And another thing...

My son is serving weekdays at Mass(not at our parish). Today, in the procession, a "female server" tried to trip him intentionally. Do NOT ask me why I am a traditionalist(or my son for that matter). Girls do not belong on the altar. There is absolutely no reason why someone should make sport during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, EVER. I know, my Irish is showing, I am just hot over it. I will just keep plugging along and breathe a sigh of relief that we only have a few more months left. I feel sorry for him. This is the only thing he does outside of school and it means so much to him. I can't understand why girls would want to be in that position. If they weren't encouraged, they wouldn't be there. If you are encouraging a girl to serve at the altar, knock it off. I need to find a parental way of dealing with this and continue to support him. He is rather upset. (No famous girls were harmed in the photo morphing to prove how silly this notion has become).

I tend to agree...alterboys

A parish in Norwalk has taken a heavy-handed approach to the dilemma of alter girls. This story, Siding with tradition: Area parish decides altar-serving is for the boys shows how one parish is dealing with this separate but equal issue. Of note is this quote:

"While equal opportunity is a noble sentiment, the bond between priest and the boys has now been lessened," he wrote. "There is also a certain awkwardness in teaching girls to take pride in a job that will never come to fruition, since they will never be able to become priests."

My son is rarely if ever put on the server schedule and while it does upset me, it allows us to go to a different parish on Sundays. I know it is something he enjoys and he has talked of a vocation but I know the huge influx of girl servers this year is awkward for the boys. After researching, girls are "allowed" to be servers but are not to be "encouraged". They will sometimes have ALL GIRL servers at Mass and it is just weird. They actually come up during the procession giggling(as girls do). This club this parish has started is brilliant and as a young girl, I would have really enjoyed that had it been made available.

After reading this, I have to wonder, did the switch have an effect on vocations? If my parish is an indicator, I would say it did. I have to wonder when that pendulum will swing back the other way to correct these "allowances" that squirmed there way into our Church.