During Thursday's intimate service, the Pope washed
and kissed the feet of 12 young detainees to replicate the Bible's account of
Jesus Christ's gesture of humility towards his 12 apostles on the night before
he was crucified.
The 12 inmates included two girls, one
Italian Catholic and one of Serbian Muslim origin, local prison ombudsman
Angiolo Marroni said ahead of the ceremony.
Some of the prisoners volunteered to have
their feet washed, while others were given an invitation to help them overcome
their embarrassment, the Catholic News Agency quoted the prison chaplain as saying.
In total, around 10 girls and 40 boys
from different nationalities and diverse religious confessions were taking part
in Thursday's Mass at Casal del Marmo on the outskirts of Rome.
The new leader of the world's 1.2
billion Roman Catholics has truly brought a new sense of simplicity to the
Vatican.
He has broken with tradition for the
foot-washing ceremony, which is normally performed on lay people in one of
Rome's basilicas.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the centre in
2007, but not for the Holy Thursday Mass. Only for the first two years of his
pontificate did he perform the feet-washing himself, after which the task was
delegated to priests.
Easter is the most important festival in
the calendar of the Catholic Church.
On Good Friday evening the Pope will
carry a wooden cross and pray at a ceremony at Rome's ancient amphitheatre, the
Colosseum, commemorating Jesus' crucifixion.
On Saturday evening Pope Francis will
celebrate the main Easter Vigil Mass in St Peter's Basilica.
And on Easter Sunday morning, the new
Pope will deliver his first "Urbi et Orbi" message to the city of
Rome and to the world.
During his inaugural general audience on
Wednesday, Pope Francis called for an immediate political solution to the
conflict in the Central African Republic after last weekend's coup.
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