Mrs. Timmy wrote:
I agree with the good padre.
FWIW, at every Holy Thursday service I've attended, at least one woman's feet (usually several) have been washed. Clearly, neither the Bishop of Austin, the Archbishop of San Antonio, nor the USCCB had issue with it. Now it's "officially sanctioned," so the point is moot as far as the NO in the USA is concerned.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.....
Engage in a liturgical abuse until a Pope comes along and changes it because it also agrees in his personal taste?
Alter the rite so its context is harmed, damaging the objective liturgical tradition?
Hardly a moot point, but the effect it has on the average Catholic in the U.S. is probably moot. However, it is not something to move along about. We already had changes to the liturgy, novelties that alter or seemingly alter some of the meaning behind the rituals, snowball into a revolutionary liturgical upheaval. Principles matter, and emboldening liturgical revolutionaries should be a thing of the past, and of course dangerous for the present.
This goes beyond mere rubrics. This continues the false perception of altering the meaning of the liturgical rites in order to have a supposedly more welcoming, participatory liturgy. The real moot point is the meaning of
foot washing for Pope Francis and conversely the actual real point is to make people happy at the expense of meaning of the ritual itself.
This is what is erroneously termed “pastoral liturgy” which has, as its foundation, a focus on altering everything possible under false interpretation of meeting the “pastoral” needs of the people. Or in other words, the liturgy is reduced to its intrinsic reality and hence, everything external can and should be changed with the exception of what has been divinely instituted. This gave rise to the liturgical experimentations throughout the 20th century, abuses that eventually became legalized.
How many other common liturgical abuses go on in the United States? Should we roll over and give up? Are these future “moot points” to hand over to the radical 1960s liturgical mindset? Changes like these are difficult to reverse, even more so when they are legalized. Harmful practices such as the Mass facing the people and Communion in the hand will be difficult to eliminate. Having Pope Francis make this change may be a moot point to the average Catholic but it emboldens those priests, bishops, university professors, Collegevillites, etc. with the vigor to tolerate and/or promote abuse as well as continuing the support for a watered down liturgy. Why? Because they will interpret it as the normal flow of liturgical development, ever promoting new novelty and deterioration of the Roman rite, instead of recognizing something that is damaging which helps perpetuate the liturgical crisis.
