Pope Francis visits women’s prison in Rome to wash the feet of 12 inmates from his wheelchair to mark Maundy Thursday

Pope Francis washed the feet of twelve imprisoned women from his wheelchair on the occasion of Maundy Thursday.

The 87-year-old pontiff, who often advocates compassion for prisoners, visited the Rebibbia women’s prison in Rome’s northeastern suburbs, where he performed the same ritual in 2015.

Thursday, however, marked the first time the Argentine Jesuit dedicated his annual Holy Week ritual exclusively to women.

Seated in a wheelchair, the Pope washed the feet of all the prisoners, some of them in tears, before drying them with a towel and kissing them.

“We all have small failures, big failures,” the pope said in an impromptu homily during a mass in the courtyard of the prison where some 370 women are housed.

“But the Lord is always waiting for us, with open arms, and He never tires of forgiving,” he added.

Pope Francis performs the ‘washing of the feet’ of prisoners during a private visit to the prison

Pope Francis smiles as he leaves after visiting the women’s section of Rebibbia prison

Washing the feet is “a gesture that draws our attention to the vocation of service,” said Francis, who had already begun visiting prisoners as a priest in Buenos Aires.

A few minutes earlier, the Pope smiled as he shook hands with the prisoners.

In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, also performed the washing of the feet at St Paul’s Church in Maidstone, Kent.

Last month the Pope came down with the flu, forcing him to cancel some public meetings. During his subsequent recovery, he asked others to read his speeches several times.

In Christian tradition, Maundy Thursday commemorates the day on which Christ washed the feet of the apostles during the Last Supper.

It is a highlight of Holy Week, which commemorates Christ’s last days before his resurrection at Easter.

Since becoming pope in 2013, the head of the Catholic Church has frequently visited prisons and refugee centers, including on Holy Thursday last year when he visited a youth detention center and washed the feet of 12 young men.

On Good Friday he will preside over the Way of the Cross prayer service at the Colosseum in Rome, which he was unable to attend last year as he recovered from a bronchial infection.

Pope Francis looked good as he began the intense four days of events leading up to Easter, renewing his own ordination vows.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, performs the Foot Washing Ceremony during the Sung Eucharist and Holy Thursday Liturgy at St Paul’s Church, Maidstone

The archbishop performs the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday

Francis, who has recently curtailed his speaking engagements due to fatigue related to bouts of bronchitis and flu, will read a lengthy homily during a “Chrismus” on Maundy Thursday in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He also greeted two grieving fathers whose stories were told in a 2020 novel by Irish author Colum McCann.

The Pope noted that there were two people in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall – “two fathers” – one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli.

Bassam Aramin’s daughter Abir was killed by an Israeli soldier as she left school in 2007; Rami Elhanan’s daughter Smadar was killed in an attack in Jerusalem in 1997.

The two men’s friendship story was told in the novel ‘Apeirogon’ by Colum McCann, who met Pope Francis during an audience with artists on June 23, 2023.

“Let us remember the beautiful testimony of these two people who suffered the war in the Holy Land through the loss of their daughters,” the Pope said.

During the service, Francis urged priests to be compassionate, to admit when they have “strayed from the path of holiness” and to avoid dishonesty and hypocrisy.

He will preside over an Easter vigil tomorrow and then, on Easter Sunday, read his biennial ‘Urbi et Orbi’ message and blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands of people in the square below