The China Mail - In ritual dear to Francis, Pope Leo washes feet of 12 priests in Rome

The 70-year-old American pope is presiding over Holy Week celebrations -- which commemorate Christ's final days before his resurrection at Easter -- for the first time since being elected pontiff in May 2025.

On Thursday, late in the afternoon the pope celebrated the Mass of the Last Supper, in memory of Christ’s final meal with his disciples, at the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome.

Pope Leo, dressed in a white linen apron, poured water over the feet of 12 Roman priests before drying them and kissing them, imitating Christ’s gesture toward the apostles according to Christian tradition.

During his 12-year pontificate, his predecessor, the Argentine Francis, performed this highlight of Holy Week in prisons or refugee shelters, washing the feet of the sick, migrants or the incarcerated, even former mafia members, as a sign of respect to those often forgotten.

In April 2025, a weak and wheelchair-bound Francis made what turned out to be his final visit to a jail in Rome, although he was unable to perform the rite himself.

He died four days later, the day after Easter, at the age of 88.

- From the heart -

By returning to the Basilica of St John Lateran, Leo marked a return to a classical form of this tradition, one already observed by previous popes -- but he cited Francis in his homily.

"As Pope Francis once remarked: this 'is a duty which comes from my heart: I love it. I love this and I love to do it because that is what the Lord has taught me to do'" Leo quoted his predecessor as saying in 2013.

"As humanity is brought to its knees by so many acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the oppressed," Leo continued in his homily.

On Friday, the pope will preside over the Passion service and participate in the traditional Way of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum, an evening ceremony that draws thousands of people each year to the illuminated amphitheatre.

He will personally carry the cross through all 14 stations retracing Jesus’ journey, from his condemnation to crucifixion to his burial, marking a return to a tradition observed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

T.Wu--ThChM