ROME —
Before washing the feet of 12 prisoners, Pope Francis told them and hundreds of
inmates to remember that Jesus constantly stands before them with love, ready
to cleanse their sins and forgive them.
"Jesus
takes a risk on each of us. Know this: Jesus is called Jesus, not Pontius
Pilate. Jesus does not know how to wash his hands of us; He only knows how to
take a risk on us," the pope said March 29 during his homily at Rome's
Regina Coeli prison.
Pope
Francis celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at the prison
and washed the feet of a dozen inmates. Four were Italian; two were from the
Philippines; two from Morocco; and one each from Moldova, Colombia, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone, the Vatican press office said. Eight of the 12 were Catholic; two
were Muslim; one was Orthodox; and one was Buddhist.
In
his brief homily before the foot-washing ritual, Pope Francis explained to the
prisoners that in Jesus' day, the job of washing feet was the task of a slave.
"There wasn't asphalt or cobblestones, there was dust and people's feet
got dirty," so before they went into a house, the slaves would wash the
person's feet.
The
Gospel recounts Jesus washing the feet of His own disciples "to give us an
example of how we must serve one another," the pope said.
Another
time, he said, Jesus explained to his disciples that kings want to be
served.
"Think
of the kings and emperors back then, so many were cruel, they insisted on being
served by slaves," the pope said.
But
Jesus told His followers: "Among you, it must not be like this. The one
who rules must serve," the pope explained.
"Jesus
overturns the historic and cultural attitudes of His age — and of today,
too," Pope Francis told the inmates. Jesus says that "the one who
rules, in order to be a good boss, must serve. I often think -- not of people
today because they still are alive and can change their lives, so we cannot
judge them — but think of history. If many kings, emperors, heads of state had
understood this teaching of Jesus, instead of ruling, being cruel, killing
people, if they would have done this, how many wars would not have been
fought?"
In
his earthly life and still today, the pope said, Jesus goes to "people who
are thrown away by society, at least for a while," and he says to them,
"'You are important to me,' and Jesus comes to serve us."
"The
sign that Jesus serves us today in Regina Coeli is that he wanted to choose 12
of you today for the washing of the feet," the pope said.
"I
am a sinner like you, but I represent Jesus today. I am his ambassador,"
the pope said. "When I kneel before each of you, think, 'Jesus took a risk
on this man, a sinner, to come to me and tell me he loves me.' This is service.
This is Jesus. He never abandons us. He never tires of forgiving us. He loves
us so much."
The
pope celebrated the Mass of the Lord's Supper in the rotunda of the prison, a
small central area formed from the intersection of various wings of the jail.
The
prison is designed to house just over 600 inmates, but currently houses more
than 900 men. Some 65 percent of the inmates are non-Italians, Vatican News
reported.
At
the end of the Mass, a prisoner publicly thanked Pope Francis for his visit and
said the inmates would try to do, at least symbolically, what he recommended at
his general audience at the Vatican the day before: celebrate Easter by
splashing water on their eyes to look at the world with fresh eyes.
The
81-year-old pope responded by confiding in the prisoners that, like many people
his age, he is developing cataracts and will have an operation next year to fix
them.
But,
he said, as life goes one and people get busy or make mistakes, they can
develop "cataracts of the soul" that prevent them from seeing the
world with the hope that is born of Jesus' resurrection.
"Never
tire of renewing your gaze, of having that cataract operation on your soul
every day," the pope told the prisoners.
He
also insisted that jail time must be a time to prepare a person to return to
society and live as good citizens and that the penalties for crime must be
"open to hope."
"There
is no just penalty that is not open to hope," Pope Francis said.
"That is why the death penalty is neither Christian nor human."
Pope
Francis began his visit in the prison infirmary, meeting with prisoners there.
After the Mass he was scheduled to visit the prison's Section VIII, a protected
area of the facility for inmates convicted of sexual crimes and other inmates
who could be in danger in the general population.
The
prison is less than two miles from the Vatican and is no stranger to hosting a
pope celebrating Mass. St. John XXIII visited in 1958, Blessed Paul VI in 1964
and St. John Paul II went in 2000.
The
Mass March 29 marked the fourth time Pope Francis celebrated the Holy Thursday
Mass in a detention facility. In 2013, for his first Holy Thursday as pope, he
celebrated in a juvenile detention facility. In 2015 he presided over the Mass
and foot-washing ritual at Rebibbia, Rome's main prison, and in 2017 he went to
a prison in Paliano, some 45 miles from Rome.