(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith has ordered the parishes in his Sri Lankan diocese to allow only boys as altar servers because this serves as a source for “vocations to the priesthood.”
In a letter dated October 22, 2024, and signed by Cardinal Ranjith himself, the Archbishop of Colombo stated: “It has been brought to my knowledge that several parishes in the Archdiocese of Colombo have appointed girls as altar servers.”
“In this context, I wish to reiterate, what I stated at the Presbyteral meeting held on 21st October 2024, that no girls should be invited to serve at the altar, as altar servers, in the Archdiocese.”
“It should always be young boys because this is one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood in Sri Lanka and it will affect the number of candidates entering the seminaries, which risk we cannot take,” the Cardinal stated.
“Since females are not allowed to be ordained priests, we have to make that decision.”
“This cannot be changed at your discretion,” he stressed. “Please carry this out as faithfully as possible and do not think it is in your faculty to grant that.”
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The letter was originally posted on X by papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, who appeared to disapprove of Ranjith’s decision. Others welcomed to move. Eric Sammons, Editor-in-Chief of Crisis Magazine, said, “Cardinal Ranjith just jumped to the top of my papabile index.”
Joseph Shaw, present of the international Una Voce organization, wrote, “God bless Cardinal Ranjith. Allowing females to serve at Mass has always been at the discretion of the bishop and parish priest: each has a veto. There is no right for anyone to serve and nor could there be.”
The role of altar servers had traditionally been reserved for men and boys, with several popes expressly forbidding females to serve at the altar throughout the centuries.
As Pope Benedict XIV noted in his 1755 encyclical Allatae Sunt, Pope Gelasius (492-496) condemned “the evil practice” of “women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass.”
Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) and Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) also condemned the practice of female altar servers.
Despite this longstanding tradition and teaching, the Vatican, under Pope John Paul II, permitted female altar servers in the early 1990s. The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts issued an “authentic interpretation” of Canon 230 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, ruling in favor of female altar servers. In several countries, priests had illicitly invited girls to serve at the altar for over 20 years.
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