying decisive action was needed because criticism had gotten out of hand.

"This is a warning shot across the bow — you either want to be a Catholic or you don’t," said Gregory Merrick, a member of the church’s pastoral council.

Diocesan spokesman Brent King said Morlino’s main message is that this should be a time of "prayer, serious introspection and forgiveness." The specific texts from the church’s code of law were included precisely so that they may never be needed, King said.

"The bishop’s caution that ‘this cannot continue’ should not be made into anything more than that — a caution," King said.

Standing by the priests

The priests are from the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, a group known for traditionalist liturgy and devotion to strict Catholic teaching. They do not allow girls to be altar servers or allow parishioners to assist in distributing communion. Critics say they emphasize doctrine over pastoral care and institute changes in a heavy-handed way.

Morlino has stood by them and did so again in the letter to parishioners, the primary purpose of which was to announce his decision to accept the parish’s recommendation to close the school. The priests have admitted "that they undertook some changes in a way that was abrupt for many people," Morlino wrote, yet he said no one has provided concrete examples of the priests straying from church doctrine.

In the end, "the Catholic faith is being taught according to the proper understanding of the Second Vatican Council, and what remains are personal likes and dislikes, along with inflated rumors and gossip, some of which may even rise to the level of calumnious inciting of hatred of your priests, the faith and myself," Morlino wrote.

Where there are those who work to "incite hatred," there "may need to be more formal warning and action," Morlino wrote. An addendum cites many church laws, including one in which anyone who publicly incites animosities or hatred toward church authorities "is to be punished by an interdict or other just penalties..." (continued)

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Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz is Keeper of the Flame

By Leslie Reed

(Omaha World-Herald) LINCOLN — Perhaps the story of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's 20-year watch over the Lincoln Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church could be told as a parable of two men.

Both were trained as priests at a select seminary in Rome, their time there overlapping during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The slightly older priest revered church tradition as a living connection between believers and Jesus Christ, established through a succession of priests tracing back to St. Peter himself. That priest, a Milwaukee native ordained in 1960, has had a storied career and went on to become the eighth bishop of Lincoln.

The younger man visualized the church as a champion of social justice, embracing all people and ending discrimination. John Krejci, a South Omaha native ordained in 1962, grew disillusioned. He left the priesthood in 1971 to become a professor of social work.

Three decades later, Bruskewitz and Krejci crossed paths again in Lincoln. Their clash of values ended with Bruskewitz excommunicating Krejci and other local members of a Catholic reform group known as Call to Action.

One of their strongest areas of contention: the role of women and girls in worship services.

Under Bruskewitz's leadership, the Lincoln Diocese remains the last in the United States to prohibit girls from being altar servers. Krejci not only would like to see altar girls, he wants the church to consider married priests and female priests and seeks more discussion of matters such as birth control and same-sex marriage.

As Bruskewitz nears the end of his time as bishop, the 15-year battle over the two opposing concepts of Catholicism is a signature theme of his tenure. It is a battle that helped win him a national reputation as a traditionalist among the nation's 65 million Catholics.

In a recent interview, Bruskewitz said his duty is to preserve Catholic faith, "unmutilated, undiluted and undistorted."

"Relativism is a great danger," he said. "There is such a thing as truth."

***

Reverence for tradition would not be the only defining characteristic of Bruskewitz's tenure, of course.
Bruskewitz turned 75 in September 2010 and, as required by church law, submitted his letter of resignation. Ordained as Lincoln's bishop in May 1992, he will step down once Pope Benedict XVI names his successor, likely within the year.

Now the oldest-serving bishop in the United States, Bruskewitz in effect serves as chief executive officer of the Diocese of Lincoln, a territory covering Nebraska from border to border south of the Platte River.

By many measures, his Lincoln career has been one of accomplishment. Church membership has grown, the parochial schools are strong, new seminaries and convents have been established, social services have been expanded, and church finances are solid.

