While Pope Francis has been widely hailed as a champion of social progress, when it comes to elevating women’s roles, critics say the Catholic Church still has a long way to go.
The 1.2 billion-member church’s attitude toward women came under extra scrutiny last week when Father Joseph Illo, the pastor at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco, declared that girls would be phased out as parish altar servers, a job usually fulfilled by older children in the church who then assist the clergy during mass.
In explaining the decision, Illo stated “boys usually end up losing interest, because girls generally do a better job.” In addition, he said, girls may be distractions to male altar servers, and, ultimately, the position is training for a priesthood girls will never qualify for because of their gender.
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Just how close are challengers to disrupting that thinking? O’Malley says she doesn’t expect to see female ordination in her lifetime.
“The people are having the conversation,” she said, “but the hierarchy is not having the conversation, and until they’re willing to dialogue with us, I think it’s a way’s off.”
Editor’s note: the author of this story is an alumna of Star of the Sea School, the K-8 school associated with the parish mentioned in this story.
