Fr. Z's Blog

Spotted on the Facebook page of Ed Peters, canonist.

Every time I turn around, someone is citing Fr. Lombardi’s comment that the pope’s washing of women’s feet on Holy Thursday is “absolutely licit” because it’s not a sacrament. Now, whatever one might finally conclude about the liceity of the pope’s action, it simply CANNOT be defended on the grounds that Lombardi uses.

Consider: the homily is not a sacrament (obviously); the homily is optional at weekday Masses (c. 767 § 3); the homily is reserved to clerics (c. 767 § 1). Okay? So, if a priest decides, as a gesture of charity and to model Christ’s inclusivity, to allow a woman (well, any lay person) to preach the homily at a weekday Mass, is his action suddenly licit? And don’t tell us this does not really happen.

Where did the “absolutely licit” thing come from? People have sent email asking about this.  Here’s the deal.

There was a briefing of journalists in Rome by the papal spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, about the Holy Week ceremonies.  The issue of the washing of the feet of women came up, of course.

Lombardi’s remarks include the phrase (in translation)…

I would not make a big theory of this. I say: it is a pastoral reading of this event which I believe to be absolutely licit (legitimate?) and also present in the Church….

Okay… it is unclear what is “absolutely licit” in Lombardi’s remarks.  More below. But I think he is talking about Pope Francis choice to flout the rubrics of Holy Mass which all bishops and priests are obliged to follow.

On the site of Vatican Radio, there is a summary of the briefing including extensive quotes from Fr. Lombardi’s remarks.  Have a look at the original… because we don’t want to get this wrong or misrepresent him (emphasis mine):

“la regola classica della tradizione liturgica è di uomini, pensando ai dodici apostoli e quindi al fatto che la lavanda dei piedi la fa Gesù, nel Cenacolo, ai suoi dodici apostoli, che notoriamente erano uomini. Allora in questo senso la tradizione vuole che siano dodici uomini… La pratica pastorale nella Chiesa dei pastori che hanno l’“odore delle pecore” – come sappiamo – è che si tiene anche molto in conto la situazione concreta, diciamo la comunità per cui e in cui si celebra e il significato che questo gesto, che non è un sacramento della Chiesa, ma è un rito significativo, inserito anche nella Liturgia, ma che non è codificato da leggi fondamentali della Chiesa, si possa vivere a seconda del significato pastorale che assume. Tanto è vero, mi pare, che abbiamo visto anche per il passato delle foto del cardinale Bergoglio, arcivescovo di Buenos Aires, che fa la lavanda dei piedi con anche delle donne. Quindi non è una cosa inventata ieri in particolare. Credo che molti di noi, che hanno una certa esperienza pastorale in diverse situazioni o di gruppi giovanili o altro, hanno usato questa interpretazione molte volte nel corso della loro vita pastorale. Quindi qui si tratta di una comunità, dove era ieri il Papa, una comunità piccola, non era la Cattedrale di San Giovanni con tutta la diocesi di Roma: era una comunità piccola, costituita in una parte importante da giovani e anche da giovani ragazze, in cui il gesto della lavanda dei piedi aveva un ruolo molto importante nell’evento e nel suo significato di presentare e far sperimentare lo spirito di servizio e di amore del Signore a questa comunità, che è una comunità che capisce le cose anche molto essenziale e semplici, perché non erano studiosi di Liturgia. In questo senso è stato – mi sembra – del tutto normale che nel gruppo delle 12 persone che ricevevano la lavanda ci fossero anche due ragazze, perché è una componente importante – quella delle ragazze – della comunità che vive la sua esperienza nell’Istituto di Casal del Marmo. Siccome poi il criterio con cui erano stati scelti questi dodici era proprio di rappresentare anche le diverse etnie e le diverse componenti presenti nella comunità di Casal del Marmo, in questa comunità le ragazze sono una parte importante e quindi sarebbe stato strano che non fossero comprese in questo gruppo. Io non vorrei farne una grande teoria. Dico: è una lettura pastorale di questo evento che credo che sia assolutamente lecita e anche presente nella Chiesa e credo che fosse anche quella dell’esperienza dell’arcivescovo di Buenos Aires”.

