From time to time, people remark upon the fact that PF does not genuflct after he has elevated the Most Holy.
Hmmmm. Frankly, I would rather not add this to his Naughty list. I wonder how many of PF's critics have the same weight and weaknesses as he does. If, by genuflect, you mean going down so that the right knee touches or almost touches the ground, then I don't genuflect either. If I did, I doubt if I'd get up again. I get a grip upon the Altar and lower my lumbar region about six inches, genua literally flectens as I do so, then haul myself up again. I no longer accept invitations to deacon or to subdeacon. You guess why. And I'm a decade younger ...
Age is not invariably a matter of wine and roses.
People tell me, nudge nudge, that many long decades before he attained advanced old age, PF avoided adoring the Incarnate Word. Well, so he may have done. However, I'd still want some accurate medical data before I joined in facile condemnations.
But here's an interesting thing, which, to my knowlege, has not been remarked upon before. Occasionally, when I am planning to watch a pontifical liturgical ceremony on Vatican TV, I google and read through the libello giving the text, with rubrics, of the Liturgy concerned. When I have done so, I have been interested to see that, according to the libello, the Pontiff does genuflect.
Could it be that both PF and Good Marini do not wish officially to abolish the genuflection(s), and so these are left as still formally part of the rite but, as matter of fact, on each individual occasion, the gesture is, for compelling health reasons, omitted?
The only other possibility I can think of is that PF is a secret addict of the Sarum Rite, in which a inclination took the place of the genuflection.
According to Fortescue, from December 1576 until April 1577, Dr Lawrence Webe taught the English students at Douay how to celebrate the Pian rite, When they returned to England, the multiple genuflections of the newer rite must have been the main oddity which will have struck the Recusant gentry whom they so bravely served.
As an aging parishioner, I can't genuflect either else I couldn't get up So I was heartened by your mention that in the Sarum rite Inclinations were the norm. I have had to replace my genuflections with inclinations so when I do so at our Ordinariate Mass I will feel quite traditional
ReplyDeleteFar be it from me to add to PF's Naughty List, but he does manage to go into full kneeling position repeatedly as he washes the feet of Muslim women on Holy Thursday. Well, I guess in the NO that ceremony has long since lost its association with Holy Orders. Oh, dear, another rabbit hole.
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ReplyDeleteHere is the strange thing and although it is always good to try to make an excuse for someone, this pontiff can kneel to receive a "blessing" from a non-Catholic. He can also kneel to wash and kiss the feet of muslims and prisoners on Holy Thursday. Why would this be?
I concur with the comments here, he can bend down well enough to wash Muslim feet, prisoner's feet, women's feet, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt is a profound scandal and just plain bad example, to see the man in the Chair of Peter refuse to genuflect to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Add it to the list if you can find space.
When I have seen PF kneel, I recall that he either had assistance or a big crosier.
ReplyDeleteThe Dominican Rite used to have no genuflections, only profound bows. But that was around the medieval ages
ReplyDeleteNo problems kneeling here.
ReplyDeletehttps://aleteia.org/2019/04/11/pope-francis-stuns-rival-south-sudan-leaders-by-kissing-their-feet-in-plea-for-peace/
https://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.com/2019/04/pope-bergoglio-of-romes-miracle-of.html
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