The Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy in the Light of the Present Decadence of the Acolyte

In the midst of the great turmoil which afflicts the Church regarding the place and nature of the Mass, one solitary figure stands, almost completely ignored, as if in the eye of a hurricane. He is the lonely, cassocked figure of the altar boy, standing on the edge of the sanctuary, abandoned. In some parishes, many servers have little sense of the great ministry they have been called to fulfill, nor the long and honorable tradition they can trace their office back to, all the way to tbe blood of the young martyr St. Tarcisius, who died rather than give up the Host to profanation. In several parishes I know, some simply neglect to show up and serve their obliged Sunday mass, something unthinkable forty years ago. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that, from the pews at least, it looks as if few of these poor souls are cut out for the priesthood.

This circumstance in particular (around 50% of priestly vocations come from the ranks of the altar boys) has often been cited to justify the entrance of girls and women into the ministry of server. At the moment, this change has not seemed to affect considerably the number of boys involved, though I will admit having seen parishes where whole teams of servers were girls. This is, presently, the exception rather than the rule. Until comparatively recently, I supported the entry of girls into the servership because I knew quite a few and also precisely because I didn't see many vocations among the male servers. Also, at least around ND, they're kinda cute in those albs, as long as they don't wear those ridiculous shoes.

At present, I'm ambivalent on the question, and treat it for what it is, a neutral temporary measure which, while not necessarily in keeping with the historic custom of the Church is nonetheless not a threat to it, unless improperly politicized.

I think, though, the question of male versus female servership is, however, a bit of a red herring. The present decadence of the ministry of server set in long before these recent changes. Its roots date back to a highly unexpected and unforseen consequence of the liturgical changes of the 1950s and '60s. Before the onset of the dialogue mass during the pontificate of Pius XII, in itself a healthy phenomenon, a server was an absolute prerequisite at the Mass. Even the priests of the Vatican Observatory, given to celebrating their daily Mass at very odd times, were forbidden from dispensing with a server. However, at present, with the server's part taken by the congregation, much of the mystique has been lost: instead, the role of the altar boy is less of a partner in the mystery than a peripatetic lectern or candle-bearer, rather like an assistant at a High Mass. Indeed, if one compares the general outline of an old Pontifical High Mass, with prayers said from the chair and various processions, with the present Mass, many of the rubrical changes of the post-Conciliar era seem to make more liturgical sense, but we will have to turn our attention to that at a later date.

However, the altar boy's place remains greatly simplified, perhaps too much so. There is very little special training they need now, less of a sense of an entry into a heretofore-unknown world, a magical and sacred world full of mysterious and evocative gestures and familiar recited prayers. I think that, with the ministry of server being a seed-bed for future priests, simply as a pragmatic matter, their role should be considered in detail in any future revision of the mass.

In short: give the boys something to say.

At first, this proposal may seem both in contradiction to Sacrosanctum Concilium's dictums that liturgy should be both a matter of active congregational participation and perhaps also should achieve a noble simplicity, since so many of the prayers which distinguish the present Roman rite from the 1962 missal are said silently, or at the very least, quietly, just between priest and server. Furthermore, the pessimistic pastoral impossibility of forcing the X-box generation to learn Latin looms large on the horizon.

All these objections can be easily overcome. The principal reason many of these silent and semi-silent prayers, such as the Introibo at the entrance, were removed in the missal of 1970 was their relatively late entry into the Mass. Yet, I should think that any good priest worth his (blessed) salt would be praying silently--mentally, in this case--throughout the Mass.

Yet, upon reflection, they don't seem to interfere with the Roman Rite's preeminent simplicity: and in comparison with its sister rites of Lyons, Milan and Sarum, as well as the rites of the east, from the perspective of the audible prayers such as the Gloria, the Kyrie, the Preface, and so forth, the older rite looks and sounds quite simple and dignified. Go to a well-said Low Mass and tell me otherwise.

