The Invisible Last Super Under Pope Francis -- Footwashing: The All-Purpose Social Gesture

(Rome) The Holy See announced the papal celebrations for the Holy Week, together with the Feast of Easter. As in previous years, the calendar is devoid of the day of the Holy Thursday.

On the morning of the 13th of April, the Pope will be celebrating the Chrism Mass as usual in St. Peter's. The Mass of the Last Supper is not mentioned,  the evening of Holy Thursday, with which liturgically, the Triduum Sacrum begins.

Pope Francis will not celebrate the Last Supper of the Lord in the Lateran Basilica, the Episcopal Church of Rome and the "Mother of All Churches", but in a place not yet known. In the fifth year, a central liturgical moment, which is of paramount importance to the Universal Church, disappears from the field of vision.

As in previous years, a "spectacular" foot wash can be expected in 2017 as well. The speculation among Vaticanists is currently looking at whose feet the Pope will wash this year, excluding the public and the Church.

The Mass on the evening of the Holy Thursday is a liturgy of constitutive importance for the Catholic Church and of great concentration. The washing of the feet recalls the sign the Lord made to the apostles. It's a sign that the apostolic succession must always be a humble service. To express this, Popes, Cardinals and Bishops wash feet as direct followers and direct subordinates.

This is just one element. On the same evening, the establishment of the Blessed Sacrament of the Most Holy Sacrament was conceived by Jesus Christ, and inseparably, the establishment of the consecrated priesthood. This dual institution forms the center of the liturgical liturgy and is closely connected with the Church as a sacred sacred space. This really requires that the Holy Mass in Cœna Domini be celebrated by the leaders in their bishop's church with the faithful.

In other words, the establishment of the sacrament of the priesthood and of the altar's Sacrament (Eucharist) are again behind the gesture of footwashing, which appears above all as a social gesture, through the papal visit to an unknown, closed place.  It's an aspect emphasized by the circumstance that Pope Francis has also washed the feet of Muslims.

Since the visits to prisons and the refugee home, the question has also been raised as to whether Pope Francis gave Communion to those others than believers. Corresponding inquiries were not answered either by the Vatican or by the chaplains of the institutions visited.

In 2014 an initiative of Catholic media called on the bishops not to leave their cathedrals this evening to celebrate in other places. The absence of the bishop from his bishop's church is an "anomaly". This initiative, however, had to fallen into the void, since it was the Pope himself who left his bishop's church, the Lateran Basilica. Pope Francis has made the central Liturgy of Holy Thursday "invisible", according to Messa in Latino. The Holy Mass in the Lateran Basilica was open to all the faithful and was broadcast on television.

The Missa in Coena Domini by Pope Francis, which exclude the public:

2013: Visit to the Youth Prison
2014: visit to a disabled facility
2015: visit to prison
2016: visit to refugee home
2017 :?

Text. Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Vatican.va (Screenshot)

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Pope Francis Kneels to Abuse the Liturgy, But Not to Venerate the Bread of Life

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world. They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread. And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. 

Edit:  Question: If the Pope can commit liturgical abuses and kneel to wash and kiss the feet of 12 children, is it not also possible that he can kneel and venerate the Host and Blood of God made present on the altar? I hope no one will try and equate the two, but people often do equate themselves with God.

There’s very frank reporting of this event at Catholic Family News, no frills, just sober reporting what was said and done. That this is a liturgical abuse which has been repeatedly condemned by the Vatican is indisputable. Unfortunately, this ritual, which dates from a 50s revision of the liturgy, is in itself a kind of novelty as FatherZ has said. It is meant to elucidate the commemoration Christ’s establishment of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the priesthood, which does not include women.

Rorate is declaring the death of the Reform of the Reform. Actually, it seems that it was being killed off months before Benedict had resigned shortly after Vatileaks broke.

