The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has clarified that girls are not allowed to serve at the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.
It
made clear that the Instruction on Summorum Pontificum, Universae
Ecclesiae, does not permit female altar servers at the older Mass.
Universae
Ecclesiae states “the Moto Proprio Summorum Pontificum derogates from
those provisions of law, connected with the Sacred Rites, promulgated
from 1962 onwards and incompatible with the rubrics of the liturgical
books in effect in 1962″.
Permission for female altar servers came with
the Circular Letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship and
Discipline of the Sacraments of 1994.
However, the rubrics of the 1962
Missal did not allow for females on the sanctuary during Mass.
The
letter, signed by Mgr Guido Pozzo, Secretary of Ecclesia Dei, said that
“permitting female altar servers does not apply to the Extraordinary
Form”.
Fr Alban McCoy, university chaplain at Cambridge, has
celebrated the Extraordinary Form with female altar servers.
He said he
did not seek to include women in his team of servers but “decided not to
refuse the request of two young women to serve in the old form”.
His
team includes six boys and four girls. “We have one team of servers for
all Masses – Ordinary and Extraordinary; one rite of liturgy, one set
of servers.”
A spokesman for the Latin Mass Society said the
clarification was “significant” and that all bishops should practice in
accordance with what has been stated in the letter.