Pope washes feet of two girls, two Muslims at youth prison

Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, reported that Francis knelt in front of the 12 youths and kissed their feet after having washed and dried them.

[THE WASHINGTON POST]

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Thursday (March 28) washed the feet of 12 young inmates, including two girls and two Muslims, during a Maundy Thursday Mass at a youth detention center in Rome.

The Argentine pontiff, who has shown an eagerness to break with tradition in the two weeks since his election to the papacy on March 13, chose to celebrate the rite in the Casal del Marmo prison in northwest Rome, rather than in the traditional venue of the St. John Lateran Basilica.

Francis has repeatedly stated his desire to bring the papacy and the church closer to the poor and the marginalized.

The inclusion of two women in the rite — which commemorates Jesus’ washing of the feet of the apostles on the night before his death — is also a first for a pope, but Francis had already done so as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Read more about Pope Francis continues to break tradition at The Washington Post.