Priests | Blogger Priest

Priestly Celibacy – Ministerial Availability

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Father Joe

Is celibacy an obsolete construct? Could it be abandoned without damaging the body of the Church? My response is that it is more pertinent and valuable in our age than in any preceding it. We need this sign of contradiction so that we might not be swallowed up by the hedonism of our day.

The theme of availability which is furthered by celibacy is usually crudely understood as one having the time to respond at a moment’s notice to the urgent needs of our people. While this is certainly a partial definition, it has a far more pervasive scope. The premise that “no wife and no children” equates to a freedom to serve fails if the celibate fills the vacuum with selfish preoccupations. He must be wary of becoming the proverbial old and angry bachelor. He must place the needs of his people and the demands of God before strictly personal pursuits that give pleasure. A physical creature of desires and passions, he might place the love of entertainment or traveling or drinking or eating before his role as servant. He might also begin to waste time with unhealthy rumination about his choices, resenting the decisions he made or faulting the Church for his unhappiness. (I think this is where we discover a number of aging dissenters and those who abandon their ministry and/or break their promises.) Availability is not simply time management or sitting around like Bruce Wayne waiting for the Bat signal to call him to the rescue. The celibate priest makes Christ available to the People of God. While a husband and wife encounter the Lord through the symbolism of their bodies; the priest is wedded to the Church and facilitates our meeting with Christ through his priesthood and in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This assignment or coming together is best furthered when there is no distraction. Just as the maleness of the priest speaks to his role as an icon for Christ, so too in a lesser manner does his celibacy resonate with the life of our Lord. He has nowhere to rest his head. He looks around at the vast crowds of searching humanity and laments that they are like lost sheep needing a shepherd. Even when he seeks out deserted places to pray, they find him out and he responds with teaching them of God’s love, healing, forgiving and feeding them. He also fights for them, knowing that the devil is like a prowling beast, ready to devour them. The urgency of the priests who share in the high priesthood of Christ is that they must be ever on guard to do battle. Indeed, the battle never stops. He crushes sin with the extension of his hand and the words of absolution in the Confessional. He makes present the saving presence and sacrifice of Christ at the altar. On the road or in a chapel, he says his prayers, giving God his due and interceding for his flock. Alone in his bed he clutches his rosary, still throwing himself completely into the burning hearts of Jesus and Mary. He begs that he might be consumed so that souls might be saved. Not in an exclusive relationship to one person, but to the Mystical Body of Christ, his whole life finds meaning with the proclamation, “I am totally yours!”

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Jesus, Marriage, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality | Leave a comment »

Priestly Celibacy – A Preservation in Holiness

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Father Joe

Some critics of celibacy felt bolstered by the scant references to married clergy in the New Testament, and yet such evidence was hardly conclusive. Were the children of priests conceived before or after the men were ordained? There is growing historical evidence that married men, in agreement with their wives, set aside a sexual life for the sake of the faith community and in respect to the Eucharist. This might seem nonsensical to us today but the Church, early on, placed a significant meritorious value in celibate discipleship. It is the witness of the apostles who abandoned their families and earthly work to follow Christ. It is the realization of the calling given the rich man to sell all he has, to give it to the poor and then to follow Jesus. It is a level of sacrifice that the world does not want to understand. We must be honest. Many of our own people, baptized Catholics, are more formed by the world than by the Gospel. That is why they fail to understand and thus undermine the great gift of single-hearted virginal love.

