Is Pope Francis Rewriting Easter?

[DonViejo]

by Barbie Latza Nadeau Mar 31, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

From washing women's feet to eschewing the gilded throne, Pope Francis is shaking up Easter traditions and Vatican protocol. Barbie Latza Nadeau on why not everyone's a fan.

Easter in Rome is always a Catholic feel-good moment, but the Church’s most important religious holiday has been given as big a boost with Pope Francis. And before he gets down to the tough work of Vatican reform, he will enjoy at least a few more days in the warm glow.

When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI planned the timing of his resignation, he no doubt knew the importance of having a new pope in place by Easter. No matter who is at the helm of the Holy See, the two weeks around Easter always bring hundreds of thousands of extra visitors to Rome. But the Pope Francis frenzy is drawing thousands more than usual this year. Past popes have all celebrated the main events of Holy Week in a fairly traditional manner, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday mass in St. Peter’s square. But Francis has decided to shake things up slightly.

On Maundy Thursday, a Catholic celebration in which the sitting pontiff traditionally washes and kisses the feet of twelve ordinary men at a ceremony meant to represent Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, Francis took a notably different route. Instead of performing the ceremony in Rome’s majestic gilded San Giovanni Cathedral, he went to the Casel del Marmo juvenile delinquent center in Rome’s shabby suburbs where he washed the feet of twelve inmates, including Muslims and women. Church traditionalists cried foul, condemning the new pope for washing and kissing women’s feet. Edward Peters, a noted Catholic blogger on canon law, questioned Francis’s blatant disregard for the rules. “If liturgical law permitted the washing of women’s feet at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, no one would have noticed the pope’s doing it,” Peters blogged after the ceremony. “What is not good is to leave a crystal clear law on the books but show no intention of expecting anyone to follow it. That damages the effectiveness of law across the board.”

On Friday, Francis led the traditional Way of the Cross service in front of the ancient Roman coliseum before a candle-holding crowd of thousands who came to get a glimpse of the popular pope. Many had never been to the Good Friday service before, but were drawn by the new pope’s charm. “I have lived in Rome my whole life and never felt compelled to come here on Good Friday,” said 63-year-old Assunta Betrami. “There is something so believable about him that I wanted to see myself.”

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