During my time as an undergrad at the University of Missouri’s prestigious School of Journalism, I learned a couple of maxims to employ when deciding if a story idea was worth pursuing: When a dog bites a man, that is not news. But if a man bites a dog, that is news. And you never read about a plane that did not crash.
In other words, headlines about the commonplace things in life rarely sell newspapers. They don’t catch the attention of readers and make them want to know more. With that in mind, I wondered about a headline I saw on various websites January 21:
Pope Changes Rules for Washing of the Feet on Holy Thursday
I assumed the story had to be about the Vatican equivalent of a man biting a dog or an airplane crashing. Granted, anything involving Pope Francis likely is considered newsworthy: his spontaneous, off-the-cuff conversations and plenty of his well-planned answers to interviewers have guaranteed that. But these headlines screamed that he was changing a rule. The Catholic Church has a lot of rules. A rule involving a solemn ceremony on one of the holiest nights of the Church calendar – the news must be big. Did the Pope decide only left feet could be washed? Or that a priest has to wash a person’s hands and head as well?
The stories revealed that in October of last year Pope Francis sent a letter to Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
“After careful consideration, I have decided to make a change to the Roman Missal,” the pontiff wrote. “I therefore decree that the section according to which those persons chosen for the Washing of the Feet must be men or boys, so that from now on the Pastors of the Church may choose the participants in the rite from among all the members of the People of God.”
“. . . from all the members of the People of God.” So women and girls now can have their feet washed at the Holy Thursday Mass, not just men or boys. Okay.
Yawn. Move along, folks. No plane crashed. No dog was bitten.Nothing to see here.
At least, so I thought. My mom was among those chosen by our pastor to have her feet washed as long ago as the 1970s. My wife received the same honor when she worked at that parish as the youth minister in the 1990s. We’ve been members of a different parish since 2005, but every year women have been included in the ceremony. According to the Roman Missal rule that had been in place, the local bishop allowed the practice, then it was up to each parish pastor to choose between whether all men or co-ed feet were allowed to be washed.
I found various sources weighing in on the new decree. For instance, the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales released a statement that began: “This decree can be seen as a concession to existing practice,and its good intentions are evident.”
Alas, I knew there was a “but” coming. Sure enough, the statement continued: “It nevertheless . . . reinforces the trend which has seen priests increasingly surrounded by women during Mass, serving, doing the readings, and as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. This inevitably makes the all-male priesthood itself harder to understand.”
The internet* is a hotbed of cynics, nay-sayers, pessimists, conspiracy theorists and just plain angry people. From the moment Pope Francis wakes up, those folks loudly criticize his every move and word. Sometimes, they might have valid points. It’s difficult to tell, though, because of the substantial disrespect dripping from every sentence they compose. I found a bunch of them on Facebook.
- From someone named Jon Acord: “Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, all of them men, who shortly became his Apostles of his newly established Church on earth, the Catholic Church. It dishonors our Savior to wash a Woman’s feet.”
- From someone named Jared Suarez: “God give us a better pope next time please.”
- From someone named Michelle Marie Romani: “Hopefully the next Pope will undo the damage and all of the other damage that has occurred during this papacy.”
Not all the comments about this latest papal decree have been negative. I found these Facebook comments as well:
- Someone named Margaret Rose Glenn said: “I am glad to see this. I have to admit I have felt hurt on Holy Thursday when only the men were included in this very powerful ritual.”
- Someone named Julian-Louis Carter said: “I believe in tradition. But when we worship tradition and not God, we are no better than the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. And, if you call yourself a Catholic, you ought to be ashamed of disrespecting this man’s authority.”
I’m a little perplexed as to why there are such extreme views on this subject, and for that matter on every subject that involves Pope Francis, among people who acknowledge the pontiff is the Bishop of Rome and therefore directly in the line of succession of St. Peter. This isn’t a political race. This isn’t extremist Republicans skirmishing with extremist Democrats in an almost comical display that embarrasses people of common sense who refuse to take any of it seriously. This isn’t the Nation of Islam, with sane-sounding peaceful Muslims offset by extremist Muslims terrorizing the planet.
Why do so many Catholic people lack trust in our God?
I believe that Jesus Christ instituted the Catholic Church, with Peter as the first pope, when he said, “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) Beginning with that moment, I believe two key facts were ordained: The Catholic Church is God’s will for His people, and Jesus Christ is in charge of His Church.
I think Jesus was in charge at the Councils of Trent and Nicea and every other council you can name. I think Jesus was in charge during the Reformation and the Inquisition, the Enlightenment and the Crusades, world wars and civil wars, two popes at the same time and married bishops with children, a scandal of pedophile priests and the cover-up of that scandal by bishops. I don’t consider washing the feet of female Catholics to be quite so scandalous, but even if it is . . . Jesus remains in charge of His Church.
Said Cardinal Donald Wuerl: “I can say with total conviction that it was the Holy Spirit that chose and guided the election of Pope Francis.”