Celibacy was not inflicted upon the Church simply to make life difficult. It was composed to substantiate the best form of ministerial discipleship and to bring errant men back to a holiness of life. Celibacy was not a medicine against marriage, because matrimony was no disease. Rather, it was an antidote to divided hearts, mistresses, illegitimate children, and other forms of wrongdoing and/or sin. The resources of the faith community were being exploited by unscrupulous men and wrongly passed on to their offspring. Celibacy was the Church’s way of shouting, enough! Similarly today, the problem is not celibacy but rather the failure to remain faithful to this chaste way of loving. It is no wonder that the ire of Christ was most raised by the evil of hypocrisy.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Bible, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 6 Comments »

Priestly Celibacy – The Reasons Behind It

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Father Joe

Until recently, the celibacy of Catholic priests was regarded by their own religionists as uncontested. If you wanted to be a priest then you had to forsake the possibility of a wife and children. Such was the complete package and a man could not sign up for one without the other. Now changes both inside and outside the Church have brought that complementary dualism into question. My personal concern is that some celibate priests may come to resent married clergy and that married priests might regard celibate men as oddly eccentric, aloof and angry. How can a faithful celibate priest, who fell in love but kept his promises with distance, prayer and tears, not feel a wound in his heart reopened when he must work side-by-side with a married priest who has both his religious calling and his beloved spouse and children? He would have to be an absolute ice-man or robot to avoid real internal pain. Bishops seem aware of this and that may be why married priests, formerly of the Episcopalian tradition, are frequently given special assignments removed from the regular pastoral duties of celibate priests. I also have to wonder if such were a factor in the growing Anglican-usage parishes. This allows them to be Catholic but makes for distance from traditional settings and celibate clergy while grouping them with other former Protestants who have sought reunion with Rome.

The question was always, why have married priests? But now everything is turned around. The question becomes, why have celibate priests? There are three basic arguments:

Given that celibacy is obligatory and made as a vow or promise, the first rationale is ecclesial authority and long-standing tradition.
Given that the priest must go where he is needed and immediately do as he is told, the second argument is availability and that he lives to serve the family of God, not for himself.
Given that he is an eschatological sign of the kingdom, the third assertion is that his witness as “the poor man” and his cultic service as a priest of the altar should point toward spiritual realities unmarred by entanglement in matters of the flesh and the world, notably sexual expression.

The first reason was challenged by the manifold changes after Vatican II. Everything seemed to be in a state of flux. The liturgy changed overnight, fast laws were modified or abrogated, and there was a paradigm shift in our attitude toward the world and other religions. Many priests were ordained thinking that the policy on priestly celibacy would change and become retroactive. However, it did not change and thousands of priests left ministry, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. It is no wonder that Pope Benedict’s emphasis on tradition also included a reaffirmation of priestly celibacy. Unfortunately, many are presumptuous that Pope Francis will be more accommodating to those who hope to see the discipline made optional or dismissed. I do not believe it will happen. Why? It is because of how the other two reasons fit into the model of poverty and living for others that are thematic for his papacy. If he demands that priests live simply and drive used cars, then he definitely would not want to see priests caught up with the worldly affairs of a wife and family.

The other two reasons are assaulted by the charge that celibacy is a discipline, not an intrinsic doctrine that is essential to priesthood. This is actually the consensus or general thinking of the Church; however, a few of us wonder if the distinction might be too pact or simplistic. God seemed to tolerate polygamy and divorce in the Old Testament but Christ made it clear that such does not reflect the true mind of God and human nature. Given the great need, the novelty of Christianity, the rapid growth of the Church and the lack of viable single candidates, could it be that God tolerated married men in his priesthood until such became unnecessary? The apparent fact that men called to holy orders in the early Church often lived as if they were not married, in perfect continence with their wives, would seem to give substance to this supposition.

A further support to this view is the long-standing predominance of celibacy into the modern era. Just as the Holy Spirit safeguards the authority of the Church and the faithful transmission of the deposit of faith, might the celibate priesthood be an expression of his work that is reflective of divine providence? Yes, it is true that a few married priests (but not bishops) minister in the small Eastern rites of the Church; but these few exceptions are dwarfed by the number of celibate priests serving in the West. What about the Orthodox churches? As Pope Benedict XVI rightfully reminded us, while their sacraments are efficacious, they do not accept the full juridical authority of the Holy See. The Orthodox churches are true churches, albeit defective. The Protestant denominations are classified “theologically” as ecclesial communities. Such means that Protestants have lost apostolic succession and thus have no authentic priesthood or Mass. The Orthodox have both but they also suffer the dire loss of the Petrine see and thus forfeit the full protection of God against error. Their teachings and practices would not “immediately” inform Catholicism given the juridical break. The witness of the Eastern rite churches (in union with Rome) is more significant and must be given a certain consideration on all questions of faith and discipline. In any case, note that the Orthodox have both married and celibate priests but ONLY celibate bishops. Even they seem to discern that there is a serious difference. Roman Catholicism readily recognizes this and wants all her priests to match the same high standard. The Church needs it and God deserves it.

