For the first time since 2019, Francis celebrated Holy Thursday with a traditional foot wash in a prison in Italy

Pope Francis returned to a prison on Thursday to celebrate the “In Coena Domini” Mass on Holy Thursday, which commemorates the Last Supper, and knelt before them to wash their feet, encouraging them to help each other, after two years in which the pandemic had suspended this tradition.

Unlike in the past few years, the Vatican has chosen to maintain this mass under a great reserve and did not even announce the Pope's passage through this prison, the sixth one he has visited for Holy Thursday in the last decade, since 2013.

Francis, as confirmed by the Holy See in a brief statement at the end of the event, celebrated Mass this afternoon in Civitavecchia prison, on the Roman coast, with some prisoners whom he then washed their feet, as Jesus did with his disciples.

The only three images released by the Vatican show the Pope kneeling before the detainees despite his knee pain and men and women of various ages and nationalities, wearing masks.

During the Mass, the pontiff explained in an impromptu homily that, with this gesture, Jesus taught the value of helping each other: “You must wash each other's feet, one serves the other, without interest,” he exhorted.

“God forgives everything and always! We are the ones who get tired of asking for forgiveness. Each of us has something in our hearts for a long time. Let us ask Jesus for forgiveness,” he exclaimed.

Francis has made it a tradition to officiate the Mass “In Coena Domini” on Holy Thursday with the most disadvantaged, such as the sick, immigrants and especially prisoners.

The pandemic forced this tradition to be suspended in 2020 and 2021, but last year he decided to celebrate mass with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, whom he himself deprived of his cardinal rights for financial irregularities for which he remains accused.

Against worldliness

On the other hand, in the morning, the Pope began the rites of Holy Week with the Chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica before thousands of people, after the coronavirus reduced the capacity to a minimum in the last two years.

This liturgy commemorates the institution of the sacrament of the priestly order by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper and is dedicated to the renewal of priests of their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. That is why the pope addressed his clergy.

Specifically, he warned of three forms of “hidden idolatry” that Church pastors may incur: spiritual worldliness or the “culture of the ephemeral”, the “primacy of the pragmatism of numbers” and statistics or “functionalism”.

“A worldly priest is nothing other than a clericalized pagan,” he snapped.

Pope Francis thus began the rites for the Paschal Triduum, the three days that will lead to Easter next Sunday, the tenth of his pontificate.

On Good Friday, when Catholics commemorate the Calvary and Death of Jesus of Nazareth, Francis will preside over the celebration of the Passion in St. Peter's Basilica, when he traditionally meditates completely lying down at the tomb of the apostle.

This is the only day in the liturgical calendar where mass is not celebrated, and that is why the pontiff and his clergy will simply listen and reflect on the homily of the Vatican preacher, Cardinal and Capuchin friar Raniero Cantalamessa.

Ukraine on the Way of the Cross

In the evening, the Pope will preside over the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum, a symbol of the persecution of the first Christians, a rite also suspended due to the pandemic and which this year will take place with the war in Ukraine as a worrying backdrop.

Francis has intervened on several occasions because of this conflict and is even thinking of taking a trip to Kiev and, in order to send a message of reconciliation, it has been proposed that the cross, in one part of its journey, be carried by a Ukrainian and a Russian family.

However, the initiative has met with the reluctance of the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, who does not welcome celebrating anything with the Russians given the invasion that his country has suffered for almost two months.

In any case, it will be time to think about the martyrdom of the world. That is why Francis sent his almonero, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, to Ukraine, who plans to celebrate another Way of the Cross in Kiev.

On Holy Saturday, the pope will preside over the Easter Vigil, in which the resurrection of Christ is expected, baptizing and confirming some adults, and the next day will reach Easter, when he will impart the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing, to Rome and the world.

An act that the Pope, looking out at the central lodge of the Vatican Basilica, takes advantage of to review the main conflicts and tensions on the planet.

(With information from EFE)

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