So, to the strumming of maudlin guitars playing a folk song, Pope Francis went to 12 trouble makers, two of them female, kneeling to wash their feet. He knelt with great difficulty on the floor and seemed to find the work very taxing as he was assisted by two acolytes. One wonders then, why he can not also kneel (a question asked by Roman Catholic Imperialist last week) before the Blessed Sacrament as well, since he’s willing to go to the trouble of washing the feet of two girls, in violation of Vatican ruling during a feast which celebrates Christ’s establishment of the priesthood.

Rome Reports has a very good description of what happened and you can see the Holy Father being helped up by two acolytes toward the end of the video:

Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, washes the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday

In 1850, Franz Joseph participated for the first time as emperor in the second of the traditional Habsburg expressions of dynastic piety: the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony, part of the four-day court observance of Easter. The master of the staff and the court prelates chose twelve poor elderly men, transported them to the Hofburg, and positioned them in the ceremonial hall on a raised dais. There, before an invited audience observing the scene from tribunes, the emperor served the men a symbolic meal and archdukes cleared the dishes. As a priest read aloud in Latin the words of the New Testament (John 3:15), “And he began to wash the feet of the disciples,” Franz Joseph knelt and, without rising from his knees, washed the feet of the twelve old men in imitation of Christ. Finally, the emperor placed a bag of twenty silver coins around the necks of each before the men were led away and returned to their homes in imperial coaches.

Read further...

Downtown Basilica Ignores Rubrics: Holy Thursday Foot Washing

Up-update: Barb Krallis wrote to intemperately inform us that we didn't get her right. She's the one who corrected our error. No malice was meant in our incompetence.

Update: Just a small correction. We've been informed that the USCCB Mandatum is actually unacceptable and flies in the face of the rubrics from Rome.

Edit: It should come as no surprise that in the decadent post-Conciliar age, that quite a few parishes aren't concerned about the rubrics. During Holy Week, on Thursday, there is what is called, the Mandatum, or the washing of feet, which requires that men only are chosen.

Barb Kralis was kind enough to forward the USCCB's surprisingly good ruling on this question.

At least one Minneapolis parish, and likely many more, are going to violate the rubrics and carelessness with respect to the things that are God's. St. Mary's Basilica is one of two such buildings with this honor in the United States. It has a reputation for dissent and abusing the Sacraments. It's quite possible that blasphemy is committed there every Sunday.

Despite boasting a large number of parishioners, there is no evidence that the Sacrament of Penance is regularly available, but you can present yourself as an "Ecological Steward".

The Basilica, which often features many Liturgical abuses, including ad libbing by its priests and pastor, omitting the creed, omitting gestures and creating an atmosphere hostile to Christianity, is going to engage in that Liturgical abuse this year. They've provided us with proof that they've done this in the past.

Despite efforts to get a statement from the Pastor, he refuses to say if he supports the Archbishop's campaign in defense of marriage and continues to feature the "art" of Lucinda Naylor, who was fired from the Basilica religious education office for dissenting from the Archbishop's work as Bishop.

From Parish Website

No word on whether or not a Rabbi will discuss cabala and utter trivial comments which defame Catholic teachings this year as he did last year. He's an important part of the parish's universal contempt for the Church, Her ministers and teachings.

Holy Thursday Mandatum

My parish liturgy committee has decided to allow both men and women to take part in the washing of the feet at the liturgy on Holy Thursday. I have always heard that only men may have their feet washed. Which does the Church allow?The rubric for Holy Thursday, under the title THE WASHING OF FEET, reads:
"After the Homily, where a pastoral reason suggests it, the Washing of Feet follows. The men who have been chosen (viri selecti) are led by the ministers to seats prepared in a suitable place. Then the priest (removing his chasuble if necessary) goes to each one, and, with the help of the ministers, pours water over each one's feet and then dries them."
Regarding the phrase viri selecti, the Chairman of the then-Committee on the Liturgy, after a review of the matter by the committee, authorized the following response which appeared in the Newsletter of February 1987:

Link to USCCB site....