The Italian is strange, even tortured.  This lead me to ask a Roman friend to help me out with the translation just so that I wasn’t posting something unfair.  Keep in mind that Fr. Lombardi is speaking off the cuff, not from a prepared statement.  He is probably getting mixed signals from different offices of the Curia.  He probably has his own views which he is more or less struggling to hide even while revealing them…. so… here is the translation with a couple additions for clarity (and my emphases):

“the classic norm of the liturgical tradition is of men, thinking of the twelve Apostles and thus of the fact that it is Jesus who does the washing of the feet, in the Cenacle, to his twelve Apostles, who were men, obviously. Then in this sense tradition wants it to be twelve men… The pastoral practice in the Church of the shepherds who have “the odour of the sheep” – as we know – is that the concrete situation is taken very much into account, shall we say the community for which and in which one celebrates and the meaning that such gesture  – which is not a Sacrament of the Church,  but a meaningful rite inserted also in the Liturgy, yet one not codified by fundamental laws of the Church – can be lived in keeping with the pastoral meaning that it takes (in a given context). This is so true, it seems to me, that we have seen also in the past photographs of Cardinal Bergoglio, (then) Archbishop of Buenos Aires, doing the washing of the feet including women. Therefore it was not something that was invented yesterday in particular. I believe that many of us who have a certain pastoral experience in a variety of situations either of youth groups or else have used this interpretation many times over the course of their pastoral life. Therefore we are speaking of a community, where the Pope was yesterday, a small community, it was not the Cathedral of St. John with the whole diocese of Rome: it was a small community,  for an important part made of youth and also young girls, where the gesture of the washing of the feet had a very important role in the event and in its meaning of showing the spirit of service and love of the Lord and to let this community experience it, a community that understands things that are very essential (singular declension in the original Italian: a typo?) and simple (plural in the original), since they were not experts of Liturgy. In this sense it seems to me  that it was completely normal that there would be also two girls in the group of 12 people who received the washing of the feet, because that of girls is an important component of the community that lives it experience in the Institute of Casal del Marmo. Moreover, since the criterion with which these twelve (people) were chosen was precisely that of being representative also of the diverse ethnicities and components present in the community of Casal del Marmo, in this community girls are an important part and therefore it would have been strange not to include them in this group.  I would not make a big theory of this. I say: it is a pastoral reading of this event which I believe to be absolutely licit (legitimate?) and also present in the Church and I believe it was also that of the experience of the (then) Archbishop of Buenos Aires”.

?!?

“classic norm” and “tradition” v. “pastoral practice” and “concrete situation”?

“yet one not codified by fundamental laws of the Church”?  It IS codifed!  In the rubric of the Missale Romanum in force now.  It was explained in the Congregation for Divine Worship’s document Paschale solemnitatis 51. The Congregation has answered questions about the practice.

At the end of this, I repeat…

We can flout the rubrics anytime we want for the sake of a sentimental motive … MY FOOT.

Just because the Pope did something in some ceremony which, apparently because it was small and in a jail, mattered a lot to the inmates but I guess didn’t really change anything for the rest us – except for the fact that the Pope did it and it was ballyhooed by the powers that be all over the world, that doesn’t mean that any bishop or priest can take upon himself to change the clear and important rubrics of Mass…. any rubrics.

^{NB: To the liberals reading this who have already spread the falsehood that people like me,  or Peters, because we write about this, are obsessed with the washing of women’s feet or are mired in the minutiae of liturgical rules, I respond: There is a bigger issue which you, apparently, can’t figure out because you are almost always wrong about almost everything.   Have a nice day!  o{]:¬)}