Pope Francis is generally thought to be not very interested in the fine points of liturgy, so it came as something of a surprise when during his visit to America he announced, and demonstrated for the American bishops, a new rite of stripping the altar on Holy Thursday.
Liturgical progressives hailed the innovation because… well… progressives like innovation. Fr. Anchovy Roughy of Our Lady of Bauhaus Abbey stated, “First washing the feet of Muslim women and now this? We’re going to have the best Holy Thursday ever this year!” Traditionalist liturgists were not so sure. When asked about the reform, Dom Cash Folsom-Prison of the Oratory of Our Lady of the Bearded Fiddleback squirmed uncomfortably and noted, “While we appreciate the effort to recover the prominence of the stripping of the altar, which was lost in the abomination of desolation that were the reforms of Vatican II, and while we reaffirm our affection for and obedience to the See of Peter, we find ourselves asking, ‘what the @#$%& was he thinking?’”
Asked about the forthcoming revision, Pope Francis said, “Meh. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
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