Fr. Joseph Illo's Blog
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Resources
  • Vocations
  • Contact

Welcome!

I pray that this site will serve to inspire
your life in Christ.

Salve Crux Spes Unica!
Hail, O Cross, our only hope!

Pastor's Laptop: The San Francisco Mission, Rev. Feb 3, 2015

1/31/2015

 
PictureMisión San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)
A simple altar boy policy at my parish has unleashed a media firestorm. Hundreds of parishes in this country, and some entire dioceses, do not permit altar girls, so why the outrage? It is because I tried this in San Francisco, the city I love, the city that was founded in 1776 as a Catholic mission, the city whose churches flourished for a time, but the city that has once again become mission territory.

Clergy often remark that the Church in America, and certainly in Europe, has reverted to mission territory. Africa and Asia, to whom we sent missionary priests for 300 years, are now supplying priests for American parishes. But not only priests. Here in San Francisco, my Sunday offertory cannot even meet minimal operating expenses; we must ask poorer parishes to fund us. In an effort to jumpstart the parish, we’ve increased our clergy from one priest to two, and we’ve invested in a first-class choral program. Our parish cannot afford these up-front costs, but many friends from former parishes in the Central Valley have sent money to help this “missionary church” in wealthy San Francisco. People do not fill the churches in our cities like they used to, but the faith is growing in this lovely city of St. Francis.

Two months ago I implemented an altar boy policy that reflected the norms of the Catholic Church, particularly the 2001 directive of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship regarding female altar servers. This document says that “it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar.” If girls are invited to serve the Mass, “it would remain important to explain clearly to the faithful the nature of this innovation, lest confusion might be introduced, hampering the development of priestly vocations.” I explained to our school parents the reasons why we are declining the “innovation” of altar girls, pointing to the essential connection between the Church’s male priesthood and the acolytes who assist them in their high priestly office. This beautiful big parish church that we’ve been given to administer needs more members to sustain its irreplaceable mission of word and sacrament in the city. To revive a parish we look first to the sacred liturgy, and among other improvements we wish to strengthen the altar server, lector, and sacristan programs. We consider that developing an all-boys and father-son acolyte program will strengthen the community as it has in many parishes by bonding boys and focusing their efforts on the Mass as sacrifice offered by the priest. We are also training our lectors, and most of them are female, many of them girls from our school.

Still, some members of our church, and of our school in particular, were not happy with the new boys-only acolyte program.  Somehow CBS got wind of this unhappiness. The night before the massive Walk for Life in San Francisco, complete with grim anchorpersons and shocked reporters live-on-the-scene, KPIX portrayed our parish as demeaning women in their lead story on the nightly news. Television and newspapers around the country grabbed the story, and a storm of controversy ensued. Of the hundreds of emails and calls from across America, Ireland, England and Australia, almost every one from the San Francisco area was condemnatory, and almost every one from outside our area was supportive.

But it is precisely in the storm of controversy surrounding the altar girl question that I see a first step towards greater faith in our parish and school. For years the school has operated somewhat independently of the parish. Laudably, it needs no funding from the parish; it manages its own staffing; its principal and faculty choose curricula; Masses are planned by teachers and students. It has been many years since parish priests or nuns have taught children at my school. Only 42% of its families are Catholic, many are not attending Mass regularly, and a number of faculty are not Catholic. I know and love my school principal and faculty, and I am coming to know and love the parents and students, but these are the unfortunate facts. It is precisely in this roiling controversy that parish and school have taken the first step in facing these anomalies. And this is certainly a step toward greater faith, because all of us want the school and parish to flourish, and we know we must make sacrifices to allow God to do this work.

Vatican II (Lumen gentium 25) defines a Catholic as one who exercises “religious submission of will” to the Church’s teaching authority. At the parish level, this simply means trusting your priest. Catholics used to trust their priests, and there are various compelling reasons most do not trust them today. But to be Catholic means to regain that trust, both in the Church as mater et magistra and in the local bishop and priest. How can priests serve their flocks as spiritual fathers if their spiritual children do not trust them?

Parish and school are at a turning point. Some will undoubtedly leave the school and some the parish and some will leave the faith (hopefully only for a season) because they cannot bring themselves to trust the Church. But those who face the inconsistencies that have obtained at Star of the Sea for many years will grow deeper in their faith. In a time when churches are empty, every pope, bishop, and priest must be a reformer. I see reform all around me, and reform is the only hope for the Church. This little controversy is a part of the difficult process of pursuing a course that is intended for the good of the entire parish, not only through the encouragement of vocations, but also a purified focus on the ultimate goals of the Church. A friend described this as a difficult but necessary process. May God give us the strength to embrace this constant reform of our faith and practice as Catholic Christians.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Fr. Joseph Illo

    Star of the Sea Parish,
    San Francisco, CA

    Picture


    Subscribe

    Subscriber Count:
    739
    Enter your email address:
    Delivered by FeedBurner
    by 7:00pm daily

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2012 Homilies
    2013 Homilies
    2014 Homilies
    2015 Homilies
    2016 Homilies
    2017 Homilies
    2018 Homilies
    Abortion
    Adoration
    Advent
    All Homilies
    All Homilies
    All Saints Day
    All Souls Day
    Altar Boy Program
    Angels
    Ascension Of Jesus
    Atheism
    Baptism
    Beauty
    Book Recommendations
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Charity
    Christmas
    Communism
    Contraception
    Corpus Christi
    Courage
    Courtship
    Cross
    Death
    Divine Mercy
    Divorce
    Easter
    Epiphany
    Eucharist
    Eucharistic Adoration
    Eugenics
    Extraordinary Form Of The Mass
    Faith
    Faith And Reason
    Family
    Fasting
    Fatherhood
    Forgiveness
    For God And Country
    Freedom
    God
    God's Grace
    God's Mercy
    Good Samaritin
    Gratitude
    Heaven
    Hell
    Hhs Mandate
    Holy Hour
    Holy Spirit
    Hope
    Humanae Vitae
    Humane Vitae
    Jesus
    Joy
    Lap
    Laudato Si
    Lent
    Life & Death
    Life In The Spirit
    Lives Of The Saints
    Love
    Marital Infidelity
    Marriage
    Martyrdom
    Mary
    Mass
    Mercy
    Missionaries Of Charity
    Morality
    Mother Teresa
    Natural-family-planning
    Nfp
    Oratory
    Palm Sunday
    Papacy
    Pastors Laptop
    Peace
    Pentecost
    Pope Francis I
    Poverty
    Prayer
    Priesthood
    Pro-life
    Pro-Life
    Prolife0ca0617dd7
    Purity
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Religious Liberty
    Religious Vocations
    Repentance
    Resources
    Resurrection
    Rosary
    Sacred Heart Of Jesus
    Same Sex Marriage
    San Francisco Oratory
    Second Coming Of Jesus
    Sexuality
    Silence
    Sin
    Socialism
    Speeches
    Star Of The Sea School
    Stewardship
    St. John Paul
    St. Paul
    Subsidiarity
    Suffering
    The Camino De Santiago
    The Church
    Thomas Aquinas College
    Tridentine Mass
    Truth
    Violence
    War
    Wedding Homily
    Year Of Faith

    Archives

    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    January 2011

✕