Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young people detained in Rome this Thursday as a gesture “to help each other”, as he stated when celebrating Holy Thursday mass in the Casal del Marmo prison, and after having asked the members this morning of the clergy not to “dirty” the Church with the “polarizations” during the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“The day before he was crucified, Jesus made this gesture of washing his feet, which was customary at that time because the streets were dusty and people came from outside and washed their feet before eating. But it was something that slaves did,” the pope said during his impromptu homily before some 70 people present in the prison.
The Pope, already recovered from bronchitis for which he was hospitalized for three days last week at the Gemelli hospital in the Italian capital, celebrated the so-called Mass in Coena Domini (of the Lord’s Supper) in a restricted way among the inmates of the Institute of the periphery of Rome, the same one that he had already visited for Holy Thursday in 2013, fifteen days after being elected, reported the Vatican’s office for liturgical celebrations.
“Let’s imagine how surprised the disciples were when Jesus made this gesture. If we remembered these gestures of Jesus, life would be more beautiful because we would try to help each other ”, he later added.
The Casal del Marmo Juvenile Penal Institute, one of the few juvenile institutions in Italy that has an internal female section, has been operating since 1971 and comprises a complex of low-rise buildings, surrounded by more than one hectare of parks, which house around 30 young people.
“This gesture is not a folkloric thing, it is a gesture that announces how we should be with others. We see in society how many people take advantage of others, how much injustice, how many people without work or who are paid half or who do not have money to buy medicines”, lamented Francisco.
“I do this as a reminder of what Jesus did: help each other,” he later told the 10 men and two women whose feet he washed in the same youth center where he had celebrated Holy Thursday in 2013.
As stated in the previous chaplain Nicolò Ceccolini, in the structure there are about fifty women and men between the ages of 14 and 25, Italians, Arabs, Africans, Roma, atheists or Catholics, Orthodox, and even fifteen Muslims who currently live the Ramadan.
The choice of people deprived of their liberty, refugees and the sick for foot washing is a tradition that Jorge Mario Bergoglio always maintained as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
In 2022, for example, Francis celebrated Holy Thursday at the New Civitavecchia Penitentiary Complex, where he spent nearly three hours greeting the authorities, hugging the inmates who greeted him with choruses and shouts, celebrating Mass in the chapel, and washing feet to the detainees, of different ages and nationalities, all of them moved.
The Chrism mass in St. Peter’s Basilica
Before the washing of feet, Francis celebrated the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica during which he asked priests and clergy from around the world not to “dirty” the Church “with disunity and polarizations” and encouraged them to create “harmony”.
“Brothers, creating harmony among us is not only an appropriate method for ecclesial coordination to work better, it is not a matter of strategy or courtesy, but an internal requirement of life in the Spirit,” the pontiff stated during his homily. this Thursday.
“One sins against the Spirit, which is communion, when we become, even if it is lightness, instruments of division; and we play the game of the enemy, who does not come to light and loves rumors and insinuations, who encourages parties and roped parties, feeds nostalgia for the past, mistrust, pessimism, fear”, the Pope later deepened. .
“Let us be careful, please, not to soil the anointing of the Spirit and the mantle of Mother Church with disunity, with polarizations, with any lack of charity and communion,” the Pope encouraged the priests, who he warned also because of the “careerism” within the institution.
The Pope’s words come in a context of tensions between conservative sectors who oppose his transparency and openness reforms, with an epicenter in central European countries and the United States, and members of the clergy who support his policies.
In front of religious from all over the world, including cardinals with high positions in the Curia, the Pope also set his sights on the moment “when the priesthood slowly slides towards clericalism, and the priest forgets to be a pastor of the people, to be a state clergyman.
In this way, Francis celebrated the first ceremony of a four-day series of activities for Easter in which he will be the central actor and which include, among others, the Via Crucis tomorrow in the Roman Colosseum and the Urbi et Orbi blessing on Sunday from the Basilica of Saint Peter.
“Let us remember that the Spirit, the we of God, prefers the community form: availability regarding one’s own needs, obedience regarding one’s own tastes, humility regarding one’s own claims,” he continued this Thursday during the celebration.
Within this framework, the Pope called on the clergy to ask themselves if “my fulfillment depends on how good I am, the position I obtain, the compliments I receive, the career I follow, the superiors or collaborators I have, the comforts that I can guarantee myself, or the anointing that perfumes my life?
Francis also referred to people who distance themselves from the Church and asked priests to take this situation into consideration.
“How many people do not come close or walk away because in the Church they do not feel welcomed and loved, but looked at with suspicion and judged! In the name of God, let us always welcome and forgive! “, He finished his homily, which he described as a” thought from the heart “.
*With information from the Télam agency