"His influence has been profound," said Doug Curry, a retired executive with the Lincoln Electric System and a member of St. Michael Church, a fast-growing parish in southeast Lincoln.

Bruskewitz set in motion the first ever diocesewide fund drive in 1999, raising $28 million to support Catholic schools, priests' retirement, a new seminary and other projects.

Five new Catholic grade schools and five new parishes have been established, including Lincoln's Cristo Rey Church, a predominantly Hispanic congregation, and St. Andrew Dung-Lac, a predominantly Vietnamese congregation. St. Michael School, which opened in August 2011, is the newest Catholic elementary school in the state.

"The Lord has blessed us," Bruskewitz said in a recent interview. "I don't take any credit. Good things happen because of God's grace."

***

Since Bruskewitz became bishop, the number of Catholics in the diocese has grown from about 80,000 to more than 95,000.

A number of factors contributed to the growth, including an influx of Hispanic and other immigrants and new Catholic converts. But some Catholics have moved into the diocese because of its emphasis on tradition.

Paul Lewandowski and his wife, Terri, have lived in five dioceses, including in the Chicago area, Denver and Birmingham, Ala., and returned to Nebraska 11 years ago. Paul Lewandowski, an aviation professional, took a job at Lincoln's Duncan Aviation in part because of the Lincoln Diocese's reputation.

"You hear about it all over the United States and all over the world that Lincoln is a strong or devout diocese," he said. "You hear good things — that it's Rome in the United States. Or you hear bad things — it's so conservative or it's stuffy and there's no freedom."

He finds the Lincoln Diocese's emphasis on tradition to be reassuring — proof that the Catholic faith has been handed down generation to generation from Jesus.

He even likes that the diocese prohibits altar girls: "The role of altar boy is one reserved for preparation for the priesthood. It sets up boys to become men who serve."

Lewandowski said that when his family lived in Chicago, waiting lists and cost prevented him and his wife from placing their six children in Catholic school. Rather than enroll them in public school, they home-schooled.

That leads him to another major benefit of the Lincoln Diocese: the affordability of parochial school education. Bruskewitz's policy requires churches to contribute to the cost of educating children from their parish.

Senior year tuition at Lincoln's Pius X High School costs $1,800. For comparison, senior year tuition at Omaha Skutt High School is $8,325.

"It makes it so affordable, you can't afford not to send your kids to Catholic school," Lewandowski said.

***

Patty Hawk is not among those attracted to the traditionalism of the Lincoln Diocese.

The 48-year-old assistant professor of communication studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University moved to the Lincoln area from Chadron, Neb., in 1985. Growing up, she helped serve Holy Communion at her parish church and deliver it to shut-ins. She was disappointed to find that women aren't allowed to do that in the Lincoln Diocese.

Click for a larger view.

"I found out there were only two ways I could help in my church: I could be in the music ministry and I could clean," she said.

She became attracted to Call to Action in the early 1990s because of its goals of giving women and lay people more leadership opportunities. She joined the group's Lincoln chapter soon after it was formed in 1996.

As Call to Action was being organized, however, Bruskewitz warned that the group's beliefs were incompatible with church doctrine. Those who joined it anyway would be excommunicated and barred from receiving Communion.

***

Other than the absence of altar girls, the differences between a Catholic Mass in a Lincoln Diocese church and one in another diocese are subtle, almost imperceptible to the uninitiated.

Lincoln Catholics note that the language used to consecrate the bread and wine for Communion precisely follows the liturgical text of the Roman Missal, in one example.

The tabernacle, used to house Communion wafers after they have been consecrated, is always at the highest place in the church.

They say some churches in other dioceses may be more relaxed on those points.

Some churches in the Lincoln Diocese, though not all, tap women to read Scripture and to lead prayers from the pulpit.

The differences may be more obvious in the school system. The row of young priests attending football games at Pius X High School. The nun teachers who wear their habits in the classroom. The daily Mass at the elementary schools.

