Pope Francis washed the feet of inmates at a prison in central Italy during a Holy Thursday liturgy, an annual ritual which he has used as a symbol of papal humility and his mission to the marginalised. On 13 April, Francis travelled to a detention centre in Paliano, 40 miles south of Rome, where he celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, a liturgy where the priest emulates the moment Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. The prison in Paliano, in the province of Frosinone, is housed in a fortress style building in what is understood to have also been used by some of Francis predecessors as a prison during the 19th century papal states. This is not the first time the Pope has celebrated the Last Supper Mass in a prison. Soon after his election, Francis travelled to Rome’s Casal del Marmo youth detention centre where he made history by washing the feet of both women and Muslim inmates, a moment that set the tone for a papacy that would be focussed on the “peripheries.”
India’s poor deserve better than this
Concerns are being raised about whether the needs of poor and marginalized communities in India are receiving enough attention in current government policies. Observers say
