feet being kissed at the foot washing service

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Rocky_Cephas

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Why are feet being kissed at the foor washing service? If there are priests and lay presiders washing feet of the congregation and the pastor asks us to kiss feet and I don’t want to will he be upset?

This is the 3rd year lay presiders wash feet. We’re in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Years ago it was only a select few who had their feet washed by the priests. It sems Ok to me for selected lay presiders but I stop at kissing feet like the priest do. I feel like I am not humble enough for this. Maybe they called on the wrong guy.
 
First, feet are only washed, not kissed. If that has happened, it’s a new one! Second and most important, it is the priest only who washes the feet - imitation of the action of Jesus at the Last Supper. No lay person should be doing that. (We’re talking about the Holy Thursday Mass.)
 
I believe that it is a liturgical abuse for a person other than a priest to wash the feet at Holy Thursday Mass. The person washing the feet is taking on the person of Christ, something only a priest can do.

However, I may be wrong. I thought I saw something about this on another thread recently. Let me look.
 
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Rocky_Cephas:
Maybe they called on the wrong guy.
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If you are not a priest then yes, they called on the wrong guy.

No one but priests should be washing feet, and NO KISSING!!! :rolleyes: :mad:

Unbelievable - what are they going to come up with next — no, don’t say it, someone will try to do it. :mad:

~Liza
 
More references on the rubrics of foot washing.

ewtn.com/Library/Liturgy/zlitur123.htm

adoremus.org/97-03_pokorsky.htm

What the USCCB says. Note that they say that a “variation developed” with regard to women getting their feet washed. However, it never says this variation was authorized. Nowhere does it permit a lay person to conduct the washing. This document s from 1987. I am looking for something more recent.
usccb.org/liturgy/q&a/general/feet.shtml

Here is Jimmy Akin’s take on the USCCB statement.
jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/02/foot_washing.html

In 2004, Archbishop O’Malley (Boston) reversed the idea of allowing women to have their feet washed. News story here. The story also mentions Archbishop Donoghue of Atlanta who also disallowed the washing of women’s feet.

Here is a device that can help enforce the rubric.
splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/007874.php

I guess that is enough for now.
 
I have a book with a photo of Pope John Paul II kissing a foot. The caption reads: “A humble gesture. The pope kisses the foot of a priest during a traditional Holy Thursday ceremony commemorating the Last Supper in St. John’s in Lateran Basilica, Rome, April 13, 1995.”
The book is: Pope John Paul II reaching out across borders, Prentice Hall/Reuters, 2003, ISBN 0131408038, page 15.

The description of the ceremony in the Roman Missal:
Washing of Feet
Depending on pastoral circumstances, the washing of feet follows the homily.
The men who have been chosen are led by the ministers to chairs prepared in a suitable place. Then the priest (removing his chasuble if necessary) goes to each man. With the help of ministers, he pours water over each one’s feet and dries them.
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(Roman Missal, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1985, page 136).

I think it would be better not to kiss the feet, as the Roman Missal has.
 
First, feet are only washed, not kissed. If that has happened, it’s a new one!

Kissing the feet washed has always been part of it.
 
Here is what Paschale Solemnitatis, the Circular Letter governing Holy Week released by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1988 has to say on the matter:
  1. The washing of the feet of chosen men which, according to tradition, is performed on this day, represents the service and charity of Christ, who came “not to be served, but to serve.” [58] This tradition should be maintained, and its proper significance explained.
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There is no mention of the notion that those feet have to be kissed. Furthermore, Pope John Paul II kissed the feet of priests. During the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Father washes the feet of 12 priests (usually elderly). Therefore, his kissing their feet was more, I think, along the lines of the Supreme Pontiff, the head of the Church, kissing the feet of his priests. Jesus kissed the feet of the Apostles. They were his priests. That is the connection that is suitable for what the Holy Father did.

The notion of having “lay presiders” at the Holy Thursday liturgy also flies against the face of Paschale Solemnitatis. This is what the document has to say:
  1. It is fitting that small religious communities, both clerical and lay, and other lay groups should participate in the celebration of the Easter Triduum in neighboring principal churches. [46]
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Similarly, where the number of participants and ministers is so small that the celebrations of the Easter Triduum cannot be carried out with the requisite solemnity, such groups of the faithful should assemble in a larger church.
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Also, where there are small parishes with only one priest, it is recommended that such parishes should assemble, as far as possible, in a principal church and participate in the celebration there.
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On account of the needs of the faithful, where a pastor has the responsibility for two or more parishes in which the faithful assemble in large numbers, and where the celebration can be carried out with the requisite care and solemnity, the celebrations of the Easter Triduum may be repeated in accord with the given norms. [47]
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In other words, just as Ancient Israel had small families gathered together to celebrate the Passover (where one lamb was enough to feed everyone), so, too, does the Church, the New Israel, gather those areas where a priest serves two or more communities, together to celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
 
Yuck! Would not want to do it or see it done! Where do these people get these weird ideas? Just follow the rubrics.
 
