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FORUM
Readers' Forum -- the lively "Letters to the Editor" of the Adoremus Bulletin provides a forum for exchange of ideas, comment and information on the sacred liturgy -- but the letters column is not normally published online. (Sample letters below).
If you are reading the Adoremus Bulletin in the "online edition" only, you are missing one of the most popular and useful features of the journal. To become a member of Adoremus -- and receive the "hard-copy" edition, including the "Readers Forum", see Membership page.
We are grateful for your letters. While we read every letter, we get so many that it is impossible to answer or publish all of them. In selecting those to appear in "Readers Forum", preference will be given to subjects of widest interest. Letters should be 250 words or fewer, preferably typed. They may be e-mailed. Please include your name, address, city and state (which may be withheld on request). If a letter refers to a previous issue of AB, please include the date of that issue and name of article. All letters may be edited for publication. Be sure to indicate clearly if your letter is NOT intended for publication.
Readers' Forum for March 2003
Veiling Statues and Crosses during Lent -- Blessings during Communion -- Traditional Mass -- Group Confession -- Washing Feet on Holy Thursday -- Music Director Search -- ...On Our Knees -- Where's the IGMR? -- Society of Saint Pius X -- Memorial Acclamation -- Adoration -- The Nods and Knees -- Background music -- Dropping a Host? -- Anointing of the Sick -- Greeting of peace -- No Genuflecting? -- Responses -- Baptism invalid?
Veiling Statues and Crosses during LentLetter
I saw in the Adoremus Bulletin that the US Revised Adaptations to the Institutio Generalis took effect on April 25, 2002. Does that also mean that the bishops' approval of veiling crosses/images during Passiontide also took effect at that time?Father Ed Petty
St. Francis Xavier Basilica
Dyersville, IowaResponse
Yes it did, see below.Letter
We covered the statues here in my parish as well as the crucifix. Someone put in the collection basket anonymously the following from Father John Dietzen's "Question Corner": "Since the US Conference of Catholic Bishops never has voted to continue the rubric of covering images, the practice has not been permitted in this country for 32 years. Individual parishes have no authority to reintroduce the practice on their own".Father Len Villa
St. Eugene's Church, Yonkers, New YorkResponse
This column is an outdated response. The practice of veiling crosses and statues during the last two weeks of Lent was approved by the USCCB in November 2001, granted recognitio by the Holy See, and has been in effect since April 2002. It reads:"In the Dioceses of the United States of America, crosses in the church may be covered from the conclusion of the Mass for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent until the end of the celebration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday. Images in the church may be covered from the conclusion of the Mass for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent until the beginning of the Easter Vigil".
This was originally proposed as an adaptation to IGMR 318; however, as was noted at the time, this belongs in the rubrics for Holy Week in the Missal itself, and thus it does not appear in the IGMR.
Roman Missal - rubrics for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Dominica V in Quadragesima:
Usus cooperiendi cruces et imagines per ecclesiam ab had dominica servari potest, deiudicio Conferentiae Episcoporum. Cruces velatae remanent usque ad expletam celebrationem Passionis Domini, feria VI Hebdomandae sanctae, imagines vero usque ad initium Vigilae paschalis.[Adoremus translation: The practice of covering crosses and images in the Church from this Sunday's observance (Fifth Sunday of Lent) is permitted, according to the judgment of the episcopal conferences. Crosses remain veiled until the end of the celebration of the Lord's Passion on the sixth day of Holy Week (Good Friday); images remain veiled until the beginning of the Paschal Vigil.]
Letter
As we approach Lent, the question of washing the feet of women on Holy Thursday is being discussed.In 1988, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued instructions on this matter stating in part, "The washing of the feet of chosen men which according to tradition is performed on this day, Holy Thursday.... This tradition should be maintained".
Has the Holy See ever granted an indult to the NCCB?
W.F. Walsh
Chattanooga, TennesseeResponse
The Vatican did not grant such an indult. The official documentation for the celebration of Holy Thursday clearly says in Latin that "selected men" (viri selecti) have their feet washed. However, there is variation in the practice because of varying interpretations.In many dioceses the practice is extended to women with the consent of the bishop, despite the restriction to men in the universal norm.
In March 1997 we published an article on this topic, "Paths to Rome", which can be accessed on our web site at www.adoremus.org/97-03_pokorsky.htm.
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