Altar Girls Banned!
We have been informed that St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie, Wisc. will no longer allow girls to serve at liturgy. y Rev. John Del Priore, who was assigned to the parish on June 1, announced this policy last Tue. See article:
http://www.madison.com/toolbox/index.php?action=printme2&ref=tct&storyURL=%2Ftct%2Fnews%2F293316
The phone number for the church is (608) 795-4321.
Call as soon as possible.
This is another signal that the institutional church is treating girls and women as second-class citizen, and is out of touch with Jesus. We should ask ourselves: what would Jesus say and do?
As the Gospels reveal, Jesus had male and female disciples and shared the central message of Christianity with a woman, Mary of Magdala, the apostle to the apostles. Women served in priestly ministry for 1200 years. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are reclaiming our ancient heritage and celebrating liturgies where all are welcome including altar girls. We offer hope that a renewed church is already a reality on the ground in communties around the U.S., Canada and Europe. The people of God are enthusiastic and hopeful that a new day is dawning for the church. This represssive action is a sad testimony to an institutional church that continues to discriminate against women and is fearful of women's equality. Moving backwards to Trent will not save the church.
Bridget Mary Meehan
16 comments:
Since the allowance of altar girls is an indult (an exception to the law), this priest is well within his rights to have only altar boys. Anyways, this was the practice of the whole Church before 1994. The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox still don't allow them.
Well now, I guess banning girls will give him access to more altar boys......hmmmmm?!!!?
I dont think we've even seen altar servers at all in RCWP 'masses', at least from what I've seen on youtube.
Part of the reason the gynophobes have such a problem with women as priests and altar girls as it leaves the men who either openly or secretly have affections for other men less of a field to choose from.
Men can secretly have "male crushes on the priest" but not if the priest is a woman. Some men absolutely need a "Daddy" in the figure of the priest. These men who prefer Daddies only are very threatened by the idea of a "Mommy" at the altar.
Pam you are blowing the pedophile priest scandal severely out of proportion. Only .02 percent of the world's priests were ever involved in the scandal (Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2001). ISBN 0-19-514597-6), and only 4 percent of priests in the United States according to the USCCB.
You seem to think that women are incapable of evil, while men would appear to be the very source of evil. I think you are imagining this perceived case of misogyny you speak of, and probably confusing it with your own misandry.
And I guess sex pred female teachers like Debra Lafave and Mary Letourneau are just... what?
Must have hit a nerve. Perhaps you are blowing the women's ordination situation out of proportion since you seem to lurk here and have very little positive input on the issue. What are you afraid of? Why don't you go to an Anglican Church and experience a Mass celebrated by a women and see that it is not so terrible. You might even find yourself a convert to women's issues like Paul on the road to Damascus. I know that there is nothing I nor anyone here could say to change your mind. Surely you are not naive enough to think you are going to change anyones mind here. Maybe you would do well to start your own blog to present your case in depth to like-minded people who won't be so threatening to you.
I am in no way threatened by the womenpriest movement. Primarily because it is only the action of Catholics that concerns me. Since the Womenpriests and their supporters aren't Catholic, I'm not concerned. But that is beside the point.
Today's typical radical feminist, and forgive me if this is a generalization, seem to be decrying an oppression that just doesn't exist. The Church has always been very supportive of women and the feminine. Look at how many women are counted among the saints, see how many religious are out in the world evangelizing to a world that needs the gospel. Look at the Mother of God, who God honored above all other human beings. This isn't oppression, rather it is celebration of women's role in salvation history.
It's a common understanding today, at least around non-radicals, that men and women are created equal in dignity, yet they are not created the same
"Look at how many women are counted among the saints, see how many religious are out in the world evangelizing to a world that needs the gospel."
Ok, Look at how many men are counted among the saints, see how many monks are out in the world evangelizing to a world that needs the gospel.
Just because women can be saints and nuns does not mean that they make the laws and govern the church. It is only men that govern the church and make the laws that affect all aspects of a woman's life in the church. You logic is full of holes here.
What do you expect to be the result of the many telephone calls to St. Barnabas Parish? Further entrenching Father John doesn't seem a good or likely successful tactic and may only exacerbate the situation. Keep in mind that there is a growing movement within the American Catholic Church to do away with altar servers entirely and return to male Acolytes.
>Pam said: "Why don't you go to an Anglican Church and experience a Mass celebrated by a women and see that it is not so terrible."
A Catholic attending an Anglican Church and experiencing a Mass celebrated by a women would see exactly what is so terrible -- the absence of the Eucharist. Technically, the absence of the Eucharist means that there was no Mass, but a ritual that resembles the Mass. Also, since there is no Eucharist, there is opportunity for the grave mortal sin of idolatry to occur.
>"Just because women can be saints and nuns does not mean that they make the laws and govern the church."
Out of the twelve members of the Board of Governors of the Canon Law Society of America, I count four women. Interesting that these women are referred to as "governors", is it not?
According to their constitition these four women cooperate in the continuous revision and renewal of the universal law of the Church and with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in proposing new legislation, resolving current legal questions and implementing laws and structures which pertain to the vital life of the Church.
It seems that women are in fact doing what you claim women are not doing.
>"...have very little positive input on the issue."
Um, why would you expect a public blog on a controversial topic with comments enabled to be an "echo chamber"? Surely the "truths" expounded here are not threatened by less than positive input or are they?
God bless...
+Timothy
Wow! How fantastic to learn this. Four women in the entire Catholic Church. Mmm four out of twelve.
Perhaps it would be more representative if there were six out of twelve as women make up 50% of the church. And pray tell me how many women are card carrying members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops? How many women Bishops are there? Give me a break! I'm surprised you are all so threatened by little altar girls when there are much bigger threats to the Catholic Church.
Talking about yourself Pam?
"Mmm four out of twelve."
Methinks Pam would be happier if 11 of the members were women, while 1 was an effeminate gay man sympathetic only to her cause. You take inclusivity to such an extreme that Roman Catholic WOMENPriests has a male "priest" in their ranks.
I ask you, how many men are mommies? How many men lactate? This is a gross injustice, I am sure. How many men are presidents of women's book groups? Hmm.
Okay, random thought here.
If there were women priests in the first millennium, how came it that not one of them ascended to the chair of Peter as Pope?
Also, you've quoted Pope Gelasius in 494 that says that women officiated at the sacred altars. Now why would the Pope condemn it then if it was the common practice of the apostles and the entire Church for the first millennium??
The Council of Laodecia, AD 390, said that "Women may not go to the altar." It also said that "None of the priesthood... shall wash in the bath with women."
Where are the women priests??
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