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

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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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...

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• 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

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..."

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• 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..."

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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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Course to prepare altar servers for Latin Mass

Saturday, July 26, 2008

By LESLIE PALMA-SIMONCEK

ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York Latin Liturgy Association will sponsor a training course for Catholic men and boys over 8 who want to learn how to serve the traditional Latin Mass of the Roman Catholic Church.

A year ago, the Vatican cleared the way for priests throughout the world to celebrate the Latin mass without prior approval from their bishops. Since then, according to William J. Leininger, chairman of the Grasmere-based Latin Liturgy Association, more than 100 Latin masses have been scheduled across the country, with 10 celebrated within the Archdiocese of New York. He said several Island parishes also are planning to offer masses in Latin.

The training course, which will begin in September, will teach men and boys how to pronounce the Latin Mass responses and how to serve a "low" mass (missa recitiva) and a "high" mass (missa cantata).

No prior knowledge of Latin is required.

For information, call Leininger at 718-351-1234 or e-mail him at wleininger100@verizon.net.

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