Pope Francis to wash offenders' feet on Maundy Thursday

Colin Dye — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:07:35 +0000

Pope Francis will wash the feet of prisoners in a youth detention centre near Rome on Maundy Thursday.

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists are arriving in Rome to attend ceremonies during the holy week ahead of Easter.
The washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter is a Christian tradition commemorating Christ’s Last Supper.
It is part of a papal calendar of events running up to Easter, the most important festival in the calendar of the Catholic Church.

Gesture of humility

The new leader of the world’s 1.2bn Roman Catholics has brought a new sense of simplicity to the Vatican, reports the BBC’s David Willey in Rome.
He has decided to live in a small suite in a residence for clerics, eating with other priests in a common dining room, after deciding not to move into the palatial apartments occupied by his predecessors in the Apostolic Palace.
He has again broken with tradition for the foot-washing ceremony, which is normally performed on lay people in one of Rome’s basilicas.
This time the Pope will visit the Casal del Marmo detention centre on the outskirts of Rome.
Read the full BBC News article here

The Last Supper

The drama begins on the evening of the first day of the feast of Passover. Significantly, the Son was spending his last evening on earth by eating the Passover meal with his apostles in the large upper room of a friend?s home.
It seems that no servant was present, for there was no-one to wash their feet before the meal began ? and none of the apostles was humble enough to perform this menial task.
So Jesus put on a servant?s apron, poured water into a basin, and did what none of them had been willing to do. He then explained to the apostles that God?s love always expresses itself in humble service, and that the world would recognise them as his disciples only if they loved each other in a similar way.

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New Pope Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina to Be Known as Pope Francis

Colin Dye — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:48:44 +0000

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, 76, chose the papal name Francis. He is the first non-European Roman Catholic Pope and the 266th pope of the Catholic Church.

Newly elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after being elected by the conclave of cardinals, at the Vatican, March 13, 2013. White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out on Wednesday, signaling that Roman Catholic cardinals had elected a pope to succeed Benedict XVI.

He has served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires since 1998, and became a cardinal in 2001. Born in Buenos Aires, Bergoglio has a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires. He became a Jesuit priest after receiving his chemistry degree.
During the 2005 conclave, Bergoglio had the second highest number of votes on each of the four ballots, according to the Catholic News Service.
The decision by the 115 voting cardinals gathered in Vatican City of who will lead the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world was made relatively quickly, with the cardinals only starting to gather yesterday. On day two, white smoke could be seen streaming out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney, signaling that a new pope had been elected.
The cardinal conclave this week is special in that the former pope is still alive and is the first pope in nearly 600 years to step down from the position of Pontiff. The last Roman Catholic Church head to do so was Pope Gregory XII, who did so to end the Great Schism when several clerics claimed the position.
Benedict announced that he would step down from the office on Feb. 11, citing “advanced aged” as the reason for his resignation. He officially stepped down at the end of last month. Benedict, who is 85, said, “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

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