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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Holy Thursday washed the feet of inmates at Paliano prison, south of Rome, during the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper.

The Pope traveled to the penitentiary for a private visit and the celebration of Mass marking Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples on the day before his Crucifixion.

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:

In his off-the-cuff homily Pope Francis invited those present – and all Christians -  to serve the other.

"The disciples, the Pope said, used to argue about who was the most important amongst them".

“He who feels or thinks he is important, he continued, must become small and be a servant to the others. That is what God – who loves us as we are – does every day”.

The center hosts some 70 inmates, and amongst those whose feet the Pope washed, there are 10 Italians, 1 Argentinean and 1 Albanian. Amongst them 3 are women and 1 is a Muslim who will receive the Sacrament of Baptism in the coming month of June.

The Paliano detention center is the only such institute in Italy reserved in particular for former members of criminal gangs who collaborate with police and the judiciary. 

Vocational training is part of the programmes in place for the inmates at Paliano and courses include pottery, bakery, carpentry, farming and bee-keeping. That’s why the inmates gifts for Pope Francis include baskets of fresh farm produce, eggs, honey and a wooden crucifix.  

Pope Francis began the tradition of travelling to a prison for the traditional Last Supper Mass in March 2013, just a few days after the inauguration of his pontificate. On that occasion he travelled to Rome’s Casal del Marmo youth detention centre where he included, for the first time, women and Muslims among the inmates whose feet he washed.

The following year, he celebrated the Last Supper Mass at Rome’s Don Gnocchi centre for the disabled, again including women among those who had their feet washed in memory of Jesus’ gesture of humility and service.

In 2015 Pope Francis travelled to Rome’s Rebibbia prison for the Holy Thursday celebration, while last year he washed the feet of refugees, including Muslims, Hindus and Coptic Orthodox men and women at a centre for asylum seekers in Castelnuovo di Porto, just north of Rome.

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(Vatican Radio) One of Europe's top courts says Russia has failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which 

about 330 people, most of them children, died in 2004, prompting an angry reaction from Moscow. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Victims of one of Russia's most bloodiest hostage crisis learned Thursday that their painful-decade wait for justice had not been vain. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the thee-day Beslan school siege in September 2004.

More than 330 people were killed in what became known as the Beslan massacre, including 186 children. It happened after Chechen rebels took more than 1000 hostages to demand that Russian troops pull out of the republic Chechnya.

The Strasbourg based court said Russian security forces had violated the victims right to life when they moved in to free the hostages in School Number One in the town of Beslan in Russia's troubled republic of North Ossetia. 

It judged that the use of powerful weapons such as tank cannon, grenade launchers and flame-throwers contributed to the high number of casualties.

KREMLIN FURIOUS

The Kremlin was quick to condemn the verdict describing the court’s criticism as ‘‘unacceptable’‘. Russia was ordered to pay nearly 3 million euros in damages to victims, plus the legal costs.

Yet no money in the world will be able to dry the tears of Emma Tagayeva, one of the many mothers who lost children in the bloodshed. "As a mother it's terrible to bury your children," she said. 

"It shouldn't be this way. Having felt this pain, I can't let anyone else suffer the same way.We have to do everything we can so that nothing like this is ever repeated."   

She and others may be forgiven for wondering whether the siege could have been prevented