I really liked the “upsetting traditionalists” the most.
I think a lot of Catholics were hoping, no praying for a
pope that may be different and do certain things differently because many
Catholics see some type of change from the usual as absolutely necessary.
Popes make laws and really don’t have to follow any laws
which are mostly past traditions and not really laws. As Benedict tried to move
the Church BACK into pre-Vatican II traditions, Francis seems to be charting HIS
OWN PATH FOR THE Church.
Washing feet has always been a Holy Thursday tradition,
following the story of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet as a sign of humility.
For this reason popes usually washed the feet of other priests (disciples) but
Francis decided to wash the feet of young people held in juvenile detention,
probably for some crime they committed. The difference was not only that he
washed the feet of non-priests but that he washed the feet of two FEMALES which
is a huge departure and then add that one of the females was actually a Muslim…my,
my?
To me, breaking the tradition signals to me that he wants
the tradition to carry a different meaning than it has in the past. Washing the
feet of priests in today’s Catholic environment, to me, is meaningless and even
improper as in do they deserve a pope to wash their stinkin’ feet (priestly
abuses)?
Washing the feet of people that have lost their way signals that the
pope wants priests to return to ministering to their flock and not abusing
their flock.
Francis seems to emulate St. Francis and his ministering to the
poor and downtrodden; a simpler goal than taking the Church backwards into the
Dark Ages as Benedict tried to do.
I said that Francis may be a “sleeper”; a cleric bidding his
time until he makes pope and then watch out.
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