The declining number of altar servers in Colombo is causing some concern for Catholics, not least because many boys find their priestly vocation while serving at the altar.

“Children nowadays are distracted by television, the Internet and mobile phones. There are many activities … to amuse kids,” Father Tony Martyn, parish priest of St. Lucia’s Cathedral in Colombo, said at a recent altar servers’ celebration.

More than 3,500 Catholic families live around the centuries-old cathedral. However, its altar servers’ association has only 42 members who assist priests during the English, Tamil and Sinhalese Masses.

The popular St. Anthony’s shrine in the harbor front, visited by 15,000 devotees daily, has only 15 altar servers, said its administrator Father Clement Rodrigo.

“We announce during homilies that we need altar servers and distribute leaflets to increase the number,” he added.

The lure of modern technology is not entirely to blame for falling membership, however.

“Most families now have only one child,” said Father Nagaratnam Manokumaran of St Anthony’s church in Kollupitiya, a metropolitan area in Colombo.

To attract more young people to the ministry, the Sri Lankan Church has been conducting special programs such as annual Altar Servers Days, pilgrimages, excursions and rewarding outstanding members with prizes.

The cathedral’s St. John Berchmans Confraternity of Alter Servers Association held a special celebration on Aug. 22 during which four boys, who have completed nine months of probation, were officially enrolled into the group.

“I like serving in the church with others,” said one of them, Nirmalan Hashan Rubenthra, 14.

The increase in altar servers, however, has not allayed the concerns of one parishioner.

“Something should be done immediately” to develop the ministry, said Neville Joe Perera, 66.

He noted that there are only two or three altar servers at each Mass in some churches.

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