Thursday, January 27, 2011 FEATURE Southern Cross, Page 5 Altar girls come to the Diocese of Savannah ony tails bouncing Holy See’s official sanc- Por long hair neatly tion. This sanction came in combed back, girl altar 1994, when official inter- servers are now so preva- pretation of Canon 230, lent that you hardly notice Paragraph 2 of the Code them. At a gathering of Canon Law on delega- of 53,000 European tion of certain liturgical altar servers in offices, was followed Rome in August, by a letter from the 2010, female Congregation for servers outnum- Divine Worship bered the more and the Sacraments traditional altar boys acknowledging that - comprising 60 Rita H. DeLorme yes - girls could percent of those serve on the altar. gathered. Though accepted In 2001, a clarifying letter now in most U.S. dioceses, confirmed that priests were permission for girls to not compelled to have girl serve on the altar was a altar servers even if their practice under serious con- bishops permitted their use. sideration for many years A check of the index of before it became an official the Southern Cross fol- reality in 1994. lowed by an exhaustive Before that, a few iso- (and exhausting) scan of lated dioceses in this coun- microfilmed issues of the try and elsewhere were paper printed during the allowing girl servers. As years leading up to inclu- early as 1965 female serv- sion of girls in the ranks of ers were serving on altars altar servers yielded noth- in Germany. The Vatican’s ing until a late December, 1970 instruction, Liturgicae 1994, issue. This issue instaurationes sought to carried a photo of Father counteract this practice by Thomas Peyton of Sacred affirming that only male Heart Church, Savannah, servers were permitted. presiding at the induc- In 1980, the Vatican’s tion of altar servers at his Inaestimabile domum church. “This was the first instruction further shored time that girls had been up the church’s stand accepted and inducted into that women were “still gifted in education, politics the same time, a Catholic against female altar servers. the ministry,” the picture’s far from full engagement and economics and should News Service article fea- Inevitably, another wave identification noted. in the church, despite the be encouraged to make tured a photo of young crashed against resistance As if tentatively paving magisterium’s directives in important contributions in men and women servers to girl servers in the form the way for this brief men- this regard.” Another front- those fields.” taking part in a vigil Mass of the 1983 Code of Canon tion of female altar servers, page story in the Southern A decade and a half later, on August 3 in St. Peter’s Law, with its inclusion of a story appeared on the Cross that September the Vatican’s newspaper, Square at the Vatican dur- both males and females front page of the Southern quoted a preparatory L’Osservatore, commented ing that summer’s pilgrim- in liturgical functions (as Cross two months earlier Vatican document for an on August 7, 2010, that age for altar servers. lectors, commentators or referring to a world Synod international conference on “the exclusion of girls from cantors) by temporary des- of Bishops set to take place women to be held in 1995. all of this (being altar serv- ignation. Subsequent to the that October that would Decrying worldwide vic- ers) has always weighed Columnist RITA H. 1983 Code, some dioceses focus on the roles of men timization of women, this heavily and represented DELORME is a volunteer in began allowing girl altar and women religious in the document acknowledged a deep inequality within the Diocesan Archives. She servers, although these dio- modern world. The story that women were “often Catholic education.” About can be reached at ceses did this without the ended with the admission [email protected]. grace . a robot. This is not an example of a love available What inspires me about my husband is his ability evening that could have ended with me ticked at only to those with supernatural powers. We can all to see the big picture – it’s not that being patient and him for being self-centered, and him ticked at me choose this kind of reaction. assuming the best has always come natural to him. for being a jerk – it ended with us sharing a bowl of Paul likes to tell me a story about himself, about It’s that he recognizes the things that are worth fight- leftover spaghetti. who he was as a boy. His mother (who died before ing about (almost nothing) and also that he is a very Moments of grace are beautiful, and in marriage we were married) always told Paul that when he smart man. those moments are an especially welcome gift. was little, he had a terrible temper. Paul has learned how to diffuse a situation by “Whenever I would fall off my bike,” Paul tells side-stepping the drama. RACHEL SWENSON BALDUCCI is a freelance writer, me, “my mom said I had a blood vessel that would My husband had every right to take me down a wife, mother of five sons and a daughter, and a pop out of my forehead, that’s how mad I got.” few notches that evening, when I was so quick to member of Most Holy Trinity Parish, Augusta. SHE So we are not dealing with the world’s most pas- accuse him. I was wrong, but he never pointed that CAN BE REACHED AT [email protected]. sive human. out. Through his kindness and generous spirit, an .