Pope Washes Feet of 12 Priests at Mass for Holy Thursday
Pope John Paul II washed and kissed the feet of 12 priests today in a ritual commemorating Jesus’ gesture of humility toward his apostles during the Last Supper on the night before he was crucified.
On the first of four days in which Christians commemorate Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, the Pope said a solemn Holy Thursday Mass in the Basilica of St. John in Lateran.
During the Mass, which he concelebrated with 12 priests of Rome, the Pope, one of whose nine formal titles is “Servant of the Servants of God,” ceremoniously poured water on, dried and kissed the right foot of each of the seated clerics.
“This function of servitude must once again confirm that Jesus did not come into the world to be served but to be himself a servant,” the Pope said in the sermon of the Mass.
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