Catholic Church Wrong to Bar Girls as Altar Servants

If there's one institution that has made a point of desperately trying to keep women in their place, it's organized religion.

Whether it's Christianity, Islam or Judaism, women are readily relegated to secondary roles, their contributions considered insignificant.

In the Catholic Church, it's taken a step further by the refusal to allow women to even become priests. Now, some Catholic churches are alienating women by refusing to allow girls to be altar servants.

In Virginia, at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, the Rev. Michael Taylor wrote that the church will no longer train girls to be altar servants. That angered one woman at the church, who spoke to The Washington Post about it, blasting the decision.

According to the Post: "Taylor, who did not return phone calls for comment, wrote in the parish bulletin that he hoped the church would 'create opportunities, and perhaps clubs' for girls as a way to help them find ways to serve the church, rather than serving at the altar."

The Roman Catholic Church of Phoenix has also refused to allow girls to serve as altar servants, angering some there for taking such a hard-line stance.

It would behoove these priests and archbishops to actually open up their Bibles and realize that were it not for women, there may have never been Christianity.

The Catholic Church regards Peter as its first pope, teaching that it was Jesus who gave Peter and the other disciples the direction to create the church.

According to Matthew 16:17-20 (NIV), Jesus said to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Yet the Bible also records that when Jesus was crucified, his disciples were scared to death of being killed themselves, so it was left to the female followers of Jesus to stand guard and pray and weep as he hung on the cross. John 19:25 says that Jesus' mother, Mary; Mary, the wife of Clopas; and Mary Magdalene were all standing vigil.

No men. No disciples. No apostles.

When Jesus was thirsty, it was the women — not a single male disciple — who gave him something to drink before he died.

Who discovered that Jesus wasn't in the tomb? It was a woman — Mary Magdalene — not one of Jesus' disciples.

When Mary went to get Peter and another disciple to show them that Jesus was gone, they saw for themselves and went back into hiding "with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders" (John 20:19).

Who was visited by two angels and Jesus? Not one of his male believers, but a crying Mary Magdalene!

According to the account in John 20, Jesus told Mary, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

When Mary Magdalene did as ordered, the disciples, the fervent male followers of Jesus, didn't even believe her. The Gospel of John records that Jesus had to show up for them to even believe that he had died and risen to heaven.

Now, just imagine the Christian faith had women not been standing guard. If women weren't as vigilant in believing in Jesus Christ, there may not even be a Christian church today. That means no popes, no cardinals, no archbishops, no priests and no altar boys.

As a former altar boy who spent years at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Houston, the role was simple: to serve as a helper to the priest. Folks, there is nothing I did as an altar boy that a young woman couldn't do. Nothing.

This decision by Catholic Church leaders in Phoenix and Virginia is nonsensical and unnecessary. All it does is drive a wedge through believers in the body of Christ instead of expanding ways in which people can serve the church.

Such ignorance is one of the reasons why non-denominational Christian churches are growing at a faster rate than those associated with a denomination.

As long as churches erect barriers for believers to serve, they will not be seen as welcoming places to worship. Allowing women to be altar servants isn't political correctness; it's biblical.

If women were good enough to stand guard and care for Jesus Christ, I'm sure their female descendants are good enough to care for the church He commissioned.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and author of the book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as Originally Reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his website at RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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