Pope Washes Feet of Muslim Migrants at Easter Week Mass
AP / TIME | 24 March 2016
Several of the migrants then wept as Francis knelt before them, poured holy water from a brass pitcher over their feet, wiped them clean and kissed them.
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| Pope Francis kisses the foot of a man during the foot-washing ritual at the Castelnuovo di Porto refugees center near Rome, March 24, 2016 |
"We have different cultures and religions, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace"
. . .
Pope Francis washes feet of refugees for Easter Week
The traditional Easter Week foot-washing ceremony by the pontiff is meant as a Catholic gesture of service.
AP / Al Jazeera | 25 March 2016
Pope Francis has visited a refugee centre to wash and kiss the feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu and Catholic refugees — a gesture of welcome at a time when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment has spiked after the Brussels and Paris attacks.
Francis celebrated the traditional Easter Week foot-washing ceremony at a refugee shelter in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside Rome, inaugurating the most solemn period of the Catholic Church's Easter season.
The Holy Thursday rite re-enacts the foot-washing ritual Jesus performed on his apostles before being crucified, and is meant as a gesture of service.
Francis was greeted with a banner reading "Welcome" in a variety of languages as he processed down a makeshift aisle to celebrate the outdoor Mass.
A fraction of the 892 asylum-seekers currently living at the shelter attended, though others milled around nearby and filmed the event on their smartphones.
Vatican rules had long called for only men to participate in the ritual, and past popes and many priests traditionally performed it on 12 Catholic men, recalling Jesus' 12 apostles and further cementing the doctrine of an all-male priesthood.
But after years of violating the rules outright, Francis in January changed the regulations to explicitly allow women and girls to participate.
READ MORE: Pope visits mosque in besieged CAR enclave
Francis celebrated the traditional Easter Week foot-washing ceremony at a refugee shelter in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside Rome, inaugurating the most solemn period of the Catholic Church's Easter season.
The Holy Thursday rite re-enacts the foot-washing ritual Jesus performed on his apostles before being crucified, and is meant as a gesture of service.
Francis was greeted with a banner reading "Welcome" in a variety of languages as he processed down a makeshift aisle to celebrate the outdoor Mass.
A fraction of the 892 asylum-seekers currently living at the shelter attended, though others milled around nearby and filmed the event on their smartphones.
Vatican rules had long called for only men to participate in the ritual, and past popes and many priests traditionally performed it on 12 Catholic men, recalling Jesus' 12 apostles and further cementing the doctrine of an all-male priesthood.
But after years of violating the rules outright, Francis in January changed the regulations to explicitly allow women and girls to participate.
READ MORE: Pope visits mosque in besieged CAR enclave
The Vatican said on Thursday that four women and eight men had been
selected. The women include an Italian who works at the centre and three
Eritrean Coptic Christian migrants. The men include four Catholics from
Nigeria, three Muslims from Mali, Syria and Pakistan, and a Hindu from
India.
The new norms said anyone from the "people of God" could be chosen to participate in the ceremony.
While the phrase "people of God" usually refers to baptised
Christians, the decree also said that pastors should instruct "both the
chosen faithful and others so that they may participate in the rite
consciously, actively and fruitfully", suggesting that the rite could be
open to non-Catholics as well.
He ain't washing my feet no matter how lowly he stoops. This Pope is playing the One World Religion game - that which is not according to the Scriptures!
ReplyDeleteThis Pope is of the Jesuit order and if you don't know what that is I can't help you. False humility display to deceive the whole world into the Antichrist kingdom in the name of God or "Christianity." I'm not buying it.