Pope to hold major Holy Week service in youth jail

Pope to hold major Holy Week
service in youth jail

تكبير الصورةتصغير الصورة معاينة الأبعاد الأصلية.


VATICAN CITY (Reuters): Pope Francis
will hold a major ceremony next week in the chapel of a youth prison instead of
in the Vatican or a Rome basilica where it has been held before, the Vatican
said on Thursday.
Francis will conduct the Holy Thursday afternoon
service at the Casal del Marmo jail for minors onRome's outskirts.
During the service, the pope washes and kisses the
feet of 12 people to commemorate Jesus's gesture of humility towards his
apostles on the night before he died.
All previous popes in living memory held the
service either in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican or in the Basilica of St.
John in Lateran, which is the pope's cathedral church in his capacity as bishop
of Rome.
Vatican spokesmen said they could not recall an
occasion when the service was held anywhere else.
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio often celebrated the Holy Thursday service in a
jail, a hospital, a home for the elderly or with poor people.
A pope is also bishop of Rome and the decision by
Francis to hold the service in the prison was another indication that he intends
to take that role seriously.
The Holy Thursday service is one of several during
Holy Week, which for Catholics this year begins on March 24 with Palm Sunday and
ends with Easter Sunday on March 31.