On Equal Footing : Churches Rejoice as Vatican Sanctions Practice of Girls as Altar Servers

For a long time, it was an open secret at many Los Angeles Catholic churches: girls , imagine that, were serving at Mass as altar boys.

*

Some churches let them help priests with the service, but hid them when important church honchos arrived. Not that the girls were without high-powered supporters. Altar girl Lauri Cuypers remembers Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony celebrating Mass at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Altadena and handing her a commemorative cross etched with the words “altar boy” as she helped perform the service. “I hope some day it will say altar server,” she remembers him whispering apologetically into her ear.

Last week, the Vatican, in a step toward religious equality, officially blessed the practice of girls serving during Roman Catholic Masses, sanctioning what a significant minority of Los Angeles’ 284 parishes have practiced for years.

At St. Elizabeth--a pioneering parish for altar girls, where 31 of 53 altar servers are female--Lauri stood outside church after Saturday morning Mass, happy that she can now light altar candles, hold the priest’s Bible, and present the bread and wine to be consecrated as the body and blood of Christ without crossing any sacred liturgical lines.

“I like being up with the priests at the altar, not always down in the pews. I feel special. I feel equal,” she said. Giggling, she added: “I’m more involved in the Mass. You can’t just slack off. You have to pay attention.”

“I used to just see guys up there. When I got up there, I felt accepted. I got a chance to be at a higher level,” said fellow altar girl Claudia Tirado, brushing the hair from her face with nails painted black. “Now, they see girls up there with the priest. It’s a good experience. You know, there were times women couldn’t vote,” she said.

Although some have viewed it as sacrilegious, a growing number of parishes--particularly in the United States--began using altar girls after 1983, when a revision in church law did not explicitly forbid girls from joining boys as altar servers. Parishes that tapped girls nonetheless often kept them out of the Mass when bishops or other church leaders arrived, said Brother Dominic Savio of St. Benedict Church in Montebello, which has abstained from using girls as altar servers until now.

*

Some conservative Catholics saw the use of altar girls as a blasphemous departure from 2,000 years of tradition, calling it disloyal to the Pope--who had not given specific authorization for it. Because being an altar boy had been a training ground for the priesthood, many termed it a dangerous boost to proponents of priesthood for women.

Others saw no harm, and pointed to larger roles women held in the church. “Women have been proclaiming the word and distributing the Communion,” said St. Elizabeth’s Father Richard Prindle, as he donned two white robes for the morning Mass. “It brings the girls recognition, a chance to participate in the services, a sense of being valued. I suspect it brings a sense of equality, too.”

“If a woman can give out the body and blood of Christ, why can’t a girl hand a priest a cruet of wine?” some priests asked the archdiocese of Los Angeles, said spokesman Father Gregory Coiro. Faced with a growing controversy, the archdiocese four years ago asked churches that had not begun using altar girls to refrain from doing so until they got the papal nod.

Saturday, girls were rejoicing at their newfound legitimacy. “I was happy about the decision. I felt they weren’t discriminating against the girls any more. They were before. The girls can serve just as well as the boys,” said 11-year-old Geneva Mays, an altar girl for three years at St. Brigid Catholic Church in South-Central L.A. She added: “If girls want to be priests, they should be able. They haven’t approved that. Maybe they will. But I think it will take them a while.”

Melissa Mirkovich, 13, was serving as altar girl during a recent Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Burbank, a skill she has honed in 20 Masses since the fourth grade. “The Mass is boring just sitting there. When you are the server you actually get to participate in the Mass.”

Some parents approve, too.

“It makes the Mass come alive for her,” said Valerie Plump, 46, an elementary schoolteacher who attends St. Elizabeth, where her 12-year-old daughter, Christina, has served for five years. “It’s given her a sense of responsibility, of service. It has brought her closer to the community.

“It makes the whole family a part of the church,” Plump said.

Three years ago, she brushed off a visitor who came to St. Elizabeth for an anti-abortion Mass and screamed at her daughter, who was working as an altar girl, “This is against Vatican rules!”

*

Many churches--facing an altar boy shortage--were also breathing a sigh of relief. At Granada Hills’ St. Euphrasia Church, which has not previously had altar girls, priests sometimes celebrate Mass without an altar boy assisting because, as Father Raymond A. Saplis put it: “We have an extremely difficult time getting guys to serve.”

Heather Nowatzki, an eighth-grader at St. Euphrasia’s school, said she attends Mass nearly every Sunday and had a brother who served as an altar boy. “If the girls started doing it, the boys might think we can do it better and would begin to show up more,” she said.

Girls jumped at the chance last week to serve at St. Benedict in Montebello. But Savio sees one looming problem now that churches have the pontiff’s blessing: “I’m wondering if the boys and girls can work together. The boys said: ‘We don’t want the girls near us.’ You know. They are at that awkward age.”