Sri Lankan cardinal bans girls from being altar servers

ROME – Nearly two months after it was written, a letter has been published by Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo banning girls from serving as altar servers in his archdiocese, on grounds that it is a pathway to the priesthood.

In an Oct. 22, 2024, letter to the priests of his diocese, Ranjith said, “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 Oct. 21, 2024, that no girls should be invited to serve at the altar, as altar servers in the archdiocese,” he said.

Ranjith insisted that “it should always be young boys” who take on the role of altar server, “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.”

“Since females are not allowed to be ordained priests, we have to make that decision,” he said, warning priests that “this cannot be changed at your discretion.”

He asked them to comply with the rule “as faithfully as possible and do not think that it is in your faculty to grant that,” and thanked them for their “usual cooperation.”

Ranjith, 77, has served as archbishop of Sri Lanka since 2009 and was given a red hat by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, after previously holding various positions in Vatican diplomacy, including as the Vatican’s envoy to Indonesia and East Timor, as secretary of the then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2005-2009.

He also served as adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2001-2004.

Ranjith, who has been dubbed by some as the “little Ratzinger” due to his short stature and more conservative theological leanings, raised several eyebrows with the letter, especially as Pope Francis himself formally lifted the ban on girls becoming altar servers three years ago.

In 2021, Pope Francis issued a new law formalizing the ability for women and girls to be lectors and altar servers at Mass, something which had long been common practice in Western countries such as the United States but had yet to be written formally into law.

In 2016, Pope Francis made a similar gesture when he modified the rubric for the foot-washing ritual during Mass on Holy Thursday, formally allowing women to be selected, even though this had also been the common practice for years in countries such as the United States.

These moves were hailed by many progressives as significant steps forward in terms of facilitating a greater sense of inclusion for women in the Church.

Since his election in 2013 Pope Francis has gone to great lengths to underline the role of women in the Catholic Church and has spoken often about the need to place more competent, professionally apt women in positions of authority, leadership and governance.

He has named several women to leadership roles in Vatican departments and has appointed several women to his Council for the Economy and has even appointed women to a group that helps vet candidates for the episcopacy.

The role of women was a major talking point during the pope’s recently concluded Synod of Bishops on Synodality, and it has also been a primary talking point in this year’s meetings of the Council of Cardinals, the advisory body that assists Pope Francis in matters of governance and reform.

Though specific issues such as women’s priestly ordination and their ordination as deacons have currently been taken off of the table, the discussion on how to more fully incorporate women into meaningful positions of leadership in the Church continues.

Yet while the practice of women serving as lectors, acolytes and altar servers had long been commonplace in western countries prior to Pope Francis’s edicts, making Ranjith’s letter a potential shock to some who believe they are reading something out of the dark ages, this is not necessarily the case for the Church in all areas of the global south, many of which still tend to have more conservative leanings.

As a theological conservative, Ranjith could be motivated in his decision by the traditional view that the role of an altar server is as a formal aide to the priest who, in persona Christi, or “in the person of Christ,” who was a male, makes the Eucharist and the rest of the sacraments available to the faithful.

Ranjith’s ban on girl altar servers will likely ruffle the feathers of many Catholic women and progressives who see the move as an impediment to progress, and potentially also a direct rebuke of Pope Francis and his reforms.

However, in his 2021 edict formalizing the ability of women to serve as lectors, acolytes and altar servers, Francis said its implementation would depend on the discernment of local bishops, and the specific needs of evangelization in their territories.

In the norm, titled Ministeria quaedam, the pope instructed bishops to establish “adequate criteria” for both the “discernment and the preparation of men and women candidates” to these roles, according to the specific criteria he outlined in the text, and “subject to the approval of the Holy See and according to the needs of evangelization in their territory.”

Sri Lanka is a nation where Christianity is a minority, as 70 percent of the population of around 21.6 million are Buddhist, followed by Hindus and Muslims.

Christians themselves make up just seven to eight percent of the population, most of whom are Catholic, with Catholics numbering somewhere around 1.5 million.

Catholicism in Sri Lanka remains the only major religious denomination that crosses the local ethnic divide separating Sinhalese and Tamil communities, with a significant portion of both camps adhering to the Catholic Church.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen