ROME (AP) — In his most significant break with tradition yet, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention center — a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.
No pope has ever washed the feet of a woman before, and Francis' gesture sparked a debate among some conservatives and liturgical purists, who lamented he had set a "questionable example." Liberals welcomed the move as a sign of greater inclusiveness in the church.
In a video released by the Vatican, the 76-year-old Francis was shown kneeling on the stone floor as he poured water from a silver chalice over the feet of a dozen youths: black, white, male, female, even feet with tattoos. Then, after drying each one with a cotton towel, he bent over and kissed it.
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There is nothing in the spirit of the Gospel that forbids the washing of women's feet: if anything it is more in the spirit of the Gospel than washing men's feet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this makes me nervous. Someone asked me of an infographic and I said that it was "bad pedagogical example," and recalled my father's words that if as a teacher a student came to me and asked for a solution to a particular problem, and I saw a brilliant way to solve the problem with the shortcut, I was NOT to tell the student the brilliant shortcut for that particular problem. I was to tell the student the way the student could reproduce on a test for this general type of problem.
This represents a bad pedagocical example. On the surface, it embedies the spirit of the Gospel with stunning brilliancy. Overall, it gives people a "bad pedagogical example" and a warning label that this Pope is willing to change Roman Catholicism.
Patriarch BENEDICT XVI opened with an encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," meaning "God is love," when liberals expected him to open with "Ite ad Inferfum," meaning "Go to Hell," because they characterized conservatives as having no sense of love.
This sets a tone of break with Roman Tradition that on a surface level is unimpeachable and yet sets the tone, as much as "Deus Caritas Est", of what is to follow.
I have five tattoos, each one a mark from the treatment of cancer, and overall their shape is cruciform, in the shape of a Tau Cross, such as Christ was crucified on, with one "extra" tattoo for a disciple sitting at the shape of the cross. (It requires imagination, like the shape of constellations, to see this.) I would appreciate the honor of a Pope who said, "You have tattoos; I cannot wash your feet," or in the Orthodox Tradition, perhaps, "You have tattoos but you acquired them in a spirit of oikonomia, and I will wash your feet despite your tattoos."
Patriarch FRANCIS's move looks like the nicest face put on impending disaster.
You raise some interesting points here. I certainly enjoyed reading it, you could be a great author. Many thanks for your comment.
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