Pope Francis’ pre-Easter ritual

Pope Francis kisses the foot of a man as he performs the traditional washing of the feet during a visit at a centrer for disabled people as part of Holy Thursday.

ROME — Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 disabled and elderly people Thursday — women and non-Catholics among them — in a pre-Easter ritual designed to show his willingness to serve others like a “slave.”

Francis’ decision in 2013 to perform the Holy Thursday ritual on women and Muslim inmates at a juvenile detention centrer helped define his rule-breaking papacy just two weeks after his election. It riled traditionalist Catholics, who pointed to the Vatican’s own regulations that the ritual be performed only on men since Jesus’ 12 apostles were men.

But as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently performed the ritual on women — a practice that he seems intent on keeping up now that he is pope.

The 2014 edition brought Francis to a centrer for the disabled and elderly in Rome. Francis kneeled down, washed, dried and kissed the feet of a dozen people, some in wheelchairs, some with grossly swollen and disfigured feet.

The pope’s pre-Easter ritual was designed to show his willingness to serve others like a ‘slave.’

The Vatican didn’t release the exact breakdown of their religious backgrounds, but said they came from various religious confessions. Italian news reports said one was a Libyan Muslim and four were women.

Francis told the faithful that he was performing the ritual to remind himself how to serve others, as Jesus did when he washed the feet of his apostles.

“Jesus made a gesture, a job, the service of a slave, a servant,” he said. “And he leaves this inheritance to us: We need to be servants to one another.” Source: www.nydailynews.com 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-washes-kisses-feet-disabled-elderly-slave-article-1.1760510#ixzz2zHP4uryi

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-washes-kisses-feet-disabled-elderly-slave-article-1.1760510#ixzz2zHOpoS32

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