The Holy Spirit that guided the Apostles in those early days of Christianity is the same Holy Spirit that guided the College of Cardinals through the selection of the 265 popes who have followed St. Peter, the same Holy Spirit who heard the prayers of all the Catholic faithful during these 20 centuries.
In hindsight and perhaps even foresight, did the white smoke always signify that the ideal man was selected as the next pope? Of course not. Each pope was a human being, with all the flaws and sinful nature that entails. Did every member of the voting College of Cardinals select true to the urging of that Spirit rather than choosing a favorite? Of course not. Men don’t always listen to God, and God is well aware of that.
“It was the Lord who put into my mind that fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies,” Christopher Columbus said. “All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.”
The Holy Spirit who guided Columbus to sail the ocean blue and “discover” the New World – yep, the same Holy Spirit to whom Pope Francis prays daily and to whom the pope has dedicated his life.
I don’t like every word and action that comes from the Vatican, but that’s a personal preference, the biased reaction of a Catholic man who is at least as flawed and given to sin as any cardinal or pope. I pray. I put money into the Sunday collection basket. I hope for a strong faith among my children and grandchildren, and that the Church will provide them the ladder to heaven I feel it has provided me (it’s up to me to climb that ladder).
Fortunately, we live in a country that allows us to speak our minds and not risk frightening retribution. Catholics in some other countries aren’t able to voice any religious thought. So I’m not going to tell people to keep mum on anything critical of the Vatican. And I’m not going to demonize a person, including a faithful Catholic, simply because they disagree with a decree or statement from the pope.
Pope Francis will make some mistakes. So will other men who formed the Synod of Bishops and who frequently speak their mind about how the Church should treat human beings and nature. Hastiness and rudeness could be seen as denunciation and disrespect of Jesus Christ’s handling of His Church.
Consider, please, that the world is dramatically different from the world in which Jesus and His disciples ate their Last Supper, when He washed their feet – an action that instituted the priesthood, say some, but an action that instead signified Christ’s desire that one who wishes to lead must first serve. In the first century, women not only didn’t serve any roles in government in that part of the world, they had essentially no rights at all.
The Church has changed in countless ways throughout time as the planet’s cultures have changed. A Catholic in the year 1500 wouldn’t recognize the Church today, but that same Catholic would recognize the world even less.
I’ve got news for you: Our Church is a big Church, more than 1.2 billion members and spread throughout a world connected yet starkly diverse. Change doesn’t happen easily or swiftly. Will we one day see married priests, female deacons or priests, divorced Catholics and Protestants receiving communion, Catholics with same-sex attraction welcomed into full communion with the rest of the faithful?
I don’t know that.
I could present a personal argument – one based in Scripture and the Magisterium and my prayer life – against each of those possibilities. I do know that someone who currently is in his 20s or 30s will one day be selected to be a pope after the prayerful consideration of a College of Cardinals and by faithful Catholics around the world, and that man will be the product of a generation much different than the one with produced Pope Francis and his 265 predecessors.
Change always is needed. And change there will be.
Instead of taking sides and being critical as soon as you hear of something coming out of the Vatican, will you please say, with me, this prayer first uttered by St. Augustine?
O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
*Editor’s note: the word “internet” is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized.
One reason the internet articles and comment seem extreme is that those who don’t have strong feelings, who, whether they like it much or not, feel it is a dog bites man story, are not going to comment. So let’s not make much of the extremist comments either.
So I’m guessing that you wrote this before you actually did any research about what the Church has ALWAYS taught regarding the washing of the feet and the institution of the priesthood. This was a settled matter. But the pope had been breaking the law for years. So now he changes the law. And you don’t see an issue here? If anything can suddenly be changed and you can pin it on the stirrings of the Holy Spirit, then why should Catholics believe that anything is settled? Belief in transubstantiation? Nope, the Lutherans just took a pass and received Communion at the Vatican. Need for conversion? Nope, now it’s all about accompanying someone on their “faith walk,” because we’ll all get to the same place in the end. A priest explains why the Church teaches x, well it might change at any moment.
I would suggest you read Fr. Ray Blake’s piece on this. He sums it up quite nicely. And you’ll notice that he has many priests (who will no doubt find themselves reassigned) backing him up.
This isn’t about trusting God. It is about prudence. Papal infallibility doesn’t mean a bad pope can’t make mistakes, only that the Church will survive his mistakes. Will your family, your children be in the remnant that is left?
a piece Catholic journalist John Allen recently published in which he cites Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on the topic:
Your central thesis that the Holy Spirit guided the selection of this or any pope is fundamentally flawed at its core.
You should not be permitted to write for any legitimate Catholic publication online or in print until you get yourself educated on that point and, I suspect, much, much more.
Pope Benedict XVI, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was asked on Bavarian television in 1997 if the Holy Spirit is responsible for who gets elected. This was his response:
“I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope. … I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”
Then the clincher: “There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!”
By that he was referring to the list of evil and just plain bad (as in poor quality) popes in church history, which should be proof that God does NOT choose the pope or guide councils, some of which have been overturned later.
