Pope Francis has issued a decree changing the way that the Holy Thursday foot-washing rite is celebrated around the world.
The decree, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and signed by prefect Cardinal Robert Sarah, ruled that the rite should no longer be limited to men.
The Vatican website published a letter from Pope Francis to Cardinal Sarah confirming the changes. The letter said the Pope made the changes “so that it might express more fully the meaning of Jesus’s gesture in the Cenacle, His giving of Himself unto the end for the salvation of the world, His limitless charity”.
The Pope continued: “After careful consideration, I have decided to make a change to the Roman Missal. I therefore decree that the section according to which those persons chosen for the washing of the feet must be men or boys, [will change] so that 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.”
Francis broke convention on the first Holy Thursday after his papal election in 2013, when he washed the feet of female prisoners. In practice, many parishes around the world have long included women in the rite.
The rite is known as the Mandatum, after the first word of Jesus’s saying in John 13:34 before he washed his disciples’ feet: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos (“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”). The rite was celebrated separately from Mass before Pius XII restored it in 1955.
‘Gaucho priest’ to become Argentina’s first ever saint
Pope Francis has advanced the Causes of 10 men and women, including the Argentine “gaucho priest”, Blessed José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, known for his ministry to the sick and the dying.
The Pope also recognised the martyrdom of Justo Takayama Ukon, a 17th-century Japanese samurai who died shortly after he was exiled to the Philippines for being Catholic.
Francis further signed a decree recognising a miracle attributed to Blessed José Sanchez del Rio, a 14-year-old Mexican boy martyred for refusing to renounce his faith during the Cristero War of the 1920s. In recognising the miracle attributed to Blessed Brochero, the Pope has cleared the way for him to become Argentina’s first saint. Pope Francis expressed his admiration for the priest, saying he was a man who “did not stay in the sacristy combing the sheep”.
In addition, he recognised a miracle attributed to Polish Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. He was born in 1631 and died in Poland in 1701. The canonisation dates are still to be announced.
Cardinal: wage war on poverty
Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon in Burma has said the Eucharist “calls for … a third world war against poverty” as he led the opening Mass at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu, the Philippines. The cardinal lambasted the “cruelty of dogs getting fed with sumptuous, organic food, while poor children scramble for scraps from the table”.
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