A Catholic church in California will ban girls from being altar servers because they ‘distract’ the boys. The Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco has said that girls are generally better altar servers but they put the boys off, so the girls have to go.
The church’s priest, Father Joseph Illo, wrote on his blog that altar serving wasn’t appropriate for girls anyway because the position was supposed to prepare boys for the priesthood. Girls have only been allowed to be altar servers for 20 years.
There has been outrage in local media and the San Francisco Catholic community, who have claimed the decision is discrimination more suited to the way things used to be before women were allowed to participate in mass. Catholic women have only been permitted to perform readings and hand out communion very recently.