Please note that references to other denominations are not intended to be pejorative, just informative of a demarcation between them and Catholicism. It is not possible today to speak about Christian ministry and to avoid comparisons. Only briefly hinted at in this posting, many Protestant churches would reject any definition of their ministers as priests; others would define the priesthood differently or have a disrupted apostolic succession. Their views would have little or no standing in the Catholic context. Catholic deacons can do all that a Baptist minister can do: baptize, celebrate a communion service, witness a wedding, visit the sick, preach from the pulpit, teach, etc. Our deacons are both married and unmarried. The similarity or comparison between many Protestant churches and Catholicism in ministry is not between the priest and minister, but between the minister and deacon. Of course, the deacon is also in Holy Orders and is ranked among the clergy.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality | 7 Comments »

Priestly Celibacy – A Higher Form of Love

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Father Joe

The Church has often deemed celibate love as of a higher order than that of marital love. This mentality is especially evident in the writings of monks, even the Augustinian and Protestant reformer Martin Luther who defected and had six children of his own. While promoting married clergy, Luther thought that sexual congress between a husband and wife was at least a venial sin. The antagonism was due to the lack of control and almost bestial passion. The marital act was heavily imbedded, no pun intended, in the perception that man was just another animal, more connected to earthly affairs than spiritual ones. Celibacy reflected something of the eschaton where Jesus said there would be no marriage or giving in marriage. We would be like the angels. The testimony of St. Paul in favor of perfect continence and the model of Christ’s life insured that the celibate model would be given preference as the exemplar for holiness of life. Married people could become saints but their carnality was remarked upon as a handicap. Obviously, the negative view could be taken to extremes. The marital act, as the consummation and renewal for the sacrament, was a holy union. The two became one flesh and we saw something of Christ’s love for the Church in their covenant. Celibacy would still be deemed as of a higher order but it would be wrong to disparage the graces that come to a husband and wife.

Today it seems that many Catholics cater to the same negativity toward celibacy and virginity as most Protestant reformers. We should not imagine that the reformers attacked virginity or urged marriage simply from principle. Celibacy created a grouping of men and women who belonged entirely to the Church. It was sometimes difficult to intimidate such faithful sons and daughters. However, earthly princes, both German and English, learned quickly that if you give a man a wife and family then his first concern, more so than not, was their welfare. They would become more dependent upon the temporal ruler and accommodate his brand of religion. This coarse and opportunistic attack upon celibacy was disguised behind allegations of hypocrisy and unnatural lifestyles, just as critics today carelessly banter charges of child molestation. The notion of a meritorious virginity was reduced to the butt of jokes.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 1 Comment »

Priestly Celibacy – The Rule Not the Exception

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Father Joe

Except for the fact that I am a priest, I am unsure what value my reflection upon this matter of celibacy may possess for others. There are already historical studies which demonstrate that perfect continence was an ideal of the early Church. Much has been written toward a theology of priestly celibacy, especially citing the marital analogy. In any case, for what it is worth, I will add my own personal musing.

I am already well aware that my support for the full retention of the discipline has put me at odds with critics, even with some of my fellow priests. Petitions have popped up in various countries where clergy want optional celibacy, much as practiced in our Eastern rites. The Anglican clergy who have accepted the papal offer of Catholic inclusion are also making noise about the celibate/married priest situation. A few have paraded how wonderful it is, to be a married man and a Catholic priest. I would prefer that they remain quiet and keep a low profile. I hope that the Holy Father will compel the Eastern rites to restrict their married clergy to Europe and not to allow their numbers to amass in North America, as has been asked of them under holy obedience. The Anglican usage Catholics should not expect that the next generation of clergy will contain married priests. The aberration is tolerated for the sake of reunion; not as a permanent relaxation of the discipline. Or am I wrong? I have heard it said that married candidates will be granted dispensations for ordination on an individual basis and that the Pope will be generous. What if he is not?

