Having all-male altar servers will "drag the church back into the pre-Vatican II world"?

It seems the editors of America are willing to go the rack. Alas, it is apparently not for Church doctrine regarding the priesthood, but for their belief that having only boys as altar servers is damning the Church to return to a "pre-Vatican II world":

This is not a local story, but one that represents larger trends in the church—in the priesthood, the liturgy and in the role of the people of God. Recently Sts. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, Ariz., changed its policy on altar servers. From now on only boys may serve; girls may apply for jobs as sacristans. Why? The rector of the cathedral told The Catholic Sun that the cathedral is not alone in making this regulation. A parish in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., he argues, have found that replacing girls with boys as servers leads to more vocations to the priesthood.

These moves to limit laywomen’s access to the altar threaten to drag the church back into the pre-Vatican II world. One wonders if next the altar rail will return, another barrier between the priests and the people.

According to the rector, people who are upset about this decision concerning Mass servers make a mistake in considering it “a question of rights,” as if someone’s rights were being denied. But, he says, no one has a “right” to be a server or even more a priest. One must be “called” to any church office. When the secular world comments on who should be an altar server, he says, it has only an emotional view, unguided by the light of reason.

The key issue is the status of the baptized: that the laity may be called by the Spirit to offer their talents in various roles. The rejection of altar girls disregards the counsel of the Second Vatican Council that the charisms of the baptized “are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation.” By virtue of baptism, the council reminds us, “there is neither male nor female. For you are all ‘one’ in Christ Jesus.” There is “a true equality between all with regard to the dignity and activity which is common to all the faithful in building up the Body of Christ” (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” Nos. 12, 32).

The editorial continues on this whining road until arriving at the editors' (apparently) real goal and concern: "Inevitably the issue of women’s roles in the church raises the question of women’s ordination to the priesthood." Yawn. Yes, inevitably—that is, if you are intent on ignoring the ancient, consistent, often reiterated, clear-as-day teaching of the Church, as reaffirmed and summarized by Blessed John Paul II not so many years ago:

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

No explicit or even suggested exception was made by John Paul II, I see, for the editors of America. They, perhaps mindful that this battle is long over and they need to cut their losses, moan in anguish in their recent editorial that "Pope Benedict XVI, despite continued agitation, has reaffirmed the policy of John Paul II to allow no discussion of the topic, [so] the matter of altar servers must be considered a separate and independent issue." Well, no, it doesn't really have to be considered completely separate or independent, because people with commonsense can tell that having altar girls does send a confused and confusing message about the nature of the priesthood, as if (although the analogy limps quite a bit) a pro football team allowed women (or, for that matter, 60-year-old men) to practice, but refused to let them play in actual games.

The fact is, true doctrine and good theology are logical, and the lived out expressions of such doctrine and theology should reflect that logic. And the Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum (which allows female servers at the descretion of the diocesan Bishop), touches on this when it states, "It is altogether laudable to maintain the noble custom by which boys or youths, customarily termed servers, provide service of the altar after the manner of acolytes, and receive catechesis regarding their function in accordance with their power of comprehension. Nor should it be forgotten that a great number of sacred ministers over the course of the centuries have come from among boys such as these" (par. 47).

Anyhow, in light of the Magisterium's clear teaching, the editors, in quoting from Lumen Gentium 12, should have included the following from the same passage:

The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples' supernatural discernment in matters of faith when "from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful" they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. That discernment in matters of faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth. It is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God. Through it, the people of God adheres unwaveringly to the faith given once and for all to the saints, penetrates it more deeply with right thinking, and applies it more fully in its life.

And from paragraph 32:

And if by the will of Christ some are made teachers, pastors and dispensers of mysteries on behalf of others, yet all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ. For the distinction which the Lord made between sacred ministers and the rest of the People of God bears within it a certain union, since pastors and the other faithful are bound to each other by a mutual need. Pastors of the Church, following the example of the Lord, should minister to one another and to the other faithful. These in their turn should enthusiastically lend their joint assistance to their pastors and teachers. Thus in their diversity all bear witness to the wonderful unity in the Body of Christ. This very diversity of graces, ministries and works gathers the children of God into one, because "all these things are the work of one and the same Spirit".

Therefore, from divine choice the laity have Christ for their brothers who though He is the Lord of all, came not to be served but to serve. They also have for their brothers those in the sacred ministry who by teaching, by sanctifying and by ruling with the authority of Christ feed the family of God so that the new commandment of charity may be fulfilled by all. St. Augustine puts this very beautifully when he says: "What I am for you terrifies me; what I am with you consoles me. For you I am a bishop; but with you I am a Christian. The former is a duty; the latter a grace. The former is a danger; the latter, salvation"

A few days ago I received an offer to receive a few free issues of America as part of a trial description. Alas, it appears that I don't subscribe to America's take on this issue (and likely a few others as well), so I won't take up the invite. But I do hope that editors of America eventally take up John Paul II's authoritative directive regarding the nature of the priesthood and recognize that it is not his "policy" (a revolting but revealing word), but is a doctrine entrusted by Christ to his Apostles and the Church, and that is upheld by "the constant and universal Tradition of the Church" that is "firmly taught by the Magisterium..."

On Ignatius Insight:

• The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in the Celibate Priest's Spousal and Paternal Love | Fr. John Cihak
• The Priest as Man, Husband, and Father | Fr. John Cihak
• Who Is A Priest? | Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P.
• Women and the Priesthood: A Theological Reflection | Jean Galot, S.J. | From Theology of the Priesthood
• The Real Reason for the Vocation Crisis | Rev. Michael P. Orsi
• Priest as Pastor, Servant and Shepherd | Fr. James McCarthy • The Religion of Jesus | Blessed Columba Marmion | From Christ, The Ideal of the Priest

Comments

[Dan Sheehan]

"One wonders if next the altar rail will return, another barrier between the priests and the people."

My church, which offers both forms of the Mass, installed a lovely wrought-iron altar rail earlier this year. We kneel at it and receive the Host in the proper attitude of humility and reverence. I don't think a soul there regards it as something separating the priest and people. But I don't suppose a soul there reads America, either.

[David Wundel]

Re "drag the church back into the pre-Vatican II world". You mean the church that existed for 2000 YEARS ? Is that such a bad thing ?

[Deacon Jim Stagg]

The important sentence from Lumen Gentium 12, above, is
"It is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God."

Perhaps the magazine America might want to meditate on that sentence, as should we all.

Good article.

[Marshall Kinsey]

his eminence Cardinal Piacenza prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy to the seminarians in Los Angeles on Oct 4:

"there cannot be, nor could there be, a pre-Conciliar Church and a post-Conciliar Church! Were it thus, the second one - ours - would be historically and theologically illegitimate!

There is only one Church of Christ, of which you are part, that goes from Our Lord to the Apostles, from the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, from Romanesque to Gothic to Baroque, and thus until our days, uninterruptedly, without any solution of continuity, ever!"

[Danny O'Connor]

The lack of respect shown when many people receive the Holy Eucharist is shocking,I say bring back the altar rails - the sooner the better.We also see a surge of extra-ordinary ministers at every mass even when there is only a congregation of about 50 people at weekday masses.We also see them unlocking and locking the tabernacle and bringing the ciboriums to and from the altar,some give out the Holy Eucharist (and some priests too)as if they were dealing out cards.There is a growing loss of reverence for the sacred and it MUST be reversed.