Two Birds, One Ministry—How to Solve the Vocations Crisis and Restore Fatherhood

A priest, whom I will not name, asked all the men to stay behind after Holy Mass. It was the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an opportunity. Father needed to refill the ranks of his altar servers. So, he waited for all the ladies to depart and asked for volunteers. Then a strange thing happened. A greater solution presented itself.

Should girls be altar servers? Or not? This debate is a luxury. Vocations are a necessity.

“To raise the possibility of an all-male liturgical ministry is to invite tribulation,” wrote Michael Foley in a previous Crisis article. His “Eight Reasons Why Men Only Should Serve at Mass” are each valid. But there’s something more we’re missing. Not a ninth reason, but another level altogether.

Altar servers: It’s not boys or girls. It’s fathers and sons.

Pope St. John Paul II, taught us the Theology of the Body. How does a father best catechize with the language of his body? He kneels before God. A father should teach reverence from the pew, but he will banish irreverence from the altar.

To lead at home, fathers should serve at the altar. Make the altar the cornerstone of every domestic church. Restore the priesthood by reclaiming the priesthood of fathers.

Reason #1: The Broken Vocations Pipeline

Altar serving has always been the main artery for vocations to the priesthood. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) conducts an annual Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood. Of the hundreds of newly ordained priests surveyed every year by CARA, an overwhelming majority report being altar servers during their formative years, typically over 70% of the respondents.

This pipeline is not unique to the priesthood of Jesus. It is ancient. Consider Samuel serving Eli and Elisha serving Elijah. Also, before the Levitical priesthood, there was the original priesthood of the father: Isaac carrying the wood of the sacrifice to Abraham’s altar (Gen 22), and Noah at the altar with his sons (Gen 8:20-9:17). There is something deeper here, something on the order of human nature.

The devil knows this pipeline all too well. He wanted to attack the priesthood, so he attacked altar servers. The modern plague of gay priests now seems to be in its twilight, despite the last gasps of Fr. James Martin. But now we begin to see its least noticed—and potentially most disastrous—long-term consequence:

Parents no longer want their boys hanging out with priests.

Reason #2: The Masculinity Crisis

Parents want to protect their kids from perceived abusers. To be more blunt, dads don’t want their boys hanging out with gay guys. Effeminacy, in both the common and Thomistic senses, is not attractive.

How do you change this calculus?

Dads, altar serve with your sons. Make the altar manly again. Make the sacristy safe again. Dads can provide another, indispensable level of protection in these vulnerable places. And not just for the youth—protect your priests, too, from the appearance of any impropriety. More on this below.

Reason #3: Quality Time

As much as I love Field of Dreams, Heaven is not just a game of catch with dad. Perhaps this image of quality time—playing catch—is so pervasive, so iconic, precisely because father-son altar serving is so rare.

Father-son altar serving is a whole new level of quality time. This doesn’t just light the fire of holiness. It’s jet fuel. This isn’t just playing catch with your son. This is punching his ticket to the majors.

Our whole goal in life is to kneel before the altar of God in Heaven with our family. Can you think of a more direct way to train for Heaven than, not just taking your family to Mass, but serving at the altar with your children? This quiet example of fatherhood thunders.

Reason #4: High-Octane Catechesis

In the first of his Parochial & Plain Sermons, St. John Henry Newman explains that “Heaven would be hell to an irreligious man.” To paraphrase Newman’s sermon, if we do not cultivate a love of holiness in this life, why would we expect to enjoy what Scripture calls “the fulness of joy in God’s presence” at His altar for eternity?

In short, if our kids can’t handle an hour of Mass, how will they handle an eternity of it? For most kids, that image of eternity sounds like hell.

I promise you, this is possible. It is possible, even natural, to cultivate a love of the Mass in your children. Right now, my oldest two boys are serving more Masses than I am. I can no longer keep up with their love of Mass.

Whether or not your sons or my sons become priests is, to an extent, irrelevant. This is about pursuing holiness.

Fathers, teach your boys reverence boldly and bodily. Teach the fear and awe of God with your own body, even as Jesus gave us His body. This is the Eucharistic way of teaching your children the importance of the Eucharist.

