This change to the Church’s rules has been made official in a decree signed by the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah. All of God’s people can now be chosen for the washing of the feet rite, which is no longer limited to “men or boys”.
Pope Francis has decided to open the Holy Thursday foot-washing rite to women as well as to men and boys. The rite is carried out during the In Coena Domini mass and marks the start of the Paschal Triduum, commemorating the Institution of the Eucharist. “All members of the People of God”. The rite - in which the celebrant repeats the gesture Jesus carried out on the apostles, washing the feet of 12 men – was restored by Pius XII in 1955, as part of the Holy Week reform.
In a letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Pope Francis states that in order “to improve[e] the way in which [the rite] is performed” and in order to “express more fully the meaning of Jesus’ gesture in the Cenacle, His giving of Himself unto the end for the salvation of the world, His limitless charity,” he has decided to alter the Roman Missal which limits the washing of the feet to men.
“From now on the Pastors of the Church may choose the participants in the rite from among all the members of the People of God. I also recommend that an adequate explanation of the rite itself be provided to those who are chosen”. The Congregation’s decree, which was published today, states that in performing this rite “bishops and priests are invited to conform intimately to Christ who ’came not to be served but to serve’ and, driven by a love ’to the end’, to give His life for the salvation of all humankind”. To manifest the full meaning of the rite to those who participate in it, the Holy Father Francis has seen fit to change the rule by in the Roman Missal (p.300, No. 11) according to which the chosen men are accompanied by the ministers, which must therefore be modified as follows: ’Those chosen from among the People of God are accompanied by the ministers…’.”
This way, the decree goes on to say, pastors may choose “a group of faithful representing the variety and unity of every part of the People of God. This group may consist of men and women, and ideally of the young and the old, healthy and sick, clerics, consecrated persons and laypeople.”
A note on the decree, which carries the signature of the Congregation’s secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche, recalls that “the rite traditionally has a dual meaning: it imitates Jesus’ gesture in the cenacle, when he washed the feet of the apostles and it is symbolic of the giving of oneself inherent in this servile gesture…The commandment about fraternal love is binding for all of Jesus’ disciples, with no distinction or exception.”
The Missale Romanum of 1970 simplified certain aspects following Pius XII’s reform, omitting the number 12 but limiting the rite to men only in imitation of Jesus’ gesture. “The latest change,” Roche observes, “requires participants to be chosen from among all the members of the People of God. By now, the meaning lies more in the significance of what Jesus did and the universal reach of his act than in the external imitation of what Jesus did,” Roche observes.
“In the In Coena Domini Missal,” the secretary of the dicastery for Divine Worship says, “the washing of the feet is not compulsory. It is the Pastors of the Church who shall decide, based on pastoral circumstances and requirements, ensuring that it does not turn into an automatic or an artificial process, devoid of meaning and reduced to a show. Neither should it become so important that it draws attention away from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.”
So it is up to the pastors, Archbishop Roche concludes, to choose a group of faithful that represents the variety and unity of every part of the People of God – young, elderly, healthy people, sick people, clerics, consecrated persons and laypeople – not just one section. It is up to the chosen ones to make themselves available in a simple way.
Readers will recall that during the first Holy Thursday Mass of his pontificate which he celebrated on 28 March 2013, Pope Francis visited the Casal del Marmo youth detention centre, where he washed the feet of a number of young people including two girls, a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic.
