The New Emangelization blog recently defended the words of Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke on the detrimental effects of “altar girls” on priestly vocations. His Eminence’s words came in a much discussed interview published on that same blog.
To defend the Cardinal, the author of the New Emangelization blog cited the work of The Liturgy Guy, which is worth reading if you’re confused on this issue. Of course, if you worship according to the Church’s traditional Latin liturgy, it is not an issue at all.
I do not believe that our Eastern Rite brethren have widespread use of altar girls — in fact, if memory serves me correctly, I believe the phenomenon is still generally recognized as being contrary to their liturgical law (as it technically still is in the Latin Rite as well — that 1994 statement was no law, and could not legitimately overturn the entire bimillennial tradition it sought to dismantle).
I know of an Eastern Rite parish where the priest sought to implement altar girls, and found himself powerfully assailed by an outspoken female parishioner.
Ironic… and iconic.
