Re: Altar boys

In my experience, kratt explains half of it; the other half of it is that boys are more available than girls to priests. AhNasty mentions there are both boys and girls in Mass and working in altars, but that's only the visible part - and I don't remember any claim that priests got touchy feely during service... The rest of the time children spend in church, especially classes or advice on something, and activities where it's likely the priest will be the only adult, or there will only be one child... all of that is usually gender-segregated. The chance of priest+girl alone or "in like-minded company" is always much smaller than that of priest+boy. Girls spend that time with nuns, and nuns are really more asexual than priests are (at least modern nuns - there's plenty history to prove it wasn't the case when Nun was a life choice for a significant portion of women).

[LGsinmyheart spent some time in the Roman Catholic Church, and considered seriously entering the seminary and following a career as a Catholic priest]