I have found that when so many words are wasted belaboring one major point like you’ve done, it is usually a clear sign that the effort to pile up a voluminous mountain of words is designed to cover up that fact that the argument lacks substance and depth. In your case, your argument is seriously lame.
A quick perusal of your apologetic nonsense about this pope reveals this to be the case.
You are preaching to your amen corner but not to informed Catholics who know the faith better, it seems, than you or Pope Francis do. This move of his which you’ve marginalized is a huge deal. This pope is a progressive through and through, which he demonstrates weekly, if not almost daily, and this move merely legalizes the disobedience wrought by progressives in the Church seen every Holy Thursday for decades now.
I’ll wager you do NOT even know the significant Church teaching over many centuries has been that this foot-washing commemorates the ordination of His first presbyters and bishops by Jesus. It is NOT about laity. The tradition of the priest (standing in for Jesus) washing the feet of 12 men or boys from the parish (representing the 12 apostles) was intended by the Church to celebrate the founding of the sacramental priesthood.
Progressives’ joint hatred of the sacramental priesthood and their desire to marginalize it by elevating at its expense the common priesthood of the people of God was given an outlet after Vatican II. In one parish after the next progressive dominated parishes began flouting canon law in the name of the Holy Spirit they claimed Whose Will they claimed they knew so well. They did so by inviting women to come forward for foot-washing.
My own parish, run by progressives since its inception 25 years ago, has fostered a complete dissolution of canon law by inviting anyone who wishes to come forward. Six chairs are provided and folks take turn at washing the feet of the ones who come after them.
Your ignorance of what has been destroyed (and the decades long obstinate disobedience which lies, at once, exposed, and now, validated) should disqualify you from writing again on this or any other topic regarding the Church. It is abundantly clear that you are either grossly ignorant or you are merely a shill for a pope bent on fundamental transformation of the Church – a description of Pope Francis which has been raised frequently be his closest allies. In their case, it should be noted, such comments were pure brag.
Paul, I am certain your comment would be more persuasive if it were not bathed in sarcasm and condescension towards a person you do not know. For you to imply the following about Mike Eisenbath, or about me, the publisher, is troubling because it suggests you are speaking from prideful presumption rather than the desire to instruct: “Progressives’ joint hatred of the sacramental priesthood and their desire to marginalize it by elevating at its expense the common priesthood of the people of God was given an outlet after Vatican II.” It’s one thing to point out what you believe to be a mistake in doctrine, quite another
to impugn a man’s faith and his intelligence. You’ve allowed your attempt at correcting another to become the occasion for needing correction yourself. In Christ, Deal Hudson, publisher, The Christian Review.
Dear Mr. Steinacker,
I respect your knowledge and appreciate your passion for the faith of our Church. I won’t compare my faith to yours or that of anyone else.
I do ask that you note I didn’t simply write this piece in 15 minutes off the top of my head, here is a piece I read that was interesting:
http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/when-pope-francis-washes-womens-feet-arguments-follow-whos-right
I am curious about how the potentially fallible opinions, remarks and decrees of Pope Francis can’t be inspired by the Holy Spirit while the opinions and remarks of Pope Benedict XVI are clearly infallible.
I would like to bring your attention to this paragraph in my piece:
“In hindsight and perhaps even foresight, did the white smoke always signify that the ideal man was selected as the next pope? Of course not. Each pope was a human being, with all the flaws and sinful nature that entails. Did every member of the voting College of Cardinals select true to the urging of that Spirit rather than choosing a favorite? Of course not. Men don’t always listen to God, and God is well aware of that.”
So we are in agreement that the Holy Spirit’s preference for a pope might not end up being pope. But as I often tell my children, when you come to a fork in a road, God might prefer you go one way but He will be with you no matter which way you choose. Even if the Holy Spirit’s 10th choice becomes pope, God doesn’t give up on the Church. He still loves the Body of Christ. He still guides. He still hears and responds (in His time and in His way) to prayer.
Today, at Morning Prayer for this day in the Liturgy of the Hours, this petition was recited:
“Lead your Church in the way of your commandments, — may your Holy Spirit keep her faithful. … Remember your Church, Lord.”
This morning, Pope Francis likely prayed those words. So, probably, did all the Church’s bishops, priests, deacons and millions among the laity. So did I. I believe the Holy Spirit hears all of us.
That brings me back to the premise of what I wrote: Who is in charge of the Catholic Church? As for me, I trust my God. In the big picture, I’m giving Him the benefit of the doubt.
Thank you for reading and for loving Mother Church, as do I. I will pray for you and your loved ones, brother, and humbly ask you would do the same for me. And will you join me tonight as I drop to my knees to pray for our beautiful Church?
And thank you, Deal Hudson, for the opportunity you provide for this journalism (not theology) student, devoted Catholic man of prayer and Secular Carmelite in formation to share from my heart.
Mike, you are very welcome. I am proud to have you as a Contributing Editor to The Christian Review, all the best, Deal