Those factors, Catholics say, contribute to the high number of young people who decide to enter the priesthood or join a convent. A 2006 study by Catholic World Report cited the Diocese of Lincoln as having the highest per-capita number of seminarians in the country.

During Bruskewitz's tenure, 67 men in the diocese have been ordained as priests. About 35 of them graduated from the St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Neb., which Bruskewitz helped establish in 1998.

The Rev. Steve Thomlison, once a political campaign consultant who helped conservative Jon Christensen unseat then-U.S. Rep. Peter Hoagland in 1994 in the 2nd District, left the hard-hitting world of politics in 2003 to study for the priesthood.

Thomlison, who was ordained in 2010, said he found his calling in part because Bruskewitz fostered an especially welcoming environment for priests.

Bruskewitz stresses the fundamentals for his priests, Thomlison said, much as a basketball coach who drills his athletes on the basics so they can excel on game day.

"He is this great lion that cares for us and protects us."

***

Sandy Danek, the president of Nebraska Right to Life, converted to Catholicism after her marriage more than 30 years ago. One of her sons is studying for the priesthood at the Seward seminary.

"He's just a delightful, delightful person," she said of Bruskewitz.

She disputes that the diocese stifles women.

"I'm so busy that some days I don't know how I could do much more," she said.

In addition to her anti-abortion involvement, she serves as a cantor, or song leader, for Mass and helped start a ministry for grieving people more than 20 years ago.

Last week, at least a half-dozen girls participated in a Mass presided over by Bruskewitz at St. Michael School.

Some read Scripture and led prayers. Fifth-graders Maggie Stamper and Grace Gokie concluded the service with thank-yous for parents and volunteers and a report to the bishop that students had offered up hundreds of prayers for him.

But only boys aided the priests as they prepared and served Communion.

"I believe gender equality is not the same thing as gender interchangeability," Bruskewitz said, adding that "the most splendid creature God ever made was Mary, who gave Jesus flesh to redeem us."

As the mother of four grown sons and a grown daughter, Danek said she accepts the diocese's policy that only boys can be altar servers because it has helped cultivate more priests in the diocese. Her son Timothy has told her that serving as an altar boy led him to decide to be a priest.

"Some would call it conservative; I would call it orthodoxy," she said of Bruskewitz's philosophy. "That strength in leadership is doing amazing things."

***

It is not unusual for the bishop to take a hard-nosed position.

He refused to participate in a voluntary annual audit of diocesan policies against child sexual abuse requested by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In an interview, he said he sees no purpose to the audit.

Incidents of abuse are "vile, they damage people for life. Few things are more horrible. They require immediate action, and it is a crime not to report them."

In recent weeks, Bruskewitz made headlines again, issuing a blistering letter calling for Catholics in the diocese to fight a federal ruling requiring insurance coverage for birth control, female sterilization procedures and the morning-after pill.

The letter is part of a nationwide effort by U.S. Catholic bishops to oppose the requirement included in the federal health care law.

In his letter, Bruskewitz referred to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a "bitter fallen-away Catholic" and urged Catholics to be prepared to incur heavy fines or imprisonment if necessary to oppose the measure, which affects religious-run social service agencies.

In an interview, Bruskewitz said he views it as a matter of religious freedom, not politics.

"This is a requirement that requires me to pay for something that happens in my view to be completely immoral," he said. "It's a distortion of the land of the free, and they know it."

***

The showdown with Call to Action occurred not long after Bruskewitz's arrival in Lincoln. The group was one of a dozen that Bruskewitz identified as antithetical to Catholic teachings. Others included the pro-suicide Hemlock Society, Planned Parenthood, the Freemasons and its affiliated organizations, and even an ultra-conservative Catholic organization that followed pre-Vatican II precepts without the pope's authorization.
It was the Call to Action group that attracted the most attention, however.

