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ROME — Pope Francis washed the toes of 12 ladies inmates at a Roman jail Thursday night, the primary time any pope included no males within the Holy Thursday ritual.
The Church’s follow of washing the toes of 12 individuals is meant as a commemoration of the second on the Final Supper when Jesus washed the toes of the 12 apostles earlier than commissioning them as clergymen to rejoice 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, lots of whom wept with emotion.
In his homily to the inmates and jail workers, 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 however 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 on the ladies’s part of Rebibbia jail in Rome on March 28, 2024 in Rome, Italy. (Vatican Media by way of Vatican Pool/Getty Photos)
Francis additionally commented on the betrayal of Judas who succumbed to “cash and selfishness, which led him to this ugly factor,” in reference to his handing Jesus over to the chief clergymen for the sum of 30 items of silver.
“However Jesus forgives all the pieces. Jesus all the time forgives. He solely asks that we express regret,” he added.
“All of us have our small failures, our huge failures; everybody has his personal story,” he mentioned. “However the Lord is all the time ready for us, with open arms, and by no means tires of forgiving.”
Pope Francis arrives on 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 Photos)
The feet-washing ceremony was instituted by Pope Saint Gregory the Nice within the sixth century however later fell out of use. It was revived by Pope John XXIII in 1959.
Pope Francis was the primary pope to incorporate ladies within 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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