Holy Thursday Rubrics Violated At My Parish

This past Sunday I wrote what I intended to do if my parish's Holy Thursday service was marred by the washing of women's feet.  All the while of course I was praying that our parish wouldn't surrender to the temptation (I mean that word in every sense) to political correctness and false sense of "inclusion" to violate the rubrics for Holy Thursday.  Alas, I was disappointed although not the least bit surprised.  As I announced earlier, I knelt and prayed a Rosary in reparation for the violations occurring on the altar steps before our eyes.  Not my eyes, though, for I refused to give that debacle my visual attention.  Two women were up there.  One I don't know, but the other is one who (I thought) would have known better than that.  I suspect poor catechesis had a significant role to play here.

My blogging colleague Connecticut Catholic Corner has done excellent work with this, compiling many sources including this from Fifth Column.  She even posted a letter from the Vatican that confirms that Holy Thursday feet-washing is reserved for men only.  I will post it below.  I will also post an "oldie-but-goodie" from the Vortex on this matter.

Julie's post asks a good question: "Is Pope Francis a Bad Example to Catholics?"  It's a fair question.  Unfortunately with respect to Holy Thursday rubrics, the answer is an unequivocal "YES!"  I think I just saw a good portion of my parish (St John Neumann in Gaithersburg) get blind-sided, snookered and hog-tied big-time by his poor example.

Violation Of Holy Thursday Rubrics At St Matthews Cathedral

Last year the Holy See made plain that the ritual of the washing of feet during the Holy Thursday Mass was restricted to men.  That is, the one washing the feet has to be a priest and those getting their feet washed have to be men.  The reason is that the washing of feet originally done by Our Lord to His disciples is seen as part and parcel of the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  A good write-up is found here.  Here's another.

Michael Voris of the Vortex predicted that this would provoke some, uh, "liturgical creativity", shall we say?  Click here if you cannot see embedded video.



Here's the link to the book on the Mandatum.

This past Holy Thursday, this abuse happened at the Cathedral of St Matthew.  I'm sure it happened elsewhere in the Archdiocese of Washington.  So what makes this one so noteworthy?  Well, see for yourselves (from the Washington Times).  That's right!  Cardinal Wuerl himself is washing the feet of women.  More "pastoral style", I suppose?

In my last post, I mentioned three priests unjustly treated for their fidelity to the Magisterium - one of them by the Archdiocese of Washington.  I cannot imagine any one of these priests disobeying the Vatican on this manner.  Perhaps that is why they (at least Fr Guarnizo) are being thrown under the bus.