Admitted, the regulations regarding priestly gesture are sometimes mind-numbingly complex, but if they are properly digested and enacted, they have a surprisingly simple grace to them. A few crossings--such as those post-Consecration over the Oblation, which seem inappropriate and may have evolved from some other gesture entirely--could have been cut, and some rubrics reduced to mere guidelines, but given the general lack of uniformity at present, some detailed, yet abridged version, might do wonders for the decorum of priest and server on the altar. Tell a boy to hold a candle, and he'll do it any old way, but tell him the right way to hold a candle, and you have given him a special and unique task.

Look at the way a soldier marches on parade: it's a way of imparting discipline desperately needed in the slouching culture of today. The current Instructio Generalis on the Roman Missal, and its 1970 predecessor, assumed the priest and server would know what to do, how to carry himself with dignity: after all, that's what seminaries were for. Unfortunately, this well-meaning idealism has proven misplaced in pastoral practice. Some people have natural dignity. Other people don't. Those who don't have to learn how to get it. It's a long, hard, complicated road to noble simplicity.

My inquiries into the matter, from a historical perspective, suggest that it might have been better if the silent prayers destined for reform were divided into two classes. Some could have been digested and pruned into a spoken, congregational form, such as a single Confiteor prefaced by a short greeting as we have at present, or simply said aloud, as with the Canon or the Secret, which seems to have originally been intended to be spoken anyway.

The other class would have been those silent prayers the priest--or the server--could have benefitted from and as such, remained silent, as befitting their origin as prayers of private devotion. Some, such as the prayers surrounding the priest's communion, could have been considerably simplified--such as the separate Domine, non sum dignus could have been enfolded into the response of the laity, while others, such as the Munda Cor Meum should have stayed that same, rather than unnecessarily edited. In the case of the Munda, it removed fruitful biblical imagery of the kind the Council Fathers sincerely wished to keep and further ennoble. Others, such as the Placeat Sancte Trinitas could be retained in some form as either additions to or alternate forms of the present silent prayers post-communion.

The Introibo, followed by Psalm 42, is exactly the sort of prayer which would restore some sense of confidence and significance among the servers, something the priest can't do without their help, unlike, say, holding a book. It could be recited back and forth between priest and server while the congregation was singing a hymn, like the introit was sung at high mass, or perhaps even authorized as a pre-Mass devotion in the sacristy (as it was originally) or at the west end of the Church in the manner of a station in the old medieval rite. Given that it would be silent (except at a daily mass, perhaps), it would be no great concern to the faithful, save perhaps to give them an appropriate ritual tableau to suggest that the altar be approached incrementally rather than in one straight shot. It wouldn't even have to be recited in Latin, though I think that wouldn't be beyond the abilities of a generation able to enumerate twenty or thirty different species of Pokemon.

Lastly, I would like to make a plea for the wide revival of the sacramental ministries on a more stable juridical base, principally because of the fact that, while I do not think these changes beyond the abilities of seven-year-olds, it would give greater dignity to the Mass at present to allow servers to be much older, perhaps teenagers or even grown men. The Council of Trent expected the stable conferral of the minor orders on laymen not destined for the sacristy, including the ministries of Acolyte and Subdeacon: this unfortunately never was implemented.

At present, the true, installed ministries of Lector and Acolyte are only to be found in seminaries and in one diocese, unsurprisingly that of Lincoln, Nebraska: the altar boys and readers we have are not true acolytes and lectors but "lay readers" and "servers." The conferral of these ministries (which would, I presume, permit the wearing of appropriate vesture) on adult male laymen would give both greater dignity to the Mass, a greater sense of purpose to those who love the mass yet are not interested in the priesthood, and permit the laity to involve itself in the liturgy without the unseemly clutter of street-clothed people seen in so many parishes at present.

Such a move would also form a trained class better able to dedicate themselves to the proper serving of the liturgy. Perhaps even the raising of these ministries to a clerical dignity, as they were in the past, and is the case at the present with the permanent diaconate, might also be a fitting conjunction and fulfilment of both Trent and Vatican II.

The altar boy, and his unique role, is equally part of the heritage of the Counter-Reformation and of Blessed Pope John's sadly misunderstood call for Aggiornamento. May he come to play an important part in the true implementation of the Second Vatican Council.