Only Boys May Apply

 

A priest in Wisconsin has announced that hence forth, only boys can serve as Altar Boys. Welll...DUH. I won't link to the Madison Times story because the comments are obscene.

"Members of St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie say they are stunned to learn that the priests leading their Catholic community will no longer allow their daughters to be servers at Mass. From now on, only boys will be able to assist priests in the ancient religious rite.

The new policy was announced at a meeting with parents Tuesday by Rev. John Del Priore, who was assigned to the parish on June 1.

"It's an outrage," said Tammy Parks. "They said it was a good way for boys to be indoctrinated into being a priest."

After letting her 11-year-old daughter know that she would no longer be allowed on the altar, Del Priore asked her 8-year-old son about his interest in becoming an altar boy, Parks said in an interview.

"Not only is the priest discriminating against my daughter, he's teaching my son that that is appropriate behavior," she said.

Parents at St. Barnabas are so distressed that there is talk of having the boys boycott altar duty.

The Catholic Church broke with centuries of tradition in 1994, when the Vatican said girls would be allowed to join "altar boys" in assisting priests at Mass.

It is up to the local bishop to decide whether to allow lay women, or girls, to serve when needed, said Brent King, director of communications for the Madison Diocese. Female servers have been allowed in the Madison Diocese, King said, but it is ultimately up to each individual priest to decide whether he needs help at the altar. Priests may ask whomever they wish to assist them, so long as that person is a Catholic in good standing, King said.

He stressed that servers take on the duties of acolytes, traditionally a low clerical rank.

"Neither lay women nor lay men have the right to carry out the function of acolyte," King said.