He's changing a practice that has been ongoing for over 20 years, and that is still ongoing in most dioceses around the country. All of a sudden, Donoghue decides to enforce something he hasn't enforced
If he wants to act unilaterally, and without explanation, he should not be surprised at this reaction.
If he wants to kill the washing of the feet ceremony in Atlanta, he couldn't do a better job of it if he issued another of his directives.
I would invite you to go to the Philadelphia Inquirer to read about the practice in Philadelphia.
Seems that Cardinal Bevilacqua got skewered in Pittsburgh when he tried to do what Donoghue has done. So, when he went to Philly, he insisted on 12 men at the Cathedral, but allowed the parishes to do as they wished. Rigali is continuing the practice.
Donoghue may win this battle, but there will be practices instituted such as putting 12 seats in the sanctuary, with six men and six empty chairs to represent the women who are not allowed.
If I wanted to take a stand against my priests, I'm not sure I'd do it over the washing of the feet.
If he wants to act unilaterally, and without explanation, he should not be surprised at this reaction.
The diocesan bishop has a right to be obeyed in his directives. Priests and deacons act only by his authority and he should be obeyed in all things except sin. St. Ignatius writes to the Ephesians:
So then it becometh you to run in harmony with the mind of the bishop; which thing also ye do. For your honourable presbytery, which is worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop, even as its strings to a lyre. Therefore in your concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is sung. (4:1)
You speak as if the bishop ought to expect disobedience, but that is the exact opposite of the proper situation. The solution here would seem to be teaching priests to follow the bishop's directives, not changing the governmental style of the bishop.
He's changing a practice that has been ongoing for over 20 years, and that is still ongoing in most dioceses around the country. All of a sudden, Donoghue decides to enforce something he hasn't enforced....
20 years is the blink of an eye "Deacon". Obedience is a core Christian virtue, no?
If he wants to act unilaterally, and without explanation, he should not be surprised at this reaction.
Sort of like what the varios liberal heterodox hierarchs have been doing for four decades? Ripping out the kneelers, for example?
If he wants to kill the washing of the feet ceremony in Atlanta, he couldn't do a better job of it if he issued another of his directives.
Or like what conservative, orthodox Catholics have been saying about the heterodox hierarchs and their homosexual antics for years, no? How many seminarians have been runoff by the feminazi types in places like Los Angeles?
The reality is this, women have no place in this liturgy, the Bishop is showing he knows that and the heterodox are squealing like pigs.
Prior license to disobey does not constitute grounds for continuing disobedience.