Article – Altar Servers, Part II

The question about girl altar servers is part of the overall issue of the dignity and rights of women. I would recommend St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women. The great pope was gifted with profound insights into the meaning of our identity as men and women. He wrote: “In the name of ‘liberation’ from male domination, women must not appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own feminine ‘originality.” (par. 10) We are equal in value and dignity but complementary and distinct in many aspects.

I went to a large procession in Boston a few months ago and the crowd was guided by several boy scout volunteers and their leaders in uniform. The odd thing was that all of the boy scouts, and all of their leaders, were female. This strikes me as an example of a feminist philosophy that demands that women be allowed to do whatever a man does to the point of excluding all-male organizations. Young people, especially girls, are having to deal with the stresses of adolescence in the midst of this great cultural confusion and division.

Another sad problem is the skyrocketing number of adolescent girls who are identifying as male. I know a middle school teacher in Michigan who said that 80% of the girls in his class are declaring themselves to be boys.

A false feminism that denies the full value of what is uniquely feminine, motherhood for example, is contributing to this present crisis. It is extremely important that we help young people develop a healthy understanding of the dignity and meaning of their gender and sexuality. One helpful analogy is that the man is the head of the family and the woman is the heart. Both have authority but in different ways.

Justice without compassion becomes cruel tyranny. Compassion without justice and truth becomes destructive self-indulgence.

The story of the wedding feast at Cana is a beautiful example of this complementarity. (John2) Notice that it is the woman who guides the decision of the Lord Himself. One of my favorite refrigerator magnet sayings is: “Dad is in charge because Mom said so.”

Next week we will try to relate all this to the question of altar servers.

Fr. Peter