Fr Chris Townsend, Pretoria – In response to Catherine Shields (January 28), I am so happy that a young person took on the challenge of responding to Cardinal Raymond Burke’s personal views.
The false association of female altar servers with the decline of vocations to the priesthood in the West needs to be challenged.
I grew up serving in a parish with mixed servers. The experience of serving was invaluable for me for discipline, learning and mentoring by great priests. I also learned to sit still, something I still find difficult.
Yes, sometimes, the girl altar servers outnumber the boys. Girls sometimes are just more together than boys when they are the same age. The boys eventually come round. Boys, in my experience, also serve for a longer period than girls.
In the parishes where I have worked, if the boys were intimidated by the presence of girls, the solution that worked was to make teams of boys and teams of girls who serve at different Masses.
I believe God called me to the priesthood through my experience of the love of Christ and his Church I experienced serving and in many other God-moments in my life. I’m in my 15th year of ministry as a priest and I wouldn’t have servers other than mixed servers in the parishes I serve.
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