The Argentine Jesuit visited the Rebibia women’s prison on the northeastern outskirts of the Italian capital, where he performed the same rite in 2015.
But this Maundy Thursday, the 87-year-old pontiff washed only women’s feet for the first time.
Sitting in a wheelchair, the Pope washed the feet of all the convicts, then dried them with a towel and kissed them. Some of the inmates shed tears during the sensitive ceremony.
“We all make mistakes, big and small,” the pope said in an impromptu homily during Mass in the courtyard of the prison, which holds about 370 women.
“But the Lord always waits for us with open arms and never gets tired of forgiving,” he added.
Washing feet is “a gesture that draws our attention to our vocation to serve,” said Pope Francis, who began visiting prisoners while still a priest in Buenos Aires.
A few minutes earlier, the pontiff was smiling while shaking hands with prisoners.
Last month, the Pope came down with the flu, which forced the cancellation of some public meetings. Later, after he recovered, he asked others to read his speeches several times.
This rite, performed every year on Maundy Thursday, commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his apostles. The ritual recalls Jesus’ act of humiliation when he washed the apostles’ feet before the Last Supper on the eve of his crucifixion.
Since becoming pope in 2013, the head of the Catholic Church has frequently visited prisons and refugee centers. Last year on Maundy Thursday, he washed the feet of twelve young men serving their sentences.
On Good Friday, he is due to lead a late-night Stations of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum, which he missed last year due to a bronchial infection.