Some act as if opposition to celibacy might be a new phenomenon; it is not. Our erotic society makes the custody of the eyes difficult today but priests are men and men have always struggled with the emotions, passions and yearnings of all men. There is also the inescapable truth of original sin and our fallen nature. This struggle associated with celibacy is precisely why it is regarded as an important element of sacrificial love.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality | Leave a comment »

Priestly Celibacy – Under the Shadow of Scandal

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Father Joe

While it might seem that “conservative” clergy, to borrow a political adjective, are resentful toward the laity who “would dare” reflect upon priestly celibacy; such is not really the case. Our ire or hurt is only aroused when there is a lack of appreciation or thankfulness for the very real and substantive sacrifice made by priests on their behalf. Our gift of celibacy, enabled by divine grace, is offered to God so that we might more completely and intimately belong to the people we serve. It seems to me that there are two erroneous extremes: the first as a dissent or dismissal of celibacy as wrong or ill-opportune and the second as a cold indifference. It is frequently proposed that priests who stumble regarding celibacy struggle under a sexual immaturity or impeded development (although these critics often wrongly clamor for earlier sexual acting-out as the preventative).

Indeed, I read one researcher who taught that the crime of child molestation was symptomatic of stunted psychosexual development; having retarded their own maturation at childhood, their preoccupation remained with children. Not being a social scientist, I cannot say for sure if this last assessment be true. It seems to me that the actual culprit is a grossly misaligned sexual orientation. Men who abuse children are both sick and criminals.

While the American Psychiatric Association and liberal politicians would grant homosexuality the status of normalcy; the Church deems such attraction as disorientation and the commission of subsequent acts to be wrong and sinful. It may be that certain homosexuals entered the priesthood to disguise their attraction; however, the Holy See has judged homosexuals as unfit candidates for holy orders. There is much worry, even if unsaid or denied, that most clerical child abuse cases were homosexual in character.

Consecrated men who fall with adult women also sin grievously, but according and not as opposed to nature. Despite this, especially in light of criminal allegations against pederasts, certain bishops now wrongly punish such clergy as if they had broken civil law or endangered the innocent. While no molester of children can ever return to ministry; the man who stumbles with a consenting adult woman may need fraternal correction and prayer more than clinical exile for treatment or forced laicization. The priesthood of this man might be salvaged, yes, even if a child is the fruit of a forbidden liaison. It comes down to authentic penance and reform from the priest and how much God’s people are willing to forgive.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Forgiveness, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | Leave a comment »

Priestly Celibacy – Do People Believe It?

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Father Joe

There are a number of excellent books written by priests about the value of celibacy; and yet, the public seems to give a heightened weight to criticism of celibacy from either fallen-away priests or from critical laity. Why is this? Given society’s addiction to all things sexual, heterosexual and homosexual, I suspect it is because celibacy is viewed as either a fiction or as an aberrant perversion. The fact that it is a natural lifestyle and one chosen by St. Paul and our Lord is readily dismissed. I recall many years ago taking weekly communion to the elderly Catholic residents of Judiciary House in NW Washington, DC. The maintenance man, himself a senior citizen, saw my collar and remarked that we both wore uniforms. Making small talk, he asked, “Is it true?” “What?” I returned. Incredulously, he queried, “Is it true that you guys never get some?” It was not the kind of question I expected, given that we were standing on a public sidewalk in front of the building where he worked. Pedestrians were passing by on every side of us. I repeated his question, trying to figure how to respond. Did I misunderstand him? No, he did indeed mean sex. I answered, “Yes, it is true; we take promises of perpetual celibacy.” He shook his head. He could not believe it. He walked away unconvinced and mumbled to himself, “How can you live and not get some? A man has to get some? I know I have to get some.” If such average working men were dubious about this a quarter of a century ago, today many would accuse priests of hypocrisy and outright deception. This incident happened before the floodgates opened with the so-called pedophile crisis. The failure of a few has damaged the witness of many. Celibacy, once respected as a sacrifice signifying devotion to God and to the service of his people, is now regarded as expendable or worse, as a sign of sexual deviancy and secret sin. We have our work cut out for us if we hope to correct the false label stamped upon the celibate priesthood. Celibacy is very personal and private to the priest; nevertheless, we must be courageous and extroverted in demonstrating both its viability and utility.

Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Priests, Questions, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | Leave a comment »

VIDEO – Confession Explained

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Father Joe

Filed under: Catholic, Confession, Discipleship, Forgiveness, God, Jesus, Priests, Religion, Repentance, Sacraments, Salvation, Sin, Video | Leave a comment »

Married Priests Now? Um, No Thank You!

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Father Joe

Cathy feels very strongly that the Church should allow priests to marry. I took exception to her opinion.

CATHY: It is impossible to make the assumption that having a wife and children would be distraction to priests, bishops, cardinals and the pope when they were never allowed to have a family in the first place and many have fooled around anyway.

FATHER JOE: You are presumptuous that many priests have “fooled around.” Most Catholic priests are faithful to their promises and to the commitment of obedience and celibacy. Priests are normal men who grew up in families. We also deal with the marriages and families of others. Many married people who have come to understand what priesthood entails have themselves told me that celibacy is the best way. The Catholic preference is that the priest’s wife and family is his parish— he belongs to them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (or 366 in leap year). I am not saying that we do not have some good and holy married priests. We do. But the daily character of their priesthood and personal life is very different. It has to be or they would not be good and faithful husbands and fathers. Even things that are usually reckoned as good can be distractions to the priest. Here I speak not just about activity but about the donation or surrender of himself and of his heart.

CATHY: To make people choose against a holy sacrament of marriage is to break the first commandment in the bible which is to be fruitful and multiply.

FATHER JOE: First, the sacrament of marriage comes with the Christian dispensation; all that comes before belongs to the natural covenant of marriage. Second, the mention of fruitfulness comes not as a command in itself but rather as part of man’s stewardship over creation. Third, what we are dealing with here is a divine benediction or blessing. We read: “God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. (Genesis 1:28). Fourth, it is a generalized matter for the whole human race and not a particular command to individuals. You personally cannot fill the earth and subdue it. You personally do not have mastery over all the animals. There is no commandment that says that men and women MUST get married. Choosing celibacy is not simply opting never to get married; rather, it is the decision to love in another way. Marriage is regarded by the Church as a natural right. However, the man called to priesthood or religious life opts not to exert this right. Yes, it does signify sacrificial love but so does marriage. What makes it a higher form of love is that it is the road less traveled. It points in a unique fashion to the coming kingdom where there will neither be marriage nor the giving in marriage. This is what theologians mean when they speak of priestly celibacy as an eschatological sign.

CATHY: You would take away some of the supposed scandal from the church if you would allow for men and women (nuns) to serve and be married.

FATHER JOE: Are you so sure? Have you noticed the divorce and remarriage rates among Lutheran clergy? Child abuse rates are higher in marriages than among celibate clergy. No, you are very wrong about this. The Church could make the discipline of celibacy optional; however, it will neither be because of scandals nor because genital sexual expression has become a modern necessity.

CATHY: How can ministers of the word even begin to identify with parishioners if they have not lived through some of their circumstances, especially since ministry begins in the home?

FATHER JOE: Again, you pile one false presupposition upon another. Priests do not come from distant Pluto. We have grown up in families, some good and a few that were dysfunctional. Priests prepare couples for marriage, give counseling, interact regularly with families, and know all the blessings and malignancies that can plague the home. It comes first through our pastoral training and then in our daily association with the people we serve. I would suspect in all this that priestly experience is far beyond yours or that of many married people. This is precisely an area where celibacy frees the priest so that he can be available to his parishioners. Otherwise, the cares and tribulations of his own home would have to come first.

