I didn't know the laity had rights.
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Call me old fashioned or call me traditional, but I have to admit I am not happy about women on the altar - not as servers or lectors or EMHCs. I know! But I have no say in the matter and so I take what I get - no use arguing with priests and bishops and women. That said, factions in the blog-o-sphere are pretty happy with the Archbishop clarifying an issue concerning female altar servers for the extraordinary form of Mass. (Yep - I think it should apply for the ordinary form as well, but like I said, my opinions mean zilch.)
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Archbishop Burke on altar girls and women assisting at the altar.
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American archbishop went on to point out that certain elements may need to be clarified in this regard. For example, he wrote, among the "rights" of the baptized, assistance by "persons of the feminine sex" at the altar is not included. Additionally, serving as a lector or as an extraordinary distribution of communion is not a right of the laity, he noted.
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As such, out of respect for the integrity of the liturgical discipline within the Roman Missal of 1962, these more modern modifications are not observed in the extraordinary form.
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This clarification comes just a week after L'Osservatore Romano writer Lucetta Scaraffia published an article on the altar server pilgrimage to the Vatican which drew thousands of boys and girls alike. She drew some attention as she proposed that the introduction of girls into the position of serving at the altar "meant the end of every attribution of impurity to their sex ... it meant a different attention to the liturgy and an approach to the faith in bringing it near to their very hearts."
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Archbishop Burke clarified, however, that the reality of the matter is that neither the presence of girls at the altar, nor the participation of lay faithful "belong to the fundamental rights of the baptized." - CNA
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Just thinking out loud here, but I wonder what the Archbishop thinks about transsexuals and homosexuals in religious life?