The organization is fairly small, with about 50 active members in the diocese. Its members say their goal is to strengthen the church, not undermine it, and they object strenuously to being denied Communion.

Krejci on occasion simply has taken the bread, despite attempts by priests to wave him off. As recently as last year, he said, priests in the diocese were sent reminder letters that they should not knowingly provide Communion to Call to Action members.

Many members travel outside the diocese to receive Communion.

It's a matter that causes some anguish for Jim McShane, a retired English professor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

It reached a crisis point several weeks ago as McShane prepared for surgery to repair a stroke-like injury on the surface of his brain. He did not know whether he would be alive or fully functioning afterward.

His excommunication put him in a position, he said, "where if you were to die, you'd be damned to hell," he said. "This is an unsettling prospect."

Yet to be restored to the sacraments, he would have to renounce Call to Action.

"That causes me to assert something I do not believe is true," McShane said.

"My resolution is to say that one must trust the justice of God," he said. "So I do."

***

Bruskewitz expresses no second thoughts about the controversial decisions that have marked his tenure and dismisses labels like "conservative" or "authoritarian" as political words that don't fit religious leaders.

Asked whether he found it sorrowful to deny Communion to believers, he said it was more sorrowful for errant Catholics to put their priests in an uncomfortable position.

Bruskewitz said he finds it a tragedy that his one-time fellow seminarian now leads an "anti-Catholic sect."

"Their creed does not resemble the Catholic Church," he said. "If they want to walk their own way, let them walk their own way."

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Phoenix diocese cathedral won't allow girl altar servers

by Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic

Girls no longer will be allowed as altar servers during Mass at the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, SS. Simon and Jude.

The Rev. John Lankeit, rector of the cathedral, said he made the decision in hopes of promoting the priesthood for males and other religious vocations, such as becoming a nun, for females...

"It is a shame on how the church continues to abuse the females," said Bob Lutz of Phoenix, a Catholic with three grown daughters. "Church attendance is shrinking now, and this adds more fuel to the fire on how females are treated as second-class citizens."

Carole Bartholomeuax of Phoenix, who attended St. Joan of Arc parish, said girls outnumbered boys as altar servers there.

"I believe Mary Magdalene set the example for women to be altar servers. I am so sorry to hear of this going backwards," she said, adding that she still loves her church, "warts and all."
But Michael Clancy, who heads the diocesan men's group, said girls never were supposed to be allowed to serve, based on his understanding of the rules of the Mass...

Read More

• Phoenix diocese cathedral won't allow girl altar servers

Related:

• UPDATE : Conference for Women’s Ordination Freaks Out Over Phoenix Altar Boy Decision
• Altar Girls?
• Altar girls and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass - Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei States They Are Not Permitted
• Lay Eucharistic ministers not entitled to position, Archbishop Burke clarifies
• Some Catholics Fear Girls Are Scaring Boys Away

Feminization of the Church

Altar girls and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass - Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei States They Are Not Permitted

From Father Zuhlsdorf:

"I have now a copy of a letter sent by the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesiae Dei” and signed by the Secretary Msgr. Guido Pozzo, which clarifies that UE 28 in fact does say that females cannot serve at the altar in the Extraordinary Form.

The letter essentially quotes UE 28 and then states:

In this regard, the Circular Letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments of 1994 (cf. Notitiae 30 [1994] 333-335) permitted female altar servers, does not apply to the Extraordinary Form.

Bottom line: females may not serve at the altar in the Extraordinary Form..."

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Archbishop Burke on altar girls and EMHCs in the Extraordinary Form

 

 Photo: NLM

Father Z:   "I picked up from Il blog degli amici di Papa Ratzinger that H.E. Most Rev. Raymond Burke (Prefect of the Ap. Segnatura) wrote a preface to a canonical study in German of Summorum Pontificum by Fr. Gero P. Weishaupt.

In his preface, Archbp. Burke says, inter alia, that neither altar girls nor Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are admissible in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite because the integrity of the Rite must be respected..."

