Frank applied for the position of deacon but was rejected

Frank’s application to become an altar boy turns religious devotion into a test of who is permitted to represent the Church. Malachy teaches him the Mass in Latin and Frank masters the responses, but when they go to St. Joseph’s Church, the sacristan closes the door on him. Angela names the refusal as class distinction: in her view, the Church welcomes boys whose families have money and respectable standing, not a boy from the lanes. The episode leaves Frank’s training intact while denying him the ritual role for which he had prepared.

Training and aspiration

Malachy says that he served Mass for years as a boy in Toome and decides it is time for Frank to become an altar boy. Angela objects that Frank lacks suitable clothes even for school, let alone the robes required for serving; she also points out that the family cannot afford the robes or the weekly washing they would need. Malachy answers that God will provide and makes Frank kneel on the kitchen floor while he takes the priest’s part, reciting the Mass from memory.

The lessons make religious knowledge a demanding household routine. After tea each evening, Frank must kneel and repeat the Latin responses until Malachy considers them perfect. The work is difficult, his knees become sore, and he would rather be playing in the lane, but he also wants the position. He imagines serving in the red and white robes, helping the priest in the sacristy, moving the book beside the tabernacle, preparing the chalice, ringing the bell, and swinging the censer. In that imagined scene, the congregation at St. Joseph’s watches and admires him. His ambition is both devotional and social: he wants to serve at the altar and to be seen there.

Preparing for the application

After a fortnight, Frank has learned the Mass, and the family prepares him to meet Stephen Carey, the sacristan responsible for the altar boys. Malachy polishes Frank’s boots. Angela darns his socks, heats the iron, and presses his shirt; she boils water and scrubs his exposed skin, determined that her son will not approach the altar dirty. She regrets his scabby knees from playing in the lane and wishes the family had hair oil, settling instead for water and spit to flatten his hair. She tells him to speak clearly rather than mumble in English or Latin.

Angela also counters the material signs of poverty with an account of family dignity. Frank has outgrown his First Communion suit, but she tells him he has nothing to be ashamed of and invokes the McCourts, the Sheehans, and the Guilfoyles, her mother’s family, who once owned land in County Limerick. The preparations make the visit a family undertaking: Malachy holds Frank’s hand as they walk through the streets, and passersby notice them saying the Latin responses back and forth.

The rejection at St. Joseph’s

At the sacristy door, Malachy introduces Frank to Stephen Carey as his son, who knows the Latin and is ready to serve. Carey looks at father and son, says there is no room for Frank, and closes the door. The refusal is brief; it gives no explanation beyond the lack of a place, and the exchange ends before Frank can demonstrate his knowledge or begin serving.

Malachy continues to hold Frank’s hand on the way home and squeezes it hard enough to hurt. He says nothing. At home, he sits by the fire and lights a Woodbine; Angela is smoking as well. When she asks whether Frank will be an altar boy, Malachy reports that there is no room. The silence on the walk and the concise report contrast with the weeks of instruction and the careful preparation that preceded the visit. Frank’s Latin has been learned, but it cannot open the sacristy door.

Class and religious belonging

Angela interprets the rejection as class distinction. She says the Church does not want boys from the lanes, especially boys with scabby knees and untidy hair, but prefers children with hair oil and new shoes whose fathers wear suits and ties and have steady jobs. Her explanation connects the decision to the visible conditions of poverty rather than to Frank’s preparation or ability. She also says that such snobbery makes it hard to hold on to the Faith, exposing a tension between religious ideals and the social judgments of the institution’s community.

The episode does not establish whether Carey’s stated lack of room conceals discrimination; that charge is Angela’s interpretation of the refusal. Its narrative force lies in setting her reading beside the actual preparations: Frank knows the responses, Malachy presents him as ready, and the family has taken pains to make him presentable despite having little. The rejection therefore does not erase Frank’s religious learning, but it denies him the public place he had pictured and makes the altar a site where class belonging appears to matter as much as devotion.