From: bdboyle@erenj.com (Bryan D. Boyle)
Subject: Re: Altar Girls Documentation
Organization: Exxon Research and Engineering Co., NJ
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 15:24:51 GMT

In article <CATHOLIC%92110909302406@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU> DICK HAROLD <ITNEWS@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU> writes:
>Bryan
>
>The fact remains that young girls do serve at Mass, young boys do not say
>the responses and in many cases there are no servers at all.
>
My point is that, while they may be serving mass, they do so illicitly.
Without the proper permission.  Without sanction, and, against the
express will of the Holy Father and the Vatican.  In effect, the
priest(s) and bishop(s) that permit, and soft-peddle their disobedience
to the letter, as well as the spirit of the missal they profess to be
using, are causing disunity and scandal, as well as setting an extremely
poor example for the children.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  This 
egregarious abuse of both the rite of the eucharist and the rubrics
of the Catholic Church is, in my estimation a grave matter.  That is 
why I seperate the Roman Catholics from the American Catholic churches.

Let's address the other issue about why the acolytes don't provide the
proper responses: lack of proper catechesis.  Or, more specifically,
lack of a proper catechism since the Baltimore fell out of use in the 
70's.  Have you read what passes as a religious instruction book or set
of beliefs lately?  It is a lot of relativist feel-good, touchy-feelie
oatmeal.  IMHO, you can not move to a relativist examination without
first providing the boundaries of the issue you are discussing.  There
have to be some definitive statements made so that everyone knows or
understands the baseline from which the argument will be made.  And,
that has been lacking.  The Woodstock/Georgetown axis of Jesuit
"intellectuals" has been fighting AGAINST publishing any sort of
catechism with Rome's approbation.  Probably because you will then
be able to judge statements against orthodoxy, and that is the last
thing that any academic wants: to be held accountable for their
statements.

So, if you don't train the acolytes (i know it was a long way
around...and got off the track, but, heck, I figured I would put out
more flame bait to bring up some more lurkers...:-)) well, they
won't know that they should provide the responses.  But, you see, that 
means that the person in charge of the acolytes has to actually
understand what is required of him.  And actually has to understand what
the proper function of the acolyte (according to tradition, the GIRM,
and other official church documents) is in the Mass, and how to motivate
(you just don't sit there in back of the altar kicking the rug during
the homily and playing with the buttons on the cassock...) their young
charges.

As to why there are no acolytes at some masses, I don't have an
answer-and I may be a goody-two-shoes, but there were no serverless
masses that I attended when growing up...someone always went up to
assist.  As a lector, I have pulled double duty occasionally-with
the congregation filled with young men that are acolytes.  If the
parents don't make any effort, then how do we expect the kids to care...

BB


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