Reason #5: More Reverent Masses

Altar servers are not just cute hood ornaments. Properly trained altar servers can dramatically increase the beauty of a Mass. Altar serving, when done correctly, is hard work. While it’s not a performance, there is a bit of manly choreography to it.

There is also a forgotten theology of altar servers. Servers image the angels who minister at the altar of God. They also create a living boundary between the world and Eden. If your bishop refuses to allow altar rails, substitute with a living altar rail of altar servers until the day our leaders recover their senses.

Priests don’t always have the time or will to train altar servers properly. At the risk of unleashing the laity, fathers, read up on how to serve the Mass properly. Start here: Bishop Peter J. Elliott’s Ceremonies Explained for Servers. This is the “mother of all servers’ manuals.” Ignatius Press calls this “the most detailed guide available for servers and those who train and supervise them at the altar.” Right now, many priests graduate from seminary without the basic liturgical training provided in this book.

Kids can’t read this book and teach themselves. Parishes need a crew of older MCs (masters of ceremonies) who can train altar servers and lead the youth on the altar at Mass.

Do you have a group of men interested in this but don’t know where to start? Contact me. There is a growing network of priests and trained MCs who will come to your parish and help you.

Reason #6: Protect Your Priests

Priests get attacked on the altar all the time:

• Jarosław, Poland (Sept. 24, 2026): A 31-year-old man launched a knife attack, stabbing five people, including Fr. Stanisław Zbojniewicz, 67, who later succumbed to his injuries, and another priest, Fr. Adrian Mantykiewicz, who returned to the altar two days later.
• New Bedford, Massachusetts (Aug. 31, 2026): A 59-year-old man entered Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, walked up to the altar, and began erratically banging on and knocking over sacred items, before attacking the priest when he attempted to intervene.
• Spokane, Washington (Feb. 4, 2025): A 40-year-old man named Joshua Sommers rushed the altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes and swung at Fr. David Gaines, all of which was caught on the church’s livestream.
• Not to mention almost monthly violent attacks against priests in Nigeria.

For 2,000 years, congregations have warmed the pews while priests risked life and limb on the altar. Surround your priest with a living shield of servers—and not just child servers.

And as I mentioned above, also protect your priests from false accusations of abuse. Abuse cannot thrive where fatherhood reigns.

Reason #7: Better Than Boy Scouts

Merit badges work. Boys love working toward goals and reaching the next level. Video games prey on this innate desire. The altar is a natural place—I would even say the original place—for boys to advance in skill and merit.

Here’s a paradox: my boys are better behaved on the altar than in the pew. There’s an important reason for this, rooted in child development.

Maria Montessori, one of the most celebrated educators of the last century and a faithful Catholic, made exactly this argument in her book The Mass Explained to Children. Altar service was, in fact, a foundational concept of her acclaimed “Montessori Method” of tactile learning.

The Boy Scouts have fallen. There are great Catholic alternatives, such as the Troops of St. George, which include an altar-serving component. But father-son altar serving is larger than scouting. That is, it needs more universal adoption.

Did you know there is even an archconfraternity for altar servers? That comes complete with indulgences, prayers, and different levels of “merit” medals and cords to wear while altar serving? This is the Archconfraternity of St. Stephen based in Westminster, England. It’s almost like the Church has a rich, but forgotten, tradition of altar serving, just waiting to be mined and rediscovered.

Reason #8: The Holiness of the Father

If for no other reason, dads, do it for yourself. There’s a reason the altar is raised to a higher level than the pews. Serving at the altar is the next level of experiencing the Mass. There is a palpable, powerful presence on the altar, and you will quickly learn that you want to prepare your soul for that encounter.

Attending daily Mass is often prescribed by spiritual directors for growth in holiness. Serving daily Mass takes this to another level. Priests, by the way, typically have no help on the altar at daily Mass. This should sadden us. Likewise, because funerals take place outside of the Sunday Mass schedule, there are usually no servers at funerals. This is particularly sad when, at some funerals, the altar servers are the only ones present who voice—or even know—the Mass responses. Men, if you would like people to pray for your soul at your funeral Mass one day, start a ministry now to provide servers for funerals.

By better glorifying and praising God in the Mass, we are better transformed into Christ. The more we are transformed into Christ, the better we will glorify and praise God in the Mass. And so on and so forth, until fine sine fine (“the end without end”).