Sri Lanka, but why would the ban on altar girls encourage priestly vocations?

Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Colombo, in the former capital of Sri Lanka, since 2009. He has requested in a letter addressed to the clergy, “No girls should be invited to serve at the altar in the archdiocese”.

Like all choices, this one too is debatable, and precisely for this reason, it is important to reflect on its motivations. This is additionally important because, as foreseen at the end of the Synod, the different local churches have the task of translating the indications and wishes shared in the final document into their individual realities. Everything, therefore, should be the fruit of discernment to hold together a belonging to a synodal church in which altar girls are already present in several countries, and respect for individual local contexts.

Therefore, this is the precise motive to support the archbishop’s decision that then begs to be discussed.

He himself, moreover, has made his motivation clear when he states that altar boys “should always be young boys, because this is one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood in Sri Lanka and will influence the number of candidates entering seminaries, a risk we cannot take. Since women are not allowed to be ordained as priests, we have to take this decision”.

The syllogism underlying the reasoning is as clear as ever. Women cannot enter the priesthood; altar boys are one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood; therefore, women must not be allowed to be altar girls. From a logical point of view, there is nothing more to say.

However, we must ask ourselves what the close link of contiguity and continuity that Msgr. Patabendige Don establishes between being an altar boy and becoming a priest means and above all, what it entails.

Today, there is a debate about the formation for the priestly ministry. This debate of the life of and in seminaries, calls for the search for totally new models, which involves a serious testing of candidates and, above all, of their sexual and affective maturation. Therefore, what sense does it make to consider the world of altar boys as a privileged breeding ground for future priests?

Is it right to continue to think that a true vocation to the ministry can be founded and developed in an environment impervious to differences, including sexual differences. Once again, excluding women creates harm. To the church, not just to women.

by Marinella Perroni