From: edjans01@orion.spd.louisville.edu (David Jansing)
Subject: Re: Altar girls and millstones
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 15:24:38 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville

In <92282.092440MNHCC@CUNYVM.BITNET> Marty Helgesen <MNHCC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:

>Tom,

>Back in the 1940s and 50s some Catholics thought that the sacrifice
>of the Mass ought to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than in
>Latin.  This was a legitimate desire.  The requirement that the Mass
>be celebrated in Latin was entirely a matter of Church law.  The
>first Masses had been said in Aramaic, which was the vernacular of
>the Apostles.  Masses were then offered in Greek and other vernacular
>languages, including Latin, which was the vernacular in Rome.  Be-
>cause Latin was the common language of the Western Church it became
>the common language of worship.  Vernacular liturgies were tradition-
>ally used in some of the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church. Wheth-
>er it was desirable to change from Latin to the vernacular in the
>Latin rite was a matter of opinion.  Many Catholics who supported the
>change formed organizations to promote it.  They wrote books and
>articles advocating it. They had meetings and conferences to discuss
>and advocate the use of the vernacular.  At those meetings the
>priests in attendance celebrated Mass in Latin.  The change they
>wanted had not yet been approved so they properly and obediently
>followed the rules then in effect.

Latin was not the venancular in places like England or (what is today)
Germany.  Latin was forced upon the Church by an overbearing Roman Empire. 
When the Empire fell, Latin remained mainly for the Church.  When the
Council of Trent came along Latin was by far NOT the venacular for the
Western World.  There were many other languages, depending on the area of
Europe that you were in.  The Church basically went to Latin to prevent any
such heresies creeping into the faith via the venacular.  The common people
then were uneducationed and uninformed.  The Church was acting in their own
best interest.  500 years later, the Church made a conscious effor to
include the people of in the Liturgy, which meant (among other things)
changing the text of the Mass from Latin (not even close to the venacular)
to English (at least for the US).  Your "facts", Marty are shaky and
ill-informed at best.

>You ask if altar girls are against the rules.  Yes, they are.
>Someone else on the list recently said that he could provide documen-
>tation proving this fact.

Then I say, "Put up, or shut up!"

>I have seen statements that there are theological reasons against the
>use of altar girls, but I have been able to study those arguments.
>Therefore, I am prescinding from that question and treating the
>prohibition of altar girls only as a matter of Church law.  If you
>consider the example of the vernacular in my first paragraph you will
>see that your posted questions miss the point.

Once again, share these theological reasons, their sources, and their
agreement with Rome with the rest of us.  Again, "Put up, or shut up."

>God's law can be changed only by God.  He made some changes when He
>became a man in Jesus Christ, fulfilled the Old Covenant and founded
>the New Covenant which shall last until He returns at the end of the
>world.  Disobeying His commandments is a direct defiance of God.  God
>founded the Catholic Church to teach in His name, to administer His
>sacraments, etc.  Disobeying the rules of His Church is an indirect
>defiance of God because it defies the legislative authority He gave
>to the Apostles and their successors.

Your weak arguments are made even weaker by your insistance of this
paragraph.  If you wish to follow the Old Testament God, the God of
punishment and anger, then do so in your own space and time.  Don't inflict
it on me or the Church.  We are Catholics and Christians.  This means we
follow the message of Christ!  This is a message of Love and Forgiveness,
not of punishments for "direct defiances" and "disobeying."  And if you are
so up on Church Law, let me ask you this:  Can women be appointed as
Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist?
-- 
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Dave Jansing |  University of Louisville  | Department of Electrical Engineering
                Internet:  edjans01@orion.spd.louisville.edu
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Let all guests be treated as Christ himself, and just so, for many an angel as
been entertained unaware . . . But if a guest overstay his welcome, let two of
the stout monks take him to the gate and explain the matter to him.
-- Adapted from the _Rule of St. Benedict_
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