The shining lights in this situation are American activist nuns and Catholic women priests, who run their own churches. There are now more than 100 ordained women priests in the United States. That and the fact that the Church hierarchy really doesn't represent most Catholics in terms of practical day to day life. Barring altar girls, however, is more than just vestigial sexism, it's obstructionist and grounded in misogynistic ideas.
A Church genuinely committed to addressing the needs of the marginalized wouldstartwith the ordination of women, not end here, centuries from now. The problem for the Church isn't girls who stay, it's the girls they turn away, each of whom realizes she is, for no legitimate moral or ethical reason, not respected as an equal, regardless of what the Pope says. As long as girls have to fight to be recognized in their own churches the Pope's protestations ring hollow. In the meantime, every altar girl this Church turns away is a gift to the rest of the world. Those girls, and the people who support them, are the ones who will eventually close the pay gap.
Portions of this essay have been published in Whatever Works: Feminists of Faith Speak,
Trista Hendren (Editor), Pat Daly (Editor), Amina Wadud (Foreword)
Trista Hendren (Editor), Pat Daly (Editor), Amina Wadud (Foreword)
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