Please, Only Touch Men
from Boston Globe

Priests in the archdiocese should only be touching the appendages of males. We wouldn't want to go against tradition.

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, reversing the practice of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, declined this week to wash the feet of women because Jesus had no female apostles.

At the Holy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, O'Malley washed the feet of 12 men: three homeless men from the Pine Street Inn, two religious-order brothers, and seven members of the Cathedral parish. Foot-washing is a traditional ritual performed in Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant churches in imitation of Jesus's washing of the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper.

It is common practice in many Boston-area Catholic churches for priests to wash the feet of men and women, and Law washed the feet of men and women at the cathedral on past Holy Thursdays. But the practice of including women in the ritual is not universal and remains controversial among some Catholic prelates.

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Prelate disallows women in ritual
Washing of the feet is limited to males

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 4/10/2004

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, reversing the practice of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, declined this week to wash the feet of women because Jesus had no female apostles.

At the Holy Thursday Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, O'Malley washed the feet of 12 men: three homeless men from the Pine Street Inn, two religious-order brothers, and seven members of the Cathedral parish. Foot-washing is a traditional ritual performed in Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant churches in imitation of Jesus's washing of the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper.

It is common practice in many Boston-area Catholic churches for priests to wash the feet of men and women, and Law washed the feet of men and women at the cathedral on past Holy Thursdays. But the practice of including women in the ritual is not universal and remains controversial among some Catholic prelates.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue of Atlanta this year barred priests in his archdiocese from washing women's feet on Holy Thursday, provoking a protest outside the cathedral there. Some Atlanta priests canceled the foot-washing ceremony in their parishes to protest Donoghue's edict.

O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, said O'Malley was not seeking to change practice throughout the archdiocese, but was simply continuing to perform the foot-washing ceremony himself as he always has. O'Malley did not announce a change in practice; the restriction of the cathedral ceremony to men was observed by a Globe reporter who attended the Holy Thursday Mass.

"This is particular to Archbishop O'Malley, who throughout his time as a bishop has kept the tradition of washing the feet of men and who is adhering strictly to an instruction out of Rome to do so,'' Coyne said. ``This is not meant as any kind of statement of new policy.''

During the ceremony Thursday night, O'Malley knelt before the 12 men seated in front of the altar, poured water on their feet, and dried them with towels.

The foot-washing ritual, which is performed at the Vatican and in parishes around the world, is supposed to demonstrate Christian charity, as well as humility.

Coyne said O'Malley, who was installed as archbishop last summer, believes that the foot-washing ceremony is closely linked with the establishment of the priesthood by Jesus at the Last Supper.

``He very strongly feels the connection between the Lord's washing of the feet of the disciples and the ordering of them to the priesthood of the church,'' Coyne said.

The foot-washing ritual occurred during the same week that O'Malley listed feminism among several phenomena that affected the religious practices of the baby boom generation in the United States. In his Chrism Mass homily on Tuesday, O'Malley said that baby boomers "are heirs to Woodstock, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, feminism, the breakdown of authority, and divorce.''

Coyne said O'Malley's foot-washing policy is not connected to any broader concern about the role of women in the church.

A Boston College theology professor who studies gender in the church, Lisa Sowle Cahill, said the question of whether to include women in foot-washing rituals has, for some, become a stand-in for a larger ongoing debate over the role of women in the Catholic Church.

"The inclusion of women in the washing of feet has a symbolic meaning today, and that's why it may be more controversial,'' she said. "Those who applaud it and those who fear it both associate it with more inclusion of women.''

Cahill said some readers of the Gospel of St. John, in which the foot-washing by Jesus is described, argue that Jesus washed the feet of disciples and that his disciples, or followers, included women. But, she said, others focus on the fact that the first person whose feet Jesus washed was Peter, an apostle who is considered by Catholics to have become the first pope.

"The 12 apostles, who are men, are the prototypes of the priesthood, and to bring women into that circle may suggest, in the minds of some, that women are also being proposed as the proper fulfillers of the role of priests,'' Cahill said.

The Vatican rubric for Holy Thursday uses a Latin phrase "viri selecti'' to describe the people whose feet are washed. That phrase is translated as ``the men who have been chosen.''

However, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1987 declared that ``it has become customary in many places to invite both men and women to be participants in this rite in recognition of the service that should be given by all the faithful to the Church and to the world.

"While this variation may differ from the rubric of the sacramentary which mentions only men (`viri selecti'), it may nevertheless be said that the intention to emphasize service along with charity in the celebration of the rite is an understandable way of accentuating the evangelical command of the Lord, who came to serve and not to be served, that all members of the Church must serve one another in love,'' the bishops declared.

Foot-washing became part of the Holy Thursday liturgy during the 13th century; the day is sometimes called Maundy Thursday. Over time, many parishes abandoned the foot-washing practice, but it was restored by Pope Pius XII in 1955.

posted by prof_booty | 10:31 AM