CATHY: Sex is not vile if done within marriage. It is a God sanctioned act.

FATHER JOE: Did I ever say that sex was vile? Please do not put words into my mouth. The marital act consummates the marital union and it regularly renews the covenant of the spouses with each other and with God. Marital love and family are great treasures; but celibate love is a still greater gift. You do not prize it. You do not understand. This is the tragedy of the modern age. We agree with St. Paul, that the single-hearted love of God (celibacy) is the better way. But, it is not the only way. God will give the gift of celibacy to any man truly called to the priesthood. I firmly believe this. We see it realized in the lives of thousands upon thousands of priests.

CATHY: This not being married is a man sanctioned decree.

FATHER JOE: There are doctrinal components, but yes it is what the Church terms a discipline. Remember that the Church is both a human and a divine institution. While the Church has charge over such disciplines, it is the mind of the Church that celibacy pleases God and that such reflects his providential will over the orders of the Church.

CATHY: Every prophet and most of the apostles including St. Peter were married.

FATHER JOE: So what? We still have married clergy, a few priests and many deacons. And they are permitted to exercise their marital prerogatives. However, many married clergy in the early Church opted after their ordinations to live like Joseph and Mary. They may have had children before ordination but then practiced perfect and perpetual continence just as the Jewish priests practiced temporary abstention during their terms of service.

CATHY: Their trials were due to the times they were living in. Now, unless you are living in pagan or atheist parts of the world, no one is trying to burn or stone you for being Catholic.

FATHER JOE: What you say here is not entirely topical to this discussion. But, your gullibility frightens me. Have you missed all the uproar this past year about religious liberty? I have a parish with members from Asia and Africa. They have seen their priests killed and churches at home destroyed. I know priests here at home who have suffered the prison cell for peacefully protesting evils in our society like abortion. I suspect the day will soon come when declaring homosexual acts as sinful from the pulpit will be equated as hate-speech. When that happens, we will see many more priests behind bars. A priest-friend was murdered in his bedroom just a few years ago by a madman unhappy with him. We had several priests up north killed by a homeless man who beat their brains out with the very soup can with which these holy men sought to give the beggar nourishment. The family of married priests, as with ministers, can become the ground for manipulation and the cause for passivity in the face of evil. How is that? The celibate priest has only himself. The married man thinks first of his wife and children. He needs an income to provide for them. He needs a home to shelter them. The world plays hardball all the time. How many ministers have shut their mouths on certain issues for fear of alienating parishioners and forfeiting lucrative positions? We have some incredibly poor parishes. We already have men who can barely pay their small salaries. Could you raise a family on a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars a month? When all the assessments are paid there is not much left. Sometimes there is nothing left. The Church’s resources go back into our care for the poor, our schools, hospitals, and churches. As I said, we belong to the people we serve.

Filed under: Catholic, Celibacy, Magisterium, Pope, Priests, Religion, Religious Liberty, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 1 Comment »

Papal Foot Washing Controversy

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Father Joe

Liturgical traditionalists are increasingly expressing their dismay with the new Pope. They shutter in horror at online videos of his time as an Archbishop with his Misa de Ninos featuring dialogue with children, clapping and life-sized puppets.

Now, critics are decrying his washing the feet of youth at a retention facility, and among these are young women, one of whom was a Muslim.

A directive from the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1988 specified that “the washing of the feet of chosen men … represents the service and charity of Christ, who came ‘not to be served, but to serve.’” The rule in the West is that only the feet of men can be washed, with an associated sacramental meaning pointing to the priesthood of the apostles.

