Pope Francis: Washing of the feet participants may represent 'all the people of God'

Pope officially recognizes what has long been practice to include women, children

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PROVIDENCE — Although it is a practice already observed in many Churches around the world, and even by Pope Francis himself, the pontiff has officially called for the Holy Thursday washing-of-the-feet ritual to include “all members of the people of God,” including women.

The pope last month drafted a letter to Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, seeking to revise the language used in the Roman Missal to refer to the ancient ritual — whose origins are rooted in the Last Supper — to formally indicate that priests can select participants from among all members of the Church.

In his letter, released by the Vatican along with the congregation’s decree Jan. 21, Pope Francis indicates that he has for some time contemplated making this change in the liturgical book containing the prescribed prayers, chants and instructions for the celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope wrote that it was his intention to improve the way in which the ritual is performed “so that it might express more fully the meaning of Jesus’ gesture in the Cenacle, His giving of Himself unto the end for the salvation of the world, His limitless charity.”

“After careful consideration, I have decided to make a change to the Roman Missal,” the pope said in his letter. “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. I also recommend that an adequate explanation of the rite itself be provided to those who are chosen,” Pope Francis writes.

In publishing the decree the Congregation for Divine Worship noted that the act of washing of the feet represents Christ’s humility and love for his disciples.

Bishops and priests performing this rite are invited to conform more intimately to Christ who “came not to be served, but to serve” and, driven by a love “to the end,” to give His life for the salvation of all mankind.

In the Diocese of Providence, the head of the local Office of Divine Worship said that what the Holy Father has done has been to recognize officially the evolution of the interpretation of the ritual washing of the feet through the centuries.

“According to the tradition of the Church, initially this ritual gesture took on the significance of the ministerial priesthood, the priesthood for the ordained, but over time this has come to be understood as a call to service, meaning everyone is called to charity and service,” said Father Jeremy J. Rodrigues, head of the Office of Divine Worship and Administrative Secretary to Bishop Thomas J. Tobin.

In many parishes in Rhode Island and around the world, men, women and even children have long been participants in the Holy Thursday liturgy ritual, which dates to the fourth century.

“The departure exists more in the cultural understanding of this symbol and less so in what the Church has seen over the centuries,” Father Rodrigues said. “Through the centuries it has evolved into this symbolic gesture.”

“It’s an organic development in the liturgy and the Holy Father has affirmed that development,” he added.

Father Gerald Harbour, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Pawtucket, said that washing the feet of men and women has long been the practice during Holy Thursday liturgies he has celebrated.

“For 42 years I have washed the feet of both men and women and it has never been a problem for anyone in any of the parishes I have been in,” he said.

“The people understand perfectly the meaning of this ritual and have responded well to the lessons from it. Pope Francis is right. The ritual is for all. Every Christian is called to serve and this is one very powerful way of teaching this.”

Father Joseph R. Upton, Catholic Chaplain at the University of Rhode Island, and Catholic Chaplain at The Prout School in Wakefield, welcomes the development as it clarifies the aspect of service associated with the ritual. For the young people he ministers to on a daily basis, this reinforces the call to serve people in need with whatever talents they have that is promoted in the classroom.

“As I see it, there has been a certain ambiguity with regard to the washing of the feet,” Father Upton said.

Historically, the rite was clearly meant to signify Christ’s charity, and included in earlier times the washing of the feet of the poor, he believes, and the reinsertion of the rite into the Holy Thursday liturgy shortly before the Second Vatican Council was not accompanied by any directive that the gesture be understood exclusively as a priestly one.

“I think many well-meaning people, including some theologians, have developed a distinctly priestly interpretation of the ceremony, recalling the ceremonial washings of the Levitical priesthood and a possible allusion to the promise of a priestly inheritance (‘If I do not wash you, you will have no inheritance with me’), although the Church never specified one distinctive interpretation over another. Pope Francis has thankfully determined that the ritual should be a sign of Christ’s charity and his command to the whole of his priestly people to love one another as he has first loved us,” Father Upton said.

Father John C. Codega, pastor of St. Brendan Parish, East Providence, said that many, if not most parishes are already following the pastoral message of the instruction and have witnessed the priest washing the feet of women and children during the optional Holy Thursday ritual.

“At St. Brendan’s Parish we do exercise this option and in some years do forego the foot washing rite in order to focus on the major theme of Holy Thursday, the Institution of the Eucharist,” Father Codega said. “When we do include the foot washing, just as the Eucharist is given for all, so is the mandate to follow Christ in service to all, not just men, but in service to all peoples. I welcome the Holy Father’s clarification of what was already a wide-spread practice.”

At St. Thomas More Parish in Narragansett, the pastor, Father Marcel Taillon, likewise celebrates the rituals of the Holy Thursday liturgy in different ways.

“It’s a malleable ritual,” Father Taillon said. “The whole thing is different every year.”

Father Taillon said he has witnessed the power of the washing of the feet and the impact it has had on many whom he has called to participate in it.

“It’s very, very moving for those who are chosen,” he said.

To distinguish the modern interpretation of the ritual from a gesture of the ministerial priesthood, Father Taillon said he never chooses 12 participants in order to set the ritual apart from the Jesus’ washing of the feet of his 12 Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem on the night before he was crucified.

He said that above all, it’s important for the faithful to understand that the Holy Father’s recognition of the evolving interpretation of the ritual does not signify a redefinition of the priesthood.

“It’s a change in liturgical law, but it’s not a change in sacramental law,” he said.