Sri Lankan cardinal mandates male-only altar servers in his archdiocese
December 31, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka, made clear in a recent letter that “no girls should be invited to serve at the altar, as altar servers, in the archdiocese.”
The 77-year-old prelate, who served as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship from 2005 to 2009, said he wrote his letter after it was “brought to my knowledge that several parishes in the Archdiocese of Colombo have appointed girls as altar servers.”
“It should always be young boys 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 [is a] risk we cannot take” he continued. “Since females are not allowed to be ordained priests, we have made that decision.”
In 2016, Cardinal Ranjith encouraged pastors to include women in the rite of the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday, after Pope Francis changed liturgical norms to permit the practice.
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