Read More

• Archbp. Burke on altar girls and EMCHs in the Extraordinary Form 
• Preface of Msgr. Burke to Canonical Commentary on Summorum Pontificum

Some Catholics Fear Girls Are Scaring Boys Away

From Associated Content:

"August 2010 was the next designated time for Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium to organize its famous event, affectionately nicknamed the International Pilgrimage of Altar Servers, which happens every five years.
The Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano estimated in the weekly news release for August 4, 2010 that over 53,000 altar servers gathered in St. Peter's Square to meet and listen to Pope Benedict XVI. This year was unlike previous events. This year, the girls outnumbered the boys 60 to 40..."

More

h/t to Thomas

Altar Girls?

Sermon given by Rev. Peter R. Pilsner on the
Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 24, 1994

Excerpt:

"My reason for being sad or dismayed at this change is that I am going to miss being a spiritual father to my altar boys. I will miss that joyful experience of trying to pass on to them something of myself, my love for the mass, and especially my priesthood. As I said, I have great respect for the girls. But boys and girls are different. And just as there is a special kind of relationship that a father can have only with a son, there is a special kind of spiritual fatherhood that I can exercise, not with girls, nor with a mixed group, but only with a group of boys. It seems that this will be taken away from me now, and it does make me sad.

"Oh, Father," some of you may say, "why do you say such things? You will still have altar boys. The only change is that now you will have girls too." The reason I say it is that, at the risk of making a self-fulfilling prophesy, I am afraid that if the American bishops mandate that girls must serve together with boys, we may not have many altar boys left. As I said before, girls tend to be more ready and willing than boys to step forward and participate in religious activities. I am sure that if we open serving at the altar to girls, many of them will volunteer, and they will do so with the most noble motives -- their love for God and their heartfelt desire to serve Him. However, since serving will then no longer be something for boys only, it will lose its attraction for the boys, and they simply won't want to do it anymore. This is not idle speculation on my part. In parish after parish it has happened that when the altar girls come, the altar boys go. If you have been reading the papers or listening to the radio, you may have heard about a parish in Manhattan that introduced altar girls twelve years ago. The media reported with glee that now girls outnumber boys. A week ago Friday, I spoke to a priest who was assigned to a parish with both male and female altar servers. When he arrived, there were three boys and fifteen girls. Then the parish went back to a policy of altar boys only. Now this priest has fifty altar boys. I hope that with the addition of girls we won't lose our altar boys, and I and a number of other priests have signed a petition to the Cardinal asking him to look into ways to prevent this from happening, but I am very much afraid that it will happen all the same."

More

• Altar Girls?
• Kerfuffle! Wisconsin parish nixes altar girls - predictable outrage ensues before sanity prevails

Homosexual Adult Altar-Server Files Human Rights Complaint against Bishop for Dismissal

By John-Henry Westen

PETERBOROUGH, ON, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jim Corcoran, the owner of one of Canada's largest and most lavish spas, has launched a human rights complaint against the Bishop of Peterborough Ontario for refusing him permission to continue to serve as an altar server.

Corcoran admits that he is homosexual and lives with another homosexual man, but says that he follows the Church's teaching and lives a chaste lifestyle. According to the Catholic Register, Bishop Nicola De Angelis asked Corcoran to accept his decision that he not serve on the altar based upon the bishops' desire to avoid public scandal.

Corcoran is seeking monetary damages of $25,000 from the bishop and $20,000 each from 12 parishioners who complained to the bishop about Corcoran and his roommate having been invited by the local priest to serve on the altar at Masses.

That priest, Fr. Allan Hood, of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, was not available to speak with LifeSiteNews.com.

Corcoran spoke with Michael Swan of The Catholic Register but Bishop De Angelis has not commented on the matter publicly. LifeSiteNews.com called the chancery office for more information, but there was no answer.

Developing …

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