Some folks are offering that the USCCB approved the washing of the feet of women for the USA.
Nope.
The USCCB website provides this:
Regarding the phrase viri selecti, the Chairman of the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy, after a review of the matter by the committee, authorized the following response which appeared in the BCL Newsletter of February 1987 (EXCERPTED and my emphasis). Please note that what follows has no legal force:
Regarding the phrase viri selecti, the Chairman of the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy, after a review of the matter by the committee, authorized the following response which appeared in the BCL Newsletter of February 1987:
Question: What is the significance of the Holy Thursday foot washing rite?
Response:
- The Lord Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper as a sign of the new commandment that Christians should love one another: "Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: by your love for one another" (see John 13, 34-35). For centuries the Church has imitated the Lord through the ritual enactment of the new commandment of Jesus Christ in the washing of feet on Holy Thursday.
- Although the practice had fallen into disuse for a long time in parish celebrations, it was restored in 1955 by Pope Pius XII as a part of the general reform of Holy Week. At that time the traditional significance of the rite of foot washing was stated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the following words: "Where the washing of feet, to show the Lord’s commandment about fraternal charity, is performed in a Church according to the rubrics of the restored Ordo of Holy Week, the faithful should be instructed on the profound meaning of this sacred rite and should be taught that it is only proper that they should abound in works of Christian charity on this day."1
- The principal and traditional meaning of the Holy Thursday mandatum, as underscored by the decree of the Congregation, is the biblical injunction of Christian charity: Christ’s disciples are to love one another. For this reason, the priest who presides at the Holy Thursday liturgy portrays the biblical scene of the gospel by washing the feet of some of the faithful.
- Because the gospel of the mandatum read on Holy Thursday also depicts Jesus as the "Teacher and Lord" who humbly serves his disciples by performing this extraordinary gesture which goes beyond the laws of hospitality,2 the element of humble service has accentuated the celebration of the foot washing rite in the United States over the last decade or more. In this regard, 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. Thus, in the United States, a variation in the rite developed in which not only charity is signified but also humble service.
- 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 liturgy is always an act of ecclesial unity and Christian charity, of which the Holy Thursday foot washing rite is an eminent sign. All should obey the Lord’s new commandment to love one another with an abundance of love, especially at this most sacred time of the liturgical year when the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection are remembered and celebrated in the powerful rites of the Triduum.3
Folks, first of all, the Bishop’s Committee on Liturgy BCL, cannot issue norms for the USA with a) them being adopted and voted on by the whole conference and b) then having them approved by the Holy See.
(More on this.) In this case NEITHER of those conditions apply. Secondly, this statement of the BCL is couched in the language of mere opinion and the "meaning" of the rite, and has nothing to do with permission to wash the feet of women. Thirdly, the BCL correctly identifies that the rubrics in the Missal say "men".
No, the USCCB has not approved the washing of feet of women. Where it was done, it was done in violation of the rubrics.
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Thanks, Fr., for the clarification.
As I reflect on this, I wonder – what does a layman like myself do now?
I grant that the washing of the feet of women on Holy Thursday is a liturgical
abuse, not genuinely authorized by the U.S. Bishops, and certainly not by
the Holy See. I find that, however, as a layman, I must pick and choose my
“battles”.
On Palm Sunday last we were subjected to a homily from a priest who said,
“Don’t give me dogmas or truths or religion, give me a relationship with Christ!”
I met with him later privately and expressed my distress at his seemingly
pitting Christ against His Church. We talked for over an hour on a wide
range of issues, and I came to realize that, at the heart of his vocation is
a worm of deep suspicion of the Church, even a hostility to many of her teachings.
Fortunately the pastor too saw the incongruity of this priest’s Palm Sunday
declaration and bluntly asked him why he was a priest if he didn’t want
“dogmas, truths, or religion”. Yet this is the same pastor who sees no
problem with the foot washing of women on Holy Thursday.
So what’s a loyal son of the Church to do? The very serious heterodoxy of
that priest’s Palm Sunday homily is a matter of greater moment, I think,
than the liturgical abuse of washing women’s feet. I am faced with the
reality that I can’t have it all, at least not in this parish.
Pray pray pray for priests.