A defective understanding of liturgical documents?

John Allen of National Catholic Reporter writes in his article today about the foot washing rite of the Holy Thursday Mass. His article is here.

I sent off this email to him. I don't expect a response.

You state in your article http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word041604.htm:

In fact, there is no “instruction” from Rome, in the sense of a document that provides a clear “yes” or “no” as to whether women may take part. What we have instead is the text in the Roman Missal, the official book of rituals and prayers for the Mass. On the washing of feet, it says: “The men who have been chosen are led by the ministers to chairs prepared in a suitable place. Then the priest ... goes to each man. With the help of ministers, he pours water over each one's feet and dries them.”

Unfortunately, you fail to realize that the Holy See does provide a clear "yes" or "no" answer in the 1988 document "Paschales Solemnitatis". The Holy See, in effect, repudiated the position taken by Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy in 1987, by affirming that 'males' are chosen for the rite. This is key, for the document speaks about the 'faithful' or the 'people' some thirty times and this instance (Article 51) is the only place where the deliberate wording refers to 'males/men'

Secondly, merely serving up examples of disobedience to justify the mistaken case that washing women's feet is permissable does not make it so. It is a shame that the bishops, in general, are too weak to enforce liturgical law as promulgated by the Holy See.

You also stated:

Unless and until there is a specific ruling from the Holy See, one can expect individual bishops and pastors to make their own calls. A Vatican source told NCR April 14 that given the clear meaning of the Latin text, if there were to be an official response, it would almost certainly support limiting participation to males.

Even if Rome issued another specific ruling for those too blind to see, surely we are not so naive that we would believe for a minute that all U.S. bishops and priests would follow the directive? Far too many refuse to follow and obey liturgical law now, to speak nothing of moral and doctrinal truths which are summarily rejected.

In Christ,
Signed