Pope Francis Washes The Feet Of Young Prisoners On Holy Thursday

Today, on Holy Thursday, newly elected Pope Francis celebrated the Roman Catholic ritual by washing the feet of young inmates in a juvenile detention center.

Holy Thursday is a religious rite that Christians celebrate in remembrance of Jesus' Last Supper ahead of his crucifixion.  According to the Gospel of St. John, it is customary practice that was exemplified by Christ when he washed his disciples' feet as a sign of humility before having his last meal.  Though the tradition has been upheld by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, however Francis took the humble gesture a step further by becoming the first pontiff to kneel down before prisoners at the Casal del Marmo Penitentiary Institute for Minors. 

Among the group of 12 young people whose feet the pope washed and kissed included two young women which marks the first time a pope included females in the rite. The group of young people, who were aged between 16 and 2, also include two Muslims, according to a Vatican spokesman.  

"It is a gesture of humility and service," Father Tom Rosica, a Vatican Press Office spokesperson, said before the ceremony.

"It teaches that liberation and new life are won not in presiding over multitudes from royal thrones nor by the quantity of bloody sacrifices offered on temple altars, but by walking with the lowly and poor and serving them as a foot-washer along the journey," he added.

While many were surprised by the new pontiff's decision, Alessandro Speciale, a Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service, said he was just continuing a tradition he started in Buenos Aires.

"He has washed the feet of the poor and inmates on most Holy Thursdays as a cardinal and archbishop in Argentina," Speciale said. "What's surprising is that, as a pope, he is the one going to the inmates, and not the other way around."

In a Mass service early Thursday morning at St. Peter's Basilica, Francis stressed the need to concentrate on the people they are ministering to.

"We need to go out, then, in order to experience our own anointing (as priests)... to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters," he said.