As I sit and wait, thousands of thoughts are running through my mind. Where is everyone? What if I have to do this all by myself? Will I remember my cues? That was how I felt on my first day of altar ...

As soon as she was old enough, third-grader Ellen Clarke joined the first wave of girl altar servers, helping break up a club reserved for Roman Catholic boys for centuries. Seven years later, the ...

It is a Sunday morning in 1992, and I am 10 years old and visiting relatives in the Midwest. We head to church, pile into a pew, sit, stand and then sing the entrance hymn at Mass. I happen to look up ...

It is a Sunday morning in 1992, and I am ten years old and visiting relatives in the midwest. We head to church, pile into a pew, sit, stand and then sing the entrance hymn at Mass. I happen to look ...

Blame it on those San Francisco values. That’s what the Rev. Joseph Illo believes is driving the uproar around his decision not to train girls to be altar servers at Star of the Sea Catholic Church.

Ever since starting to serve in 5th grade, altar serving has always held such a special place in my heart. Being up at the altar is something I believe very few people know the true specialness of. By ...

Catholics are more fortunate than the Old Testament prophets were because in the Eucharist they experience Jesus' closeness and know that God is not far off on a lofty throne, Pope Francis told ...

The Holy Father spent much time before and after the liturgy to greet and bless the tens of thousands of pilgrims from his popemobile. Pope Francis greets tens of thousands of altar servers packed in ...

Altar servers take part in a Good Friday service at a church in Gora Kalwaria, Poland, in this April 10, 2020, file photo. Being an altar server should be a “profession of faith” to the entire parish ...

A Catholic priest, new to San Francisco and no stranger to controversy, has banned girls from acting as altar servers at Mass, a decision that sets his parish apart from all others in the archdiocese.