The Vatican announced today that “Spy Wednesday,” a term informally used to describe the Wednesday of Holy Week in popular piety, will be officially added to the liturgical calendar next year in honor of the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy.
Unlike the traditional emphasis placed on Judas as a traitor, the new celebration will reflect on Judas as a tragic figure. “For too long we’ve looked at Judas as unredeemable” said Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, “It’s time we began to consider his role more sympathetically. After all, without him the redemption would not have unfolded as it did. That is why the Holy Father has asked for this liturgical commemoration.”
The announcement was greeted with jubilation among those who work with individuals and groups who suffer the stigma of being outsiders. “People don’t realize how painful it is to be totally judged by one wrong action,” said Kevin Ryan, President and CEO of Covenant House, an organization that helps runaway youth. “We try to give kids a fresh start, but once they’ve got a criminal record, it follows them for life.” “Judas is the classic scapegoat,” observed theologian James Alison, author of the 1998 book The Joy of Being Wrong, “yet the whole message of Jesus and the meaning of his Crucifixion inverts all our ideas about scapegoating.”
Also swept up in the enthusiasm surrounding this initiative were the scholars who assembled the fragments of the Gospel According to Judas in 2005. National Geographic quickly announced that it is planning a special televised update on the archeological evidence showing that, far from being a culpable character, Judas was a well-intentioned dupe in a more complicated plot. Professor Elaine Pagels of Princeton University supports the Vatican’s plan, saying “Anything that leads people to read the Gnostic Gospels seems to me a good idea.”
Others remained unconvinced. George Weigel, former president of the Ethics and Public Policy Institute said, “I am concerned about the ripple effect of this decision. In a time when political Islam is a rising threat to democracy, public rehabilitation of Judas sends the wrong signal.” Cardinal Raymond Burke, in an interview with Radio Maria, explained “Judas never repented. That is an established fact. The Church has always believed in mercy, but it would be meaningless to extend mercy to someone who hasn’t repented.” Fr. Janusz Wębinśki of the St. Faustina Center in Warsaw also dismissed the initiative, saying, “Why do they need a special day for Judas? Divine Mercy Sunday should be good enough for them.”
The details have yet to be worked out, according to staffers at the Congregation, but already some tension can be felt as reactions came pouring in from around the world. “I don’t know about this word ‘spy,’” said Sr. Susan Wood, President of the Catholic Theological Association, “We are striving for transparency in the dealings of Church officials with theologians, and now here comes this apparent approval of spying; it seems dubious.” The President of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Msgr. Rick Hillgartner, asked, “Does this mean we’ll need to start another revision of the Missal? We’ll do it, of course, our members are ready. But after the process we went through with MR3, I think we’ve learned that these things don’t happen overnight.” Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, executive secretary of ICEL, however, was optimistic. “We’ve seen many changes in the history of the liturgy; we shall certainly be able to handle another. Happily, no retroactive changes to the 1962 Missal are being contemplated.”
The most controversial aspect of the proposal, so far as plans are known, is that incorporating this observance will mean changing the Easter Triduum to the Easter Quadrivium. Will adding a day to the Easter Triduum cause rebellion in the pews? If the Catholic faithful are asked to come to church four days in a row, rather than three, it could prove to be a test of Pope Francis’s popularity.
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