That the Holy Father has given permission for the use of altar girls tells us that the practice cannot be illegal or sacramentally invalidating.
The question is whether or not it is prudent to ask girls to serve. Given what we know about 1) the reluctance of boys to take on roles that girls are encouraged to take; 2) how altar service leads to priestly vocations; and 3) the feminist agenda behind how altar girls came out--it seems to me that it is not prudent to invite young girls to serve in a parish setting.
The question is whether or not it is prudent to ask girls to serve. Given what we know about 1) the reluctance of boys to take on roles that girls are encouraged to take; 2) how altar service leads to priestly vocations; and 3) the feminist agenda behind how altar girls came out--it seems to me that it is not prudent to invite young girls to serve in a parish setting.
Whether we like it or not, young boys do not rush to take on roles that girls are encouraged to take. If 40 years of feminist indoctrination pushing the idea that equality means sameness hasn't convinced 10 y.o. boys that girls' role aren't icky, then I don't know what will convince them. There is almost nothing more important to a 10 y.o. boy than to be seen as "not a girl." We can argue ourselves into the dirt about how wrong this is, but we might as well stand outside at dawn and argue with the sun that it ought to be rising in the west!
There is ample evidence that altar service often leads to priestly vocations. Since priests are indispensable to the ministry of the Church, we can't set aside the practice of all-male altar service simply b/c boys ought to know better.
Those who pushed hardest for female servers in the 70's and 80's did so out of a philosophical and political agenda alien to the Church's understanding of the essential differences btw men and women. The most damaging element of this agenda is the idea that ministers are merely functional; that is, there is nothing more to ministerial service than performing a function during a sacred service. If a girl can "do the job," let her do it. This notion is fine for all secular jobs, but ministerial service is not merely functional; it is also sacramental. The early proponents of female servers often claimed that their stand was "prophetic" and would help Catholics "get used" to the idea of women on the altar when the Church finally got around to ordaining women as priests. This exact argument was made in the Episcopal Church--that opposition to female priests was rooted in an aesthetic discomfort--and look at what's happened to that venerable institution.
So, girls serving the altar is permissible but probably not prudent, especially in a parish setting.
As I noted in an earlier post, I have asked women to serve Mass at the University of Dallas. This came about primarily b/c none of the men I asked would serve. There were several reasons the guys gave for not serving, but the most prominent was, "Sorry, Father, but I haven't been to confession." This same reason was often given by both men and women when asked to serve as EMHC. At one point in my last semester at U.D. I started postponing the start of Mass until I had all the help I needed. I had to do this four or five times--postponing the start of Mass up to 20 mins!--before my message got through.
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