When did girl servers come in?

by Michael Shackleton · January 3, 2011

Growing up in the 1960s, I used to complain that my brothers were allowed to serve the priest on the altar but I was not, because I was female. Now, in my parish, most of the servers are girls. When and why did this major break with the past occur? – AC

The code of canon law of 1918 (canon 813.1) prevented women from serving the priest at the altar during the liturgy. When no male server was available, a woman could answer the prayers as long as she did not enter the sanctuary.

Odd as this appears now, the reason goes back well before 1918 when it was the practice for only ordained male acolytes to minister to the priest in the sanctuary. These men were generally on their way to entering the priesthood. In this way the sanctuary became the preserve of the male clergy.

When no ordained acolyte was around to serve at Mass, a layman could be permitted into the sanctuary to assist the priest. This became a kind of convention that carried on for many, many years, with the result that women were regarded as inadmissible to the area around the altar.

Things began to change as recently as 1983 when the new code of canon law came into force, abrogating the previous code. Canon 230.2 says: Lay people can receive a temporary assignment to the role of lector in liturgical actions. Likewise, all lay people can exercise the role of commentator, cantor or other such, in accordance with the law.

Some canon lawyers understood this as permitting women and girls to serve at the altar during Mass, but there was uncertainty among bishops about whether this was the correct interpretation of the law. So you found female servers allowed in one diocese and forbidden in another.

At last, in March, 1994 the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a circular to bishops’ conferences confirming that canon 230.2 permitted both men and women to serve at the altar.

The Southern African bishops reacted quickly and decided that altar girls and women were acceptable, and we see many of them in our churches today.

Interestingly, the Congregation later reminded bishops that no one has a right to become an altar server, and bishops and parish priests can decide who may serve and who may not. This upholds the tradition that the sanctuary is a clerical area. Lay people may be there only as a temporary assignment.