This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on traditional Catholic Worship

Some folks have noticed that we only have boys serving the altar at Our Lady of the Rosary, Greenville. Why is that? Girl altar servers are permitted. Are we trying to oppress girls? Are we misogynists? Don’t we believe in equality of the sexes?

We have gradually moved over to having only boys serving the altar for several reasons. First, I should say that when we had girl altar servers they did a great job, but it has been my experience that when boys and girls are in the same groups of service or society very often the boys leave. Guys are lazy. It’s typical of men to shrug their shoulders and say, “It the gals want to do it, let them do it!”

When serving the altar is  “Boys only” the boys bond together more and support one another. The older boys help to train the younger ones and they interact as brothers.  What about their sisters? At OLR we  encourage them to serve at Mass by singing in one of our choirs. But there is more to it than these practical matters. Some folks have observed that the Catholic priesthood is reserved to men, so having only boys serving the altar helps to re-inforce this doctrine of the church and provides an encouraging environment for boys and young men to begin considering a priestly vocation.

In our current society–where so many are confused by the results radical feminism and the sexual revolution–having activities separated by gender helps boys and girls to be clear about the differences in gender roles. Human sexuality is a complex and multi-faceted dimension of the human person and lack of clearly defined gender roles in childhood can contribute to gender confusion later on. Having boys do some jobs and girls do others helps boys and girls develop in a healthy way.

Am I saying that having girl altar servers leads to the whole LGBTQ+ agenda? Not necessarily, but on the other hand it makes sense to me that if a child grows up in a church where there are girl altar servers,  women priests and same sex “marriage” they will develop an ambiguous understanding of what it means to be a man, a woman, a mother and a father.

On Sunday mornings it is a joy to see our boys and girls participate so enthusiastically in worship. The boys run in to church saying, “Can I serve today Father!” The girls turn up early to practice and sing beautifully. Together they glorify God with their youth, their beauty and their love of the Lord and so remind each one of us that to enter the Kingdom of God we must become again like little children.