Posted on 04/09/2004 2:25:01 PM PDT by madprof98
About 70 men and women stood outside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead on Thursday to protest Archbishop John Donoghue's recent instructions that only men should be allowed to take part in the solemn rite of foot washing.
Donoghue sent a letter to parish priests last month telling them that men were to be selected for the ancient ritual, which takes place on Holy Thursday as Roman Catholic parishes observe the Last Supper of Jesus. Women and children have been included in the rite in metro Atlanta for years, but who can participate is ultimately up to the local bishop.
"This is not a women's issue, this is a justice issue," protest organizer Lalor Cadley told the demonstrators, some holding towels and basins that they later used for a foot-washing ceremony of their own in front of the cathedral.
Some church members obviously didn't agree with the protest, shaking their heads in disapproval as they made their way into the cathedral for evening Mass. At least one heckled the demonstrators.
"They are disobedient and disrespectful," said Coretta Alexander. "They care more about their cause than Christ."
Moments later, Donoghue had words for the protesters when he delivered the evening's homily to a packed house.
"Does it benefit us to make this a pretext for protest?" the archbishop asked. "Some would say yes, but I do not think so."
His words reflected the varied reaction to be found across metro Atlanta on Thursday, where some churches ignored the issue while others ignored Donoghue's edict.
At the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, both in downtown Atlanta, men and woman took part in the foot-washing ceremony, although the ritual at Our Lady of Lourdes was held prior to the regular service.
"I'm glad that some priests in the archdiocese have backbone," said Shrine member Katie Bashor.
Many other churches simply dropped the ritual.
At Transfiguration Catholic Church in Marietta, where the foot-washing ceremony had been a tradition for years, eight women and four men carried towels up the aisle and placed them around the perimeter of the sanctuary. The congregation sang a meditative piece, after which the 12 returned and retrieved the towels. There was no actual foot-washing ceremony.
And at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Marietta, where there was also no foot-washing ceremony, new converts — who will be formally joining the church during the Easter Vigil on Saturday — each received a bowl and a towel as a gift during the Holy Thursday Mass.
In Peachtree City, unlike last year, there was no ritual foot-washing at the children's Mass at Holy Trinity Church. In recent years, a dozen girls and boys have participated in the foot-washing in addition to acting as ushers and Scripture readers at the 4 p.m. Mass. The ritual's absence and sparse attendance — there were only about 150 worshippers — were the only noticeable differences from last year.
And then there were people like Joe O'Farrell, a member of the cathedral.
"I'm faithful to the pope and I'm faithful to the archbishop," O'Farrell said. "If you are a Catholic, you accept that there are rules. It's not a democracy."
Huh?
"Male-only" directive?!?
From my reading of it, the Pope merely pointed out in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis the already-existing reality that the Church has no authority to ordain women.
Now, are you suggesting that it is merely by the Pope's "directive" that women's ordination is forbidden, rather than by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church?
If every bishop in the United States were having this problem over the washing of the feet, I'd agree with you.
There appears to be something about Donoghue's style that is out of sync, not only with his brother bishops, but with his own priests.
Not a good thing for a bishop to be undermined by his priests.
In this case, the fault is not with the priests.
Knotts, we're talking about including women in the washing of the feet ceremony.
I'll bet your bishop allows women to take part in the ceremony, doesn't he?
And, yes, my Bishop probably allows this disobedience in his Archdiocese, since most Bishops do.
Donoghue's been Archbishop of Atlanta for eleven years.
During that eleven years, he's allowed men, women, and children to have their feet washed.
Can you see why there might be a bit of consternation when he decides, all of a sudden, to invoke his prerogative of mandating only men, when he's chosen not to exercise it for the previous ten?
That occurred to me as well. Kinds of relationships need not be universally aplied. The relationship with one's spouse is not necessarily the one you would apply to your children, not that priests are children, but there is a marked difference between the pope and the bishops and that of bishops and priests. A creeping egalitarianism to suggest that collegiality be universally applied?
Your instincts are correct. Donoghue is treating his priests like children.
Maybe you could answer why Donoghue decided, all of a sudden, to change a practice he has countenanced for ten years!
Hell for washing the feet of women in an optional ceremony?
OOOOOKAAAAAA.
The proper analogy is this: a company has a rule on the books that expense reports must be submitted on the tenth of the month for the preceding month.
In actuality, the company has allowed the submission of those expenses for up to three months.
One day, a manager decides to enforce the rules, and require submission of the expenses according to company rules for those in his department.
All other managers allow the unwritten three month rule to prevail.
OOOOOKAAAAAA.
I was actually rather surprised by that myself. But the opinion of St. Thomas should not be taken lightly.
You mean like Aquinas' opinion that the reason masturbation was mortally sinful was because the male semen contained all that was required to conceive a child? That the woman was a mere receptacle for the "life" that the male deposited in her? (Aquinas offered his opinion, ignorant of the fact that the female produced an egg)
Which is their perogative, but the scrupulous manager is doing nothing extraordinary by following the company's rules, and perhaps anticipates results that will benefit his department. Sucking up to the CEO of this company is wise.
17. Among the Scholastic Doctors, the chief and master of all towers Thomas Aquinas, who, as Cajetan observes, because "he most venerated the ancient doctors of the Church, in a certain way seems to have inherited the intellect of all."(34) The doctrines of those illustrious men, like the scattered members of a body, Thomas collected together and cemented, distributed in wonderful order, and so increased with important additions that he is rightly and deservedly esteemed the special bulwark and glory of the Catholic faith. (Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris)
It's sad. He was brought here to put things in order after the very public disgrace of the country's first black archbishop. (Another black archbishop, who died in office, briefly intervened.) Under his tenure, the archdiocese grew tremendously--largely because of the migration of northern Catholics into the Atlanta area and the immigration of many thousands of Hispanics. Perhaps because he didn't need to have a pastoral touch to see such growth in the local church, he never really developed one, and now that he is retiring (he's submitted his mandatory resignation), he appears to be growing more difficult. Today on the Way of the Cross in downtown Atlanta, I talked with people from several different parishes. In every one, the Washing of the Feet ceremony was dropped. And in more than one, the controversy was the topic of the homily.
So, as he goes out the door, his final act is to give the finger to his diocese?
Pathetic!
He's changing a practice that has been ongoing for over 20 years, and that is still ongoing in most dioceses around the country. All of a sudden, Donoghue decides to enforce something he hasn't enforced....
20 years is the blink of an eye "Deacon". Obedience is a core Christian virtue, no?
If he wants to act unilaterally, and without explanation, he should not be surprised at this reaction.
Sort of like what the varios liberal heterodox hierarchs have been doing for four decades? Ripping out the kneelers, for example?
If he wants to kill the washing of the feet ceremony in Atlanta, he couldn't do a better job of it if he issued another of his directives.
Or like what conservative, orthodox Catholics have been saying about the heterodox hierarchs and their homosexual antics for years, no? How many seminarians have been runoff by the feminazi types in places like Los Angeles?
The reality is this, women have no place in this liturgy, the Bishop is showing he knows that and the heterodox are squealing like pigs.
The bishop has allowed women a place in this liturgy for the past ten years!
The Bishop is retiring, and has decided to stick a finger in the eye of his priests.
Why did he allow women to participate in the washing of the feet for ten years?
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