Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley apologized yesterday for upsetting women with his decision not to wash the feet of women on Holy Thursday and for his inclusion of feminism in a list of societal ills in a homily.
The apology -- published in today's edition of The Pilot, the archdiocesan newspaper -- marked the first time in his nine months in office that O'Malley, who generally chooses his words with care and precision, has been forced to clarify his remarks. O'Malley acknowledged that he is being subjected to a level of scrutiny to which he is unaccustomed, writing that "being archbishop of Boston is like living in a fishbowl made out of magnifying glass" and that he is concerned that "some people seem determined to make our liturgical services a political battleground."
But O'Malley also went to some lengths to explain his meaning and justify his foot-washing practice, praising "Christian feminists" and professing his support not only for women in diocesan leadership but also for liturgical roles for women in worship.
He also pledged to seek guidance on whether he should wash women's feet; he said that in August, when he is scheduled to give an in-person status report on the archdiocese to the pope, he will ask the Vatican for clarification.
"I am sorry if this controversy has been upsetting to our Catholic women, and I hope that these reflections will help you to understand that I more than value the gifts and contributions that women make to our church and to my own faith life," he wrote in The Pilot.
O'Malley wrote that "promoting the rights and welfare of women" has been a major part of his career as a priest and bishop. He said he had once cochaired with Gloria Steinem a government committee on the wages of domestic workers, worked with women as diocesan chancellors in the Virgin Islands and in Palm Beach, Fla., and had welcomed women as lectors, eucharistic ministers, and altar girls.
O'Malley pointed out that Pope John Paul II has spoken positively about Christian feminism and said, "Thank God we have many noble examples of Christian feminists in our church." He cited as examples two 20th-century Catholic women he said have influenced him: Dorothy Day, a radical American Catholic lay leader, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an Albanian nun who ministered to the poor, particularly in India. Both women are being considered by the Vatican for canonization as saints.
"Feminism is a very elastic term, and I did not try to define it or categorize it," O'Malley wrote. "Other influences I mentioned were obviously negative, and so my comment was construed as an attack on feminism."
Several archdiocesan priests have said that women in their parishes were offended by the feminism remark and the foot-washing ceremony, and some priests relayed the concerns to O'Malley at a recent meeting of the Presbyteral Council.
In his column, O'Malley did not explain why he listed feminism alongside "the drug culture," but he did give an endorsement to women's rights, saying "there is feminism which is a Christian imperative and invokes the promoting of rights and prerogatives of women, such as equal pay for equal work."
The controversy over O'Malley's views on women began April 6, during Holy Week, when in a homily at the Chrism Mass, the archbishop said of the Baby Boom generation, "they are heirs to Woodstock, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, feminism, the breakdown of authority, and divorce." The sentence came in the midst of O'Malley's discussion of the challenges of ministering to baby boomers, of whom he said, "Typically, they are religious illiterates, but they are interested."
Then, two days later, on Holy Thursday, O'Malley washed the feet of 12 men, including three residents of a nearby homeless shelter. The all-male foot-washing was a change for the archdiocese. O'Malley's predecessor, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, had washed the feet of men and women on Holy Thursdays past, and many local priests still wash the feet of men and women.
The change was not announced by the archdiocese. Asked afterward about the practice, O'Malley's spokesman said the archbishop washed the feet of 12 men because Jesus's apostles were 12 men. The spokesman said that the decision was personal and that the archdiocese was not asking local priests to change their practice.
O'Malley defended his decision not to wash the feet of women by saying he was following a Vatican rubric, or liturgical instruction. He said he has chosen to wash the feet of men for 34 years. The practice puts him at odds with many American priests, but that is not unique.
The feminism comment and the foot-washing ceremony drew sharp criticism from some Catholic women and was a subject of much discussion at a Boston College conference on women and Catholicism April 16 and 17.
"I've heard from a number of our alumnae who were distressed at the archbishop's reference to feminism, and his decision to exclude women from having their feet washed," said Mary Jane England, president of Regis College, a Catholic women's college in Weston.
But England said that she viewed the controversy as a distraction and that she was glad to see O'Malley's column. O'Malley is visiting Regis, the only women's Catholic college in the archdiocese, on May 15, and England said she expects he will talk with students, as well as deliver a homily.
"The Catholic community has some very serious problems to work on, and we can't be distracted by ideologies or rubrics," she said. "I was glad the archbishop clarified his view of feminism. It can happen sometimes that you place words too close to one another, and they all sound like one thing, and I gather he had not intended for that to occur. I don't think we should be distracted by this, because we have to keep our eye on the ball, focusing on keeping sure that no child is ever abused again and working with the poor and with new immigrants."
O'Malley's column was also welcomed by the region's leading scholar on gender and Catholicism, Boston College theologian Lisa Sowle Cahill.
"This is a welcome clarification of the meaning of feminism, and a welcome defense of women's rights in society," Cahill said. "There was a lot of negative feedback about his comments."
O'Malley's comment "that some people seem determined to make our liturgical services a political background" referred not only to the debate over foot-washing, according to O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, but also to the debate over O'Malley's refusal to deny the Eucharist to Senator John F. Kerry, an abortion rights-supporting Catholic who is running for president.