Serving priests is a job for boys only

Now, I'm not referring to the pedophiles in the Roman Catholic priesthood. I'm referring to what in my day was known as an altar boy. Their function is to assist at mass: to respond to the priest's prayers, to help serve communion, to hold the censer and do whatever else necessary for the saying of the mass.

In 1994 the Vatican declared that girls could also perform the tasks of an altar boy. Now, seventeen years later the majority of the dioceses in northern and eastern Virginia have not implemented the Vatican's declaration. And in some of those which do allow altar girls, the boys wear black, more priestly garments, while the girls wear white.

The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano has stated, "The exclusion of girls from all this, for the sole reason of belonging to the female sex, has always weighed heavily and signified a profound inequality within Catholic education, which fortunately has been cancelled by now for several decades."  The 'cancellation' is attested to by a 2010 meeting of altar boys and girls in Rome. The girls outnumbered the boys 60-40.

It's obvious that the Roman Catholic church is in decline, particularly in the U.S. This altar girl situation is simply another reason for this decline.