Pope Francis will wash the feet of inmates at Paliano prison, south of Rome on Holy Thursday, continuing a tradition he began in 2013, the Vatican announced on Thursday.
Francis will travel to the jail in the Lazio town of Paliano on the afternoon of 13 April for a private visit and the celebration of Mass marking Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples on the day before his Crucifixion, Vatican Radio said.
Last year, Francis washed refugees' feet on Holy Thursday at a centre for asylum-seekers in Castel Novo di Porto, north of Rome. Muslims, Hindus and Coptic Orthodox men and women were among the people whose feet the pontiff washed.
In 2015, Francis visited to Rome’s Rebibbia prison for the Holy Thursday rite. In 2014 he celebrated the Last Supper Mass at Rome’s Don Gnocchi centre for the disabled. Again women were among those who had their feet washed in memory of Jesus’ gesture of humility and service, Vatican Radio said.
The pontiff began travelling to a prison for the traditional Last Supper Mass in March 2013, just a few days after the inauguration of his pontificate. On that occasion he travelled to Rome’s Casal del Marmo youth detention centre where he included, for the first time, women and Muslims among the inmates whose feet he washed, Vatican Radio said.
