Dear Jane:

Female altar servers was not authorized until 1994 based upon a technical interpretation of the 1983 Canon Law. This was a technical decision of law and not a preference of Pope John Paul II to allow female altar servers.

In 1962 the 1917 Canon Law was in effect and the previous papal pronouncements were in effect that restricted altar servers to males.

Back then the Altar Servers were Acolytes, one of the minor orders leading to the priesthood. Thus, an Acolyte had to be male. Actually, that is still true today. The Instituted Office of Acolyte replaced the minor Order of Acolyte. The Institutes Office of Acolyte is restricted to males. The only reason that females may serve at the altar if because of the 1983 Canon Law interpretation mentioned above.

While the minor Order of Acolyte (leading to priesthood) was the normal altar server, the tradition includes boys serving at the altar, partly as a way to promote the priesthood. These boys shared a tiny part in what it was like to be a priest. This is one argument against female altar servers, by the way.

I do not have a 1962 Missal handy at the moment, but I do not recall the Missal specifically mentioning servers as boys. Why would it? Such a distinction would only be made if it was an issue. It was no issue in 1962. The Missal does not need to repeat what has already been declared by the Church.

It should also be noted, and this includes liturgical issues today, that no all liturgical law is included in the Missal. To answer questions on liturgical law all sources to which liturgical law is address must be consulted, not just the Missal. Some of those other sources in effect in 1962 include...

...the encyclical Allatae Sunt of July 26, 1755, no. 29, by Pope Benedict XIV who explicitly condemned females serving the priest at the altar with the following words:

"Pope Gelasius in his ninth letter (chap. 26) to the bishops of Lucania condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass. Since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the bishop of Tusculum: "Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry." We too have forbidden this practice in the same words in Our oft-repeated constitution Etsi Pastoralis, sect. 6, no. 21."

This legislation is what would have been in effect in 1962. Thus, if a priest is to follow the 1962 Missal, then he cannot allow female altar servers.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary