Poll at Fr. Z's Blog

Fr. Z has several polls at his blog regarding our opinion on male and female altar servers. Please go vote at:

Should the Holy Father reverse the interpretation of the 1983 Code which allowed for female service at the altar?


Does an all-male sanctuary foster vocations to the priesthood?


Sanctuary encompasses the part of the church within the altar rail.

For what it's worth, my opinion is that there should not be female altar servers and that an all male sanctuary does foster vocations to the priesthood. Having said this, though, our daughters will NOT be altar servers even though it is allowed in our parish, but at this time we would permit them to be a lector.

Red Cardigan has a great post at And Sometimes Tea that makes some good points from a feminine perspective, although I am not in 100 percent agreement with her. I didn't read all the comments at her post but am pretty sure there are definitely some things said in the comments over there that I do not agree with.

So far I have pretty much avoided the negative comment atmosphere I've heard about in the Catholic blogosphere. I hope to remain blissfully naive about this, but if not, so be it.

UPDATE: At least that's the way I interpreted sanctuary, that it means the part of the church within the altar rail (or where the altar rail should be). Maybe I don't have that right but that is what I based my vote on.