For Faithful, Foot Washing Is No Empty Ritual

Kneeling before 12 of his parishioners on the evening of Holy Thursday, Father Alonso Caceres carried out a Roman Catholic tradition that dates back to the 3rd Century.

Using a basin filled with water, the priest washed the feet of a dozen men who stood solemnly around the altar. It was a re-enactment of the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his Disciples.

The ritual at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Santa Ana, part of the Holy Thursday Mass, was duplicated at churches throughout the world in memory of the day when Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and washed his followers’ feet to symbolize that Christians must lead a life of service to others.

On Holy Thursday, also called Maundy Thursday, Latinos packed the pews of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church for the 7 p.m. Mass in Spanish.

Young couples carrying infants, elderly women wearing white lace veils and teen-agers dressed in the latest fashions all flocked to the church. The slow strumming of a guitar and organ accompanied the choir and music filled the church as the priest and his white-robed altar boys entered.

As people continued to arrive, vainly searching for a seat, the Mass began with a reading from the Bible describing how Jesus washed his Disciples’ feet.

Then with the crying and chattering of small children almost drowning out his sermon, Caceres told his congregation about the significance of the day.

“You will see the repetition of the washing of the feet, but it is not just a theatrical production,” he said. “Its meaning is the meaning central to Christianity. We must wash each other and put ourselves at the service of each other.”

He finished his short homily and invited the 12 men chosen to have their feet washed to stand in a semicircle about the altar. Then with the help of two eucharistic ministers--lay people who help distribute Communion--the bearded priest poured water over each of the men’s feet and wiped them with a towel.

In Pennsylvania this week, the ancient ritual provoked a controversy over the role of women.

Bishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua told priests throughout the Diocese of Pittsburgh that women could no longer participate in the traditional foot-washing ceremony.

“Christ washed the feet of his apostles, who are men,” the bishop explained in a Feb. 25 memo.

Sister Kathleen O’Malley, 34, one of about 30 demonstrators who gathered outside Pittsburgh’s St. Paul’s Cathedral before Thursday’s 10 a.m. Mass, described the bishop’s order as a “slap in the face.”

“I think it’s narrow-minded and legalistic and it excludes recognition of the services of the women in the church,” Sister O’Malley said.

“If our role is to be in the kitchen, we want to preside at the eucharistic meal, too,” said demonstrator Pat Morgan, 36. “If Jesus did anything, he was constantly challenging the institution and saying that all creation is good, including women.”

The protesters, most of them women, took turns washing each others’ hands and feet in plastic bowls, then linked arms and sang hymns.

Bevilacqua, faced with mounting criticism, apologized earlier this month for the fuss and told priests in his diocese that they could find alternatives to the foot-washing ritual that would not exclude women.

He also met Monday with the protest organizers and scheduled another session to discuss the role of women in the church. But the bishop, who has authority to interpret such issues within his diocese, declined to reverse his decision.

Other Catholic bishops in the United States allow women to participate in the ceremony, which the Vatican has said is an option for celebrating Holy Thursday.

Father Art Holquin, director of the liturgy for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, said those chosen to have their feet washed usually are involved in church organizations and as such could easily be women. He said it was probable that some of the county’s 54 parishes included women in the ceremony.

Holquin called the Pittsburgh bishop’s order a very strict interpretation of the church’s rules on the Mass. He said: “In the strictest sense the legislation says it should be men only, but I believe that it is open to interpretation. I see no problem with including women.”

Lupe Banda, a eucharistic minister at Immaculate Heart Church, said the issue of women’s involvement in the ritual has not come up.

“It is just tradition to have only men,” she said. “But that is an interesting question. Come back next year, maybe it will be different.”

Anglican churches also frequently re-enact the foot-washing ceremony, said the Rev. Brad Karelius, rector at Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana. Episcopalians allow women to be ordained priests, and Karelius said the church has involved women in the ceremony for many years.

Times wire services contributed to this story.