I don’t know how else to characterize it. Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston now says he will wash women’s feet on Holy Thursday. Despite the rubrics’ clear mention of viri selecti (chosen men), and his statements in support of that last year, the archbishop now says that the Vatican has told him that it’s okay to include women. I find that very surprising given other statements from the Congregation for Divine Worship contrary to that.
Of course, the Boston Globe trumpets this as a triumph.
Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, who angered many Catholic women last year by inviting only men to participate in a ritual Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony, has decided that this year he will wash the feet of women and men.
“Many Catholic women?” Did he now? How does the Globe now this? Did they do an independent survey that showed many Catholic women were angered? No, what they did was give their own opinion, that Catholic women should be angered and thus impose upon the archbishop and the Church what the Globe wanted. And I hate to say it, but he fell for it.
There was no clamoring from the pews that the archbishop wash women’s feet on Holy Thursday. I just wish he wouldn’t have fallen for the liberal newspaper’s obvious tactics.
On Saturday, 2,000 Catholic men expressed their full-throated support for their archbishop and their agreement that they will not put up with the pressure tactics of the Boston Globe, just across the street from them. I wish the archbishop had listened and understood.