The Rev. William Hart McNichols is both a Catholic priest and one of the world’s most renowned iconographers.
He has “written” icons and created images on a wide variety of Biblical figures, saints and holy men and women, from Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary to people like Daniel Berrigan, S.J., Servant of God Dorothy Day and Matthew Shepard. His icons, paintings and images hang in Catholic churches, as well as colleges and universities, around the world.
Father Bill, as he is known to his friends, was one of three keynote speakers at this year’s Outreach conference at Georgetown University, during which he shared his journey as a Catholic priest and artist.
In preparation for the Outreach conference, we asked Father Bill if he would consider creating a new image for us.
Among his many ministries, he was one of the first Catholic priests to work with people with H.I.V./AIDS in New York City during the 1980s. (That story is told in Hidden Mercy, by Outreach executive director, Michael O’Loughlin.) A new book, called All My Eyes See: The Artistic Vocation of William Hart McNichols, which details his life and work, has just been published by Orbis Books.
In preparation for the Outreach conference, we asked Father Bill if he would consider creating a new image for us. The original painting, which now hangs in the America Media headquarters in New York, was on display for the entirety of the conference.
“The Foot Washing” depicts Pope Francis prayerfully kissing the feet of Jesus Christ, who appears after the Resurrection bearing his wounds, surrounded by two same-sex couples embracing. The Risen Christ is dressed simply, in a sweatshirt and jeans.
During his pontificate, Francis has made a point on each Holy Thursday to wash the feet of a wide variety of people: women (a liturgical action still resisted in many dioceses), as well as migrants and refugees, prisoners and Muslims. After the Holy Father washes each person’s feet, he kisses them. These gestures have been widely seen as part of Pope Francis’s own outreach to those who feel on the margins of both society and the church.
And, of course, Francis’s outreach to the LGBTQ community is well known. Most recently, he sent greetings to the Outreach 2024 conference, promising that he was “united in prayer” with participants.
“The Foot Washing” depicts Pope Francis prayerfully kissing the feet of Jesus Christ.
We are delighted to share this beautiful new image, along with Father Bill’s reflections below. More information about “The Foot Washing” can be found here.
James Martin, S.J.
If you asked me to create an image that symbolically defined Pope Francis’s papacy, I’d immediately answer with foot washing. When James Martin, S.J., asked me to create an image for LGBTQ people and the Outreach conference, I thought first of Jesus washing their feet. Then another idea emerged, of Jesus sitting with them, and Pope Francis washing the feet of Jesus and his outcast followers.
In his scholarly and prayerful commentary on the Gospel of Luke, the late theologian G.B. Caird calls it the Gospel of the outcast. He says something like: The only requirement to get into the kingdom of God is an emptiness only God can fill. That applies to us all.
This painting is set in the cosmos, because the acceptance of LGBTQ people remains still in the present and into the future—something to come. I got this idea during a penance service at our church here in Albuquerque.
This painting is set in the cosmos, because the acceptance of LGBTQ people remains still in the present and into the future—something to come.
Images of words about how and what to confess were going up on a giant screen, and then this glorious image of the cosmos came up. I knew then how to set the scene for this painting.
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes to take the water of life as a gift.
The Apocalypse 22:17
Thanks especially to Mr. Robert Lively, KMOb and family for sponsoring this painting, and to All,
I say again, and again…
The Spirit and the Bride: the church, say “Come.”
Fr William Hart McNichols 
Sorry not to have paid closer attention to this painting during the session. The gesture of the Pope washing Jesus’ feet would seem to point not so much to the Last Supper (why would the Pope acting in the role of Christ, wash Christ’s feet?) but to the actions of Mary of Bethany or the woman in Luke ch. 7. An interestingly “fluid” gesture where Francis, representing the Church, repeats the two gospel women’s act of love and repentance on behalf of gay couples who in that past have been marginalized and who are now seen to receive Christ’s blessing.
Love this image
Thank you