Vatican City
Reuters
Pope Francis visited an Italian prison for a Holy Thursday Mass where he washed and kissed the feet of 12 inmates to commemorate Jesus’ gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.
Francis’ predecessors held the service in St Peter’s Basilica or another Rome cathedral. But after his election in 2013 the Pope continued a tradition he established as Archbishop of Buenos Aires of holding it in prisons or homes for the elderly.
Pope Francis washes the feet of inmates at the Civitavecchia prison in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 14th April. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters.
This year, Francis went to a prison in the port city of Civitavecchia, north-west of Rome on the Mediterranean coast.
A video released by the Vatican showed the pope washing and kissing the feet of 12 male and female inmates of various ages, including a woman who appeared to be elderly.
“We priests should be the first to serve others, not exploit others,” he told the prisoners in a brief, improvised homily during the Mass in the prison chapel. “It is a way of saying ‘I do not judge anyone. I try to serve everyone,'” he said.
He told them God would judge them but would also be ready to forgive them.
In the past two years, scaled-down versions of the service were held inside the Vatican because of COVID restrictions.
The prison visit, which was private and closed to the public, was the second of two services on Thursday, the start of three days of intense activities leading up to Easter.
Earlier, the Pope issued stern warnings for Catholic clergy during the Chrism Mass, when priests annually renew the vows of their ordination. Francis urged the clergy gathered in St Peter’s Basilica to cast away the self-serving idols that separate them from God and lead to worshipping the devil.
“Allowing the Lord to see those hidden idols strengthens us against them and takes away their power. The Lord’s gaze makes us see that, through them, we are really glorifying ourselves. For there, in those spaces we mark out as exclusively ours, the devil insinuates himself with his poison,” the Pope said during his homily.
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The Pope identified three “hidden idolatries” that can take hold of priests.
“One space of hidden idolatry opens up wherever there is spiritual worldliness,” Francis said, referring to a culture that focuses on appearances. “Our eyes must be fixed on Christ,” he continued, who modeled for priests how to embrace poverty and suffering.
Pragmatism is another type of idolatry, the Pope said, one that focuses on “statistics, numbers that can depersonalise every discussion and appeal to the majority as the definitive criterion for discernment”. People cannot be numbered, Francis said, adding that focusing on numbers doesn’t allow people to recognise the value of each individual.
Finally, the Pope pointed to the idol of functionalism, which focuses on efficiency.
“The priest with a functionalist mindset has his own nourishment, which is his ego,” he said. “In functionalism, we set aside the worship of the Father in the small and great matters of our life and take pleasure in the efficiency of our own programs.”
On Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the Pope presides at two services, including a candlelight “Via Crucis” (Way of the Cross) procession around Rome’s Colosseum.
This year, the Vatican’s decision to have both Ukrainians and Russians take part in the procession has caused friction with Ukrainian Catholic leaders, who want it to be reconsidered.
On Saturday evening the 85-year-old Pope is due to say an Easter Vigil Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
On Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he says Mass in St Peter’s Square and then delivers his twice-yearly Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) message and blessing.
– With CLAIRE GIANGRAVE/RNS