The current law does allow local bishops to dispense from the law, as is done here in the Archdiocese of Washington, and some are suggesting that the Pope merely acted as the Bishop or Patriarch of Rome and not as the universal shepherd. However, the papacy is not like a hat that one can put on or take off with ease. The Pope is the Roman Rite. The late Pope John Paul II regularly broke the rubric about raising the host over the paten, preferring the chalice instead. Now it is a legitimate option in the Roman Missal. We might not like it, but the Pope has indeed called into question the rubric regarding the washing of the feet. However, as an optional rite, I would not see it as a genuine cause for controversy. Further, while associated with the priesthood, certain Church fathers, like St. Augustine connected the ritual instead to Christian baptism. It may be that this somewhat suppressed tradition is again breaking the surface.

Having said this, what are we to make “theologically” of Pope Francis washing the feet of a Muslim girl? The solution comes with the Pope’s own words, if only we will listen. He says, “This is a symbol, it is a sign. Washing your feet means I am at your service. …Don’t lose hope, understand? With hope you can always go on.” When a boy asked why he had visited them, he simply responded that it was to “help me to be humble, as a bishop should be.” Pope Francis said this visit and the ceremonial gesture emerged “from my heart. Things from the heart don’t have an explanation.”

I suspect the Pope is expressing a theme which emerges immediately from the Scriptures. The one who would lead must be the servant of all. Our Lord did not minister only to Jews but to all who came to him. So too, in these perilous days, must the papacy be a vehicle for peace and charity in a world mad with intolerance and greed.

Liturgical traditionalists often celebrate beautiful liturgies. But dialogue with them is frequently difficult. The issue is deeper than anti-Semitism, but a belligerence with any and all, inside or outside the Church who disagree with them. The most rigid among them desire more than a place of their own in the universal Church; rather, they demand that all others surrender their places to them. This will not happen. Some of the traditionalists like the SSPX will probably not be coming home. The rhetoric will get nastier. The longer they remain juridically distinct, the more Sedevacantism will take hold. The breakaway traditionalists really do not recognize either the priesthood or the Mass of what they call the Novus Ordo. Indeed, the use the term “Novus Ordo” as if it were a derogatory slur. If they did not like Pope Benedict XVI then the proverbial writing was certainly on the wall with Pope Francis. The washing of the feet on Holy Thursday has renewed cries of modernism on one side and the defense of his humility and simplicity on the other.

Here are a few of the messages I have received:

“If the SSPX are upset then it is entirely their fault. They could have regularized and bishops and maybe even an additional Cardinal or two from their alliance could have been added to the mix. Standing outside they forfeited their voice. Pope Benedict tried to help them, now they deserve what they get!”

“The SSPX can complain but refused to be part of the solution to liturgical abuses and excess. Maybe this is the Holy Spirit’s way of pushing their noses into what they see as a mess.”

“Did Jesus wash the feet of Catholics or Jews?”

“Who does this guy think he is? Oh wait, he is the Pope. Okay, I guess he can do as he pleases.”

“Some of you talk as if the SSPX were really part of the Church. They go through the motions, but have no standing and no say. They do not represent a legitimate option. Pope Francis is the Pope. Get used to it!”

“Could it be that this Pope Francis is what God wants and that we traditionalists have been wrong from the start?”

“Do you think the Pope was set up and someone slipped this Mohammedan gal into the mix without him knowing?”

“This Pope has taken the name of a deacon, not a priest. He has embraced the mendicant Francis. He is on the record that the Church should be reduced to poverty. Priests get ready to see your rectories exchanged for roach-filled apartments and bus tickets for the cars you once owned. Here is a man who takes seriously the charge of Jesus to the rich man!”

“One of the boys at the feet washing had a foot covered in gang-related and possibly obscene tattoos. I can see that photograph being splashed around the world. Here is the Vicar of Christ, bowing down and kissing the foot of a vulgar criminal. This makes me so mad. There hasn’t been something as scandalous as this since Jesus allowed his feet to be washed and dried in a prostitute’s hair!”

“This matter of the new Pope has merely unveiled the unyielding disobedience and disrespect that has been hiding behind traditionalist intransigence all along!”

Filed under: Church, Pope, Priests | 37 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »