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cbayer

(146,218 posts)
Tue Jan 27, 2015, 11:26 AM Jan 2015

S.F. Catholic Church priest bans girls as altar servers

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-Catholic-Church-priest-bans-girls-as-altar-6041400.php

By Jill Tucker Updated 9:49 pm, Monday, January 26, 2015

A Catholic priest, new to San Francisco and no stranger to controversy, has banned girls from acting as altar servers at Mass, a decision that sets his parish apart from all others in the archdiocese.

The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor at Star of the Sea Church since August, said he believes there is an “intrinsic connection” between the priesthood and serving at the altar — and because women can’t be priests, it makes sense to have only altar boys.

“Maybe the most important thing is that it prepares boys to consider the priesthood,” he said.

The Richmond District parish is now the only one in the Archdiocese of San Francisco that will exclude girls from serving at the altar. Such a decision is “a pastor’s call,” said archdiocese spokesman Chris Lyford.

more at link
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muriel_volestrangler

(101,144 posts)
3. Joining Cardinal Burke in the emangelization movement - boys must be protected from girls
Tue Jan 27, 2015, 03:24 PM
Jan 2015
Cardinal Burke is right. Women are terrifying.

Women are scary. Women are terrifying. They come into churches and bring cooties with them, and there is no ritual for casting out cooties. Demons, yes. Cooties, no. They come into boardrooms and take seats. They serve the altar — and they are good at it.
...
His words on the Catholic Church’s man crisis have been attracting attention lately, from men’s rights advocates as well as others, and I think it’s worth pointing out exactly what is wrong about them. (Other than the fact that they came under the heading of a movement called “Emangelization.” If you are trying to use bad puns to keep women down, your movement is already off to a lousy start.)
...
“The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time. I want to emphasize that the practice of having exclusively boys as altar servers has nothing to do with inequality of women in the Church.”
...
“I think that this has contributed to a loss of priestly vocations. It requires a certain manly discipline to serve as an altar boy in service at the side of priest, and most priests have their first deep experiences of the liturgy as altar boys. If we are not training young men as altar boys, giving them an experience of serving God in the liturgy, we should not be surprised that vocations have fallen dramatically.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/01/13/cardinal-burke-is-right-women-are-terrifying/

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
5. Emangelization! This article is well worth the read.
Tue Jan 27, 2015, 07:46 PM
Jan 2015

I had hoped that kicking Burke to the curb would send a message, but apparently not.

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