Pope Francis looked well as he washed and kissed the feet of 12 women prisoners yesterday at a traditional ritual on the first of four event-filled days leading to Easter for the 87-year-old pontiff.
Francis travelled to Rome’s Rebibbia prison, in a run-down area on Rome’s outskirts, to preside at a Holy Thursday Mass for dozens of inmates, guards, chaplains and officials gathered in an outdoor area of the female section.
From his wheelchair, he washed and kissed the right foot of 12 women sitting on a riser in a ritual commemorating Jesus’ gesture of humility to his apostles at the Last Supper on the night before he was crucified. A number of the inmates were foreigners and some cried as he performed the ritual.
The female section of the prison, one of Italy’s largest, holds about 370 inmates who are jailed for various offences.
Francis is the first pope to hold the foot-washing ceremony outside churches, usually in prisons, homes for the elderly or hospices, continuing a practice he began when he was archbishop of
Buenos Aires. He is also the first pope to include women,
atheists, Muslims and other non-Christians in the service.
Prison director Nadia Fontana told the pope he had brought the institution “a ray of sunlight,” and inmates gave him items, including liturgical vestments, that they had made in prison workshops.
Francis also looked well and strong earlier yesterday at a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, where he read a long homily and improvised part of it.
On Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion, Francis is due to preside at a “Passion of the Lord” service in St Peter’s Basilica and then attend a traditional evening Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession at Rome’s Colosseum.
He will preside at an Easter Vigil service tomorrow, and on Sunday will read his twice-annual “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) message and blessing from the central balcony of St Peter’s to tens of thousands of people in the square below.
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