ROME — Pope Francis washed the toes of 12 ladies inmates at a Roman jail Thursday night, the first time any pope included no males in the Holy Thursday ritual.
The Church’s follow of washing the toes of 12 individuals is meant as a commemoration of the second at the Last Supper when Jesus washed the toes of the 12 apostles earlier than commissioning them as clergymen to have fun the Eucharist, in response to Catholic perception.
On Thursday the pontiff traveled to Rome’s Rebibbia ladies’s jail the place, seated in a wheelchair, he washed and kissed the toes of 12 feminine inmates, many of whom wept with emotion.
In his homily to the inmates and jail employees, the pope mentioned that in washing his apostles’ toes, Jesus humbled himself, making us perceive the depth of his phrases “The son of man has not come to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45).
Pope Francis presides over the ritual of the washing of the toes throughout the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the ladies’s part of Rebibbia jail in Rome on March 28, 2024 in Rome, Italy. (Vatican Media by way of Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
Francis additionally commented on the betrayal of Judas who succumbed to “money and selfishness, which led him to this ugly thing,” in reference to his handing Jesus over to the chief clergymen for the sum of 30 items of silver.
“But Jesus forgives everything. Jesus always forgives. He only asks that we ask for forgiveness,” he added.
“We all have our small failures, our big failures; everyone has his own story,” he mentioned. “But the Lord is always waiting for us, with open arms, and never tires of forgiving.”
Pope Francis arrives at the ladies’s part of Rebibbia jail in Rome for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on March 28, 2024 in Rome, Italy. (Vatican Media by way of Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
The feet-washing ceremony was instituted by Pope Saint Gregory the Great in the sixth century however later fell out of use. It was revived by Pope John XXIII in 1959.
Pope Francis was the first pope to incorporate ladies in the ritual, washing the toes of two younger ladies together with 10 males in a Rome youth jail on Holy Thursday in 2013.
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