Italy: General Audience in St. Peter Square, Vatican City
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has celebrated a Mass to mark Holy Thursday, hours before he travels to an Italian prison to perform a foot-washing ritual for a dozen inmates in a gesture of humility. Attending the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica were some 1,800 priests. Francis in his homily advised priests not to focus on worldly concerns such as power, planning and bureaucracy but to serve the people. In the afternoon, Francis is awaited at a prison in Civitavecchia, a port town 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Rome, for the foot-washing ceremony that recalls Jesus’ gesture of humility for his apostles. Francis has made paying attention to those on society’s margins — including refugees, migrants and those in prison — a hallmark of his papacy.
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