Pope Leo XIV had an audience with altar BOYS (maybe some older, too) from France. English HERE – French HERE Among other things, he said this:
I also express the wish that you may be attentive to the call that Jesus might address to you, inviting you to follow Him more closely in the priesthood. I speak to your consciences as young men, enthusiastic and generous, and I will tell you something you need to hear, even if it may trouble you a little: the shortage of priests in France is a great misfortune! A misfortune for the Church, a misfortune for your country! May you gradually, Sunday after Sunday, come to discover the beauty, the joy, and the necessity of such a vocation. How wonderful is the life of a priest, who, at the heart of each of his days, encounters Jesus in so extraordinary a way and gives Him to the world!
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Altar girls…. are one of the most jarring aspects of modern liturgical practice. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Father, Looking at the pictures on this story from the official Vatican site, it looks like there were altar boy-girls there as well: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-08/pope-leo-xiv-france-altar-servers-mystery-mass.html
Quod: Too bad. However, when talking about the priesthood, he sure wasn’t talking to them. Alas, some might distort this to make it seem like Leo is in favor of ordination of women. “Leo spoke to servers about being priests. And there were girls there, too! Therefore, Leo is telling girls they should want to be priests!” Pure fantasy, of course, but that doesn’t stop the whining. I wonder… which nutty site or person will be the first go down that dead end?
If one hasn’t already.
I’m trying to puzzle out the fresco on the back wall but the details aren’t enough for me. Anyone familiar with this room?
[This is the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace. The fresco above the doors shows the martyrdom of St. Clement who was thrown from a boat with an anchor around his neck.]
Thank you! I was thinking it was an illustration of the calming of the waters but the figure levitating outside the boat didn’t compute. (Obviously not levitating, once you know the story.)
I was at mass in France this week, at the basilica of St Epvre in Nancy. The altar boys were outstanding, the older two like elite soldiers, the youngest two like cherubs. What struck me was that when I was a senior altar boy, I kept the best jobs for myself, the senior boy here gave the best jobs to the little ones who you could tell loved the responsibility. I would love it if they realised a vocation to the priesthood. The basilica is in the care of the Oratories of St Philip Neri, you can tell.
There seems to be some confusion on the translations being put forth:
Rorate Caeli has: “I address myself to your young, enthusiastic, and generous consciences…”
Diane Montagna on her substack has: “I speak to your consciences as young men,…”
If some read Rorate’s translation first, they may question, as I did, what was going on. I couldn’t find any other sources besides these two- Rorate Caeli and Diane Montagna- with the full talk. It is still is not clear which is correct.
Being that there were both boys and girls in the “altar server” group, questions come to mind. If speaking to only the boys, why not preface – this is for the boys attending, etc to make it clear?
What do the girls, who have been led into this mess, think if Diane’s translation is correct? What do both boys and girls think if Rorate Caeli’s translation is correct? Does anyone care what the boys and girls think?
The Vatican did just approve three Ember Days, for the liturgical calendar for the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia.
https://avosa.org/news/vatican-approves-new-liturgical-calendar-avosa
I just saw an AI video about this, and was sure it was a lie. It turned out that they just didn’t specify the place and made it sound universal… but it’s still cool.
Vatican.va gives the Italian and the French version of the speech to altar servers:
“Je forme aussi le vœu que vous soyez attentifs à l’appel que Jésus pourrait vous adresser à le suivre de plus près dans le sacerdoce. Je m’adresse à vos consciences de jeunes, enthousiastes et généreux, et je vais vous dire une chose que vous devez entendre….”
“Auspico inoltre che siate attenti alla chiamata che Gesù potrebbe rivolgervi a seguirlo più da vicino nel sacerdozio. Mi rivolgo alle vostre coscienze di giovani, entusiasti e generosi, e vi dirò una cosa che dovete ascoltare….”
As is usual in Indo-European languages, the plural could be addressed solely to males, or to a group comprised of males and females.
However, the natural meaning would seem to be that the Pope was addressing solely the boys about a future in the priesthood. And frankly, a lot of the admonishment about altar service was the stuff you tell boys, not the stuff you say to children of both sexes.
@KathyL: the speech was conducted, as far as I can tell, in French. The Vatican website has only French and Italian versions so far: “Je m’adresse à vos consciences de jeunes” and “Mi rivolgo alle vostre coscienze di giovani”, so Rorate’s translation seems closer to the mark (keep in mind that in romance languages, masculine plural and neutral plural are said the same).
I understand the anxiety, but I think some people are being hair-trigger reactive about this. The vast majority of kids present there were boys. The Church does not ordain women, and not even Francis had any real proclivity to really consider that, even less so Leo. You need to really imagine a very twisted intention right there, and to what end? yes, yes, we’ve gotten used to ambiguity and subtweeting, but when Leo means to send a subtle message… he says what he means, clearly (cfr. marriage is not an ideal, nature is not to be worshipped, etc). Saying “I’m talking only to the boys here” can clarify, it can also imply that it’s not obvious that he’s not addressing himself to the girls. You win as much as you lose in either situation.
As to your questions… Girls overwhelmingly like serving because they are devout and want to help. I understand we don’t want women in the sanctuary as a rule, but as I have said before, people tend to project all sort of negative and subversive intentions into the minds of children who happen to be female. Children are hardly aware of Church politics the way adults are. They got to travel to Rome! They got to meet the Pope! He was kind and said nice things to them, and then greeted them! Maybe they even got to eat some ice cream and visit historic places! Most girls will just take for granted that the Pope was addressing himself to the boys with the priesthood bit, because they know all priests are male. We naturally do that kind of thing all the time (unless it’s social media, where somehow we tend to think every single post is addressed to us exclusively).
I understand the mental mechanism by which we try and prevent ourselves from being hurt by betrayal again, by expecting and anticipating a trojan inside everything, but it neither helps us, or others, or the cause of Catholicism at large. Amplifying suspicions with little to no basis contributes to the narratives the others may want to build, for free.
I get it, Fr. Z. My thoughts about the address were more along the lines of “this is great content.” The fact he is stressing the power and importance of the Mass and the servers’ (boys!) crucial role is such a good sign. What I am appreciating about the Holy Father is that, unlike his baffling predecessor, he has a coherent and Catholic framework (Augustinianism) from which he works. It relieves the faithful of having to guess, interpret, and speculate.
@Dantesque I don’t think we should be too quick to overlook the confusion and ambiguity that is continually sent to young minds in general. The empty Churches and lack of vocations attest to this policy of the last 60 years.
Clearly many in the Church today promote the ordination of woman in the upper echelons of the Church and also at the parish level. Recently a pastor on LI at First Communion spoke to the girls specifically about the possibility of becoming priests, and let them know it was being worked on. Also there are pictures of the Bishop of Charlotte placing his miter on the head of a grammar school girl at a school activity that took place before the altar. Then their was a recent grammar school activity in Chicago where Cardinal Cupich was photographed with groups of children, boys and girls, making paper miters and placing them on their heads.
These modernists pushing the progressive agenda forward need to be stopped, and Catholics should not rest assured that this cannot or will not ever come to pass. Whoever thought priests who promoted the True Catholic Faith would be cancelled and those priests subverting it given accolades and promotions. The modernists are infiltrating the minds of children who they hope will be the next generation to lead their revolution. The radical feminist nuns of today were the young grammar school girls of yesterday.