Female Altar Servers & the Shortage of Priests

This article from the Catholic Herald reminded me of a recent post connecting the shortage of priests to female altar servers.

I would like to first say that I fully believe a girl can serve the Church and feel stronger about her vocation as a result from serving the Church. However, there are many ways to serve, and the push for female altar servers may not be the best thing for the Catholic Church. Would I deny my daughter if she wanted to be an altar server? I don't know at this time. I feel like I would let her, but I only have a living son right now, so it's hard for me to answer that question.

After months of reflection and consultation during the year of the
Eucharist, which concluded in October of 2005, Bishop Paul S. Loverde has
announced an expansion of the Diocese of Arlington's policy permitting women and
girls to serve at the altar during Mass.
Father Paul deLadurantaye, director of the Office of Sacred Liturgy, said
that he doesn't believe allowing women to be altar servers will diminish
vocations to the priesthood. Echoing the bishop's words, Father deLadurantaye
said, Young girls could also be helped to discern a call to religious life.

Yes, young girls could gain form serving the Church...but why not let them serve in other areas?

Paul from Thoughts of a Regular Guy shared some insight in his earlier post on this topic:

Bruskewitz, whose diocese includes 136 churches and 89,412 members
around Nebraska's state capital, believes having only boys at the altar helps
recruit them to become priests, said the Rev. Mark Huber, chancellor of the
diocese."It's pretty obvious that Rome is allowing each bishop to make (his own)
decision," Huber said. He said Bruskewitz's practice has helped boost Lincoln's
"exceptional number of vocations to the priesthood." [Emphasis
added.]

You can click here to access his blog and read the entire post.