Atlanta's new regime

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 08, 2005

Last year, Atlanta's Archbishop John Donoghue issued a directive to pastors, instructing them that during the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, they should wash the feet of men, not women, in accordance with clear Vatican liturgical guidelines.

Now Archbishop Donoghue has retired, and been replaced by Archbishop Wilton Gregory. And Uncle Dio hears that the pastors of Atlanta are being informed that it's OK to include women in the foot-washing ceremony this year.

No doubt Archbishop Gregory's stance will be more popular. But at what cost? The implicit message here is that the old archbishop was silly, and the Vatican norms are silly, so they can both be ignored. That's a curious position for someone in authority to take, because sooner or later some pastor will decide that Archbishop Gregory is being silly.

And in fact sometimes the Vatican is silly-- as, for instance, in the recent choice of a new Archbishop of Atlanta.