If you had the chance to attend Holy Week services in person or via television — and I hope you did — you probably noticed the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's a men's church.

The clerics — all vested — are in the sanctuary or at least up front. The rest of us are far away.

Keeping the faithful at a distance was a hallmark of medieval Catholicism, so much so that St. Francis of Assisi tried to do something about it. Unable to bring the people closer to the celebration, he gave them the Gospel. His attitude, still flowering in the world, helps faithful folks assimilate the uncomfortable truth: they cannot be near the sacred. Especially women.

But look around the country and around the world, and you will find more and more parishes installing altar rails, and fewer, if any, removing them. Diocesan cathedrals are the same.