Cordileone defends right to ban altar girls ‘in one or two parishes’ for sake of diversity

Controversy erupted at a meeting of the Priests’ Council in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, after a retired priest, Fr J. Michael Strange, raised concerns about the decision by Fr Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish, to ban altar girls from his parish, writes Michael Sean Winters.

The National Catholic Reporter obtained minutes of the meeting, which took place in February. According to the minutes, Fr Strange said parishioners at the parish where he lives raised concerns about the decision. He also noted that Fr Illo did not consult the deanery in advance. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone argued for “diversity”, the minutes record. “There are some people in the archdiocese that like worshipping in this way, they like seeing only altar boys on the altar, and [Cordileone] wonders why we can’t have one or two parishes with this practice,” the minutes report the archbishop as saying.