New Delhi: The Pope is considered the head of all Catholics spread over 23 ritual Churches in the world. However, not all seem to follow his revolutionary examples to make Christ’s message of love and service more meaningful in the modern world.
One example that Catholic churches in India have difficulty in following is the change in the washing of feet ritual on Holy Thursday. Pope Francis departed from the tradition of washing the feet of only men from the first Holy Thursday service he conducted as the pontiff. He has been washing the feet of both men and women and people from other religions since he became the 266th successor of Saint Peter on March 13, 2013.
Washing of the feet is the most important ritual on Holy Thursday also known Maundy Thursday.
The change, Pope Francis had said, was “an attempt to improve the method of implementation, to express the full meaning of the gesture performed by Jesus at the Last Supper.”
After three years, the Latin rite churches in India took the cue from the Pope and included women and people from other religions in the Holy Thursday ceremonies on March 24. However, the Eastern rite churches continued the tradition of washing only men’s feet.
Both the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches stuck to their age-old tradition.
So much so, a Syro-Malabar parish priest in New Delhi had to go back on his promise. On Palm Sunday on March 20, Carmelite Father Prince Joseph of Mary Math Church told his congregation that the change was in keeping with the new understanding of the washing of the feet. However, on the actual he replaced an elderly woman selected for the ritual with another man. However, the priest included a Hindu for the ritual.
“We have to follow the synod’s decision,” the priest told Matters India.
The parish comes under the diocese of Faridabad and it head Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara conducted the washing of feet ritual in a federal prison in the Indian capital on March 22. He had included two Hindu prisoners for the ritual but no women.
A January 28 letter from the Pontifical Congregation for Eastern Churches to Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, clarified that the changes in the Holy Thursday rituals are applicable only to Latin parishes.
The decree and the Pope’s letter that prompted the changes “mention specifically and only ‘the roman rite’ and ‘the Roman Missal,’” adds the letter signed by the congregation’s secretary Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil and under secretary Dominican Father Lorenzo Lorusso.
Meanwhile, bishops of two Latin diocese churches in Kerala washed the feet of women as part of a Holy Thursday ritual.
“The decision to extend the ritual to women and girls was taken after the church discussed it at various levels,” a church spokesperson told media persons.
Archbishop M. Soosaipakiam of Trivandrum washed the feet of six women, including two physically challenged women, besides six men on Thursday evening at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram.
The Syro Malabar Church also decided to look into the matter next year.
Leading the service in Kochi, Mar George Cardinal Alencherry, the head of the Syro Malabar Church, however, washed the feet of 12 men only.
“Today (Thursday) this did not happen in our churches,” said Fr Paul Thelakat, a senior priest of the Syro Malabar Church.
The Syro Malankara Catholic Church also decided to keep the change in ritual in abeyance, pending discussions at all levels.
Before becoming Pope, Francis, as a bishop, used to wash the feet of not only women but also non-Christians in the rituals in his home country Argentina, Fr Thelakat said.
“Now the Pope has made a change in the ritual. But as far as oriental Catholics (Syro Malabar Church and the Syro Malankara Catholic Church) are concerned, ritual changes are made not by the Pope, but by the synod of bishops of the particular church. I hope these two churches will look into it,” added the priest, who edits the English language Sathyadeepam weekly.
‘Synod’ refers to the governing body of a particular church.
Non-Catholic churches in Kerala continue to hold the ritual, limited to only men and boys.