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.”

Cardinal Walter Kasper has told German media he believes Pope Francis favours ordaining married men of proven virtue (known by the Latin term, viri probati), but is also sure the Pope wants to leave the decision up to individual bishops’ conferences.

“The (vocation) situation differs so widely in different parts of the world that a uniform worldwide solution is not possible,” the cardinal said on April 6th in a long interview with the German Church’s Internet portal katholisch.de.

The occasion was the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. “Each bishops’ conference must first decide whether it is in favour (of ordaining married men) and describe how it intends to go about this. And then it must bring its proposals before the Pope,” said the cardinal, a world-class theologian known to be close to Francis.

“I have the impression that if their application is well-founded, it will be met positively. The ball is therefore back in the bishops conferences’ court,” he said.

The cardinal said that as far as Germany and many parts of the Western world are concerned it is “imperative and most urgent” to discuss the possibility of ordaining viri probati because the shortage of priests has become drastic. “We simply cannot carry on with the situation as it is at present. Priests today are often managers with four or five parishes to look after. They have no time for pastoral work,” the 84-year-old cardinal said.

The Vatican has said Pope Francis will continue with his visit to Egypt later this month despite raised security fears following the deadly terrorist attacks on churches at the weekend.

Archbishop Giovanni Becciu, a top diplomat at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State, said the Pope is sticking with his plan to make the trip to Cairo on 28-29 April, where Francis will address a conference on peace at the famous Al-Azhar university.

“What happened causes confusion and great suffering but it cannot prevent the Pope’s mission for peace,” the archbishop explained in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “Without hiding from reality the Pope invites us to look to the future with hope. And as always he wants to led by example.” The Palm Sunday attacks on two Coptic churches killed at least 44 with fundamentalist group Daesh – Islamic State – claiming responsibility for the atrocities.

Archbishop Becciu stressed that dialogue with the Islamic world was a way of “isolating” extremists and that the Pope wanted distinguish between acts of terror and the Muslim faith, something which has gained him the respect of Arab leaders.

“The honesty of his positions have earned him the gratitude of Muslims,” he explained. “Many Islamic authorities have met the Pope to thank him, while many others have written to express admiration for his moral authority.” Coptic Pope survives unharmed as at least 44 die In Palm Sunday suicide attacks in Egypt. When he is in Egypt Francis’ meetings will take place in secure and tightly-controlled locations while the papal Mass will be cele- brated amidst high security at a closed stadium of Cairo attended by around 30,000 faithful.