Paschale Solemnitatis indicates that only the feet of men should be washed.

The big problem is that, most regrettably, many parishes (and pastors) see Holy Week as a major exercise in creativity. This is wrong. The most sacred time of the liturgical year is not the time for novelty and innovation. Every act of the Paschal Triduum comes from ancient tradition. We need to preserve that.
 
I never knew women couldn’t have their feet washed. In our parish, I know they have trouble getting enough volunteers to have their feet washed 😦 :o , so maybe that’s why we’ve had men and women participate.
 
This question was recently answered on the Catholic Answers board at EWTN. Apologist Michelle Arnold stated that "Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston sought clarification from Rome over whether women could be included in the washing of feet on Holy Thursday. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments “affirmed the liturgical requirement that only the feet of men be washed at the Holy Thursday ritual” but provided for “the archbishop to make a pastoral decision concerning his practice of the rite if such a decision would be helpful to the faithful of the archdiocese” . She quoted this source: rcab.org/Pilot/2005/ps050401/holythursday.html

So clearly this is not an unchangeable tradition and again to quote Michelle Arnold, “the Vatican has begun to allow for pastoral decisions to be made in local areas as to whether the feet of women should be washed on Holy Thursday”.
 
Yellow_Belle said:
This question was recently answered on the Catholic Answers board at EWTN. Apologist Michelle Arnold stated that "Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston sought clarification from Rome over whether women could be included in the washing of feet on Holy Thursday. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments “affirmed the liturgical requirement that only the feet of men be washed at the Holy Thursday ritual” but provided for “the archbishop to make a pastoral decision concerning his practice of the rite if such a decision would be helpful to the faithful of the archdiocese” . She quoted this source: rcab.org/Pilot/2005/ps050401/holythursday.html

So clearly this is not an unchangeable tradition and again to quote Michelle Arnold, “the Vatican has begun to allow for pastoral decisions to be made in local areas as to whether the feet of women should be washed on Holy Thursday”.
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However, that right only extends to bishops, not priests. If the bishop in his diocese states that only the feet of men are to be washed, then, a priest can’t override his local Ordniary’s decision. Furthermore, this is not a wholesale issue. The Holy See still maintains that only the feet of men are to be washed, but, for pastoral reasons, the local Ordinary or the Metropolitan may permit women’s feet. But, once again, the decision is up to the bishop/archbishop. Now, a priest can still retain the tradition of washing men’s feet only, even if his bishop allows the diocese to include women.

We have to be careful how we read these documents. The Holy See will often give an inch, but, many, many parishes will take a mile, or two, or a hundred and then the floodgates of creativity will be open.

Now, it’s not that I don’t trust Michelle Arnold on these things; however, unless we can see the actual document from the Holy See, it leaves way too much open to interpretation.
 
japhy said:
Well that explains it.
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There is also troubling about having “lay presiders” during Holy Week. According to Fr. McNamara, in yesterday’s edition of Zenit:
A priest is almost surely present because the possibility of celebrating the Good Friday service of the Passion with holy Communion is tied intimately with the celebration of the Maundy Thursday Mass the preceding evening. The norms for the Easter celebrations (No. 54) stipulate that the rite of transfer to the altar of repose “may not be carried out if the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion will not be celebrated in that same church on the following day.”
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***As far as I know, the Holy See has not approved any official rite for celebrating a version of the Easter triduum in the absence of a priest. ***
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He’s pretty reliable on his advice and his information. I’ve learned a lot from reading his articles.
 
So a Bishop caves in to pressure from society and style so we should follow his example, that’s terrible.

What a lousy example of faithfulness to Christ. Shouldn’t we seek faithfulness to God then serve others rather than faithfulness to people and serve God as we please? This is crazy, only pride and hatefulness of God’s creation would drive someone to ignore our Church and it’s tradition of representing the actions of Christ faithfully.

Men only should have their feet washed as it demeans women to think that they are special only if they are included in the role of men. That is secular style intruding on the truth that men and women are different and each special.

Would it be wrong if a man put on a wig dressed drag and said he was representing the Blessed Mother when a woman could do it? Of course it is an insult to women and men, it goes both ways. Why do people insult women and men this way? Just because it is stylish and popular to cross dress doesn’t mean we should incorporate it into our Church activities.

I would read this, liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Seasons/Documents/Paschale-Solemnitatis.pdf
(Document from the Vatican)
and try to follow it.

God Bless
Scylla
 
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