The washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter is a Christian tradition dating back to the time of Christ.
BBC: Pope Francis to wash feet of prisoners in pre-Easter Mass
Pope Francis will celebrate Mass on Thursday next week by washing the feet of prisoners in a youth detention centre in Rome, the Vatican has said.
BBC: Pope Francis to wash feet of prisoners in pre-Easter Mass
Later, the Vatican released a limited video of the ritual, showing Francis washing black feet, white feet, male feet, female feet and even a foot with tattoos.
"If someone is washing the feet of any females ... he is in violation of the Holy Thursday rubrics, " Peters wrote in a 2006 article that he reposted earlier this month on his blog.
On Thursday, Francis will break with tradition by celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper, which includes the gesture of the washing of feet, at the Casal del Marmo youth detention center, the Vatican said last week.
But by washing the feet of women, he jolted traditionalists who for years have been unbending in insisting that the ritual is for men only and proudly holding up as evidence documentation from the Vatican's liturgy office saying so.
On Thursday, Francis will break with tradition by celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper -- which is centered on the gesture of the washing of feet -- at the Casal del Marmo youth detention center, the Vatican said.
To have excluded the young women from the ritual washing of feet ... would have detracted our attention from the essence of the Holy Thursday gospel, and the very beautiful and simple gesture of a father who desired to embrace those who were on the fringes of society.
The rite re-enacts Jesus' washing of the feet of his 12 apostles during the Last Supper before his crucifixion, a sign of his love and service to them.
Instead of washing priests' feet in a symbolic gesture of humility on Holy Thursday, Francis will wash the feet of young inmates at a juvenile detention center in Rome.
Normally feet-washing Masses before Easter are held in the Vatican or a Rome basilica.
BBC: Pope Francis to wash feet of prisoners in pre-Easter Mass
Pope Francis will stage his feet-washing ceremony at Casal del Marmo on the afternoon of 28 March.
BBC: Pope Francis to wash feet of prisoners in pre-Easter Mass
But Pope Benedict held a feet-washing Mass at the same Casal del Marmo youth detention centre in Rome in 2007.
BBC: Pope Francis to wash feet of prisoners in pre-Easter Mass
That's the whole point behind Jesus washing the disciples' feet.
The act of foot-washing is part of the Christian tradition that mirrors Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet.
The act of foot-washing at the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday is part of the Christian tradition that mirrors Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet.
And crude machines are replacing bare feet as macerators, while washing machines are being used as makeshift centrifuges.
ECONOMIST: Successes in the war on drugs expose the policy��s limits
Washing water is piped down 700 meters (2, 300 feet) from the surface to the refuge once it has been heated by a solar-powered heater.
应用推荐