74. But others remarked wisely that some, surely, of the ceremonial rites of the old Law could be observed under the new Law if only they were not done as obligations of the old Law, which was abrogated, but as a custom, or lawful tradition, or as a new precept issued by one enjoying the recognized and competent authority to make laws and to enforce them, as Vasquez observes (vol. 3, in the 3rd part of the Summa, disp. 210, quest. 80, art. 7). It was decided that there was no real ground for surprise that the observance of a period after childbirth should be simply a counsel for Latin women, but obligatory law for the Greeks. Moreover, since the Greeks perform the rite in a different way than the Jews of old in not making an offering to the priest in the Jewish way, and since they sanctify the rite with suitable prayers, beseeching God to forgive any sins the woman has committed, and since the patronage of the Virgin Mother of God is invoked for this very purpose, it was decided on January 8, 1747, by those whom We had placed in charge of the revision of the Euchologion, to make no changes in this section. We subsequently approved their decision.

For it is easy to arrive at a correct understanding of the words quoted from the Greek prayer, by saying that God is thereby asked both to cleanse the woman's soul from every sin and to free her body from all uncleanness, natural not legal, insofar as it indicates a spiritual uncleanness. For cleanliness of body also is part of the service and reverence due to the churches and holy things. Therefore in the early centuries the faithful used to enter the churches only after carefully washing themselves, as St. John Chrysostom says, and in private they always washed their hands before touching the volume of the Gospels.