In a Holy Thursday ritual symbolizing humility, Pope Francis washed the feet of a dozen inmates in a Rome juvenile jail, assuring them of their dignity and saying "any of us" can fall into sin.
The Casal del Marmo prison on the outskirts of Rome is the same one where Francis performed the first footwashing of his pontificate, demonstrating his belief that the Catholic Church should pay attention to the marginalized of society.
On Thursday, the pope repeated the rite with 10 men and two women serving sentences at the site. He leaned down, poured water over one foot of each, gently toweled it dry, and kissed it.
When Francisco looked up to smile, they took his hand and kissed it. Several whispered in his ear and he chatted briefly with each one.
The rite recalls how Jesus washed the feet of his 12 apostles during the last supper before they took him away to be crucified.
Jesus "washes everyone's feet," Francis told several dozen prisoners gathered in the chapel. "He knows all our weaknesses," the pope said in an impromptu homily.
Six of the 12 were minors, and the rest had reached adulthood while serving their sentences. There was a Muslim from Senegal and young people from Russia, Croatia and Romania, the Vatican said.
Francisco said that foot washing is "a gesture that announces how we should be with each other. He deplored that" others benefit from others, (there is) so much injustice... so many ugly things.
Still, he said, "any one of us can fall" and lose grace. Foot washing "confers us the dignity of being sinners." The lesson, he added, should be to "help each other to make life better."
The pontiff, who has a chronic knee ailment, navigated the small spaces of the chapel without assistance or supported by a cane, but left in a wheelchair after the 90-minute visit.
Previously, Francisco officiated a mass in the basilica of San Pedro, while he continues with an Easter schedule that tests his resistance days after his hospital admission for bronchitis.
The pope's voice was strong during the mass, in which he read a long homily dedicated to the priesthood. The 86-year-old Argentine pontiff was discharged five days ago from a Rome hospital where he received intravenous antibiotics.
When he left the hospital on Saturday, the Vatican said Francis would complete everything on his Easter schedule, including the Good Friday Stations of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum and the Easter Sunday mass in St. Peter's Square.
During Thursday's mass in the basilica, dozens of priests dressed in simple white cassocks sat facing the Catholics who packed the church.
Without referring to the scandals or the cover-up by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, he spoke of a "crisis" affecting priests.
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