Pope will wash feet of 12 refugees at Holy Thursday Mass
Today, Holy Thursday, Pope Francis will celebrate the liturgy in a welcoming center for migrants and refugeeswhich houses more than 900 asylum seekers. The Pope will arrive at the Reception Center for Asylum Seekers, or CARA, in Castelnuovo di Porto, just over 18 miles outside of Rome, around 5 pm. There, he will say the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and wash the feet of 12 migrants from the center.
In previous years Pope Francis has offered the Lord’s Supper Mass on Holy Thursday at a youth detention center, a rehabilitation center for the disabled, and a large prison in Rome. This marks the first year he will celebrate the liturgy at a migrant center.
The Vatican’s two parishes – St. Anne’s and St. Peter’s – have already welcomed two refugee families. The first family, housed by St. Anne’s, consists of a father, mother and two children. Syrian Christians of Catholic Greek-Melkite Church. The family fled their war-torn city of Damascus and arrived at the Vatican on Sept. 6, the same day as the Pope’s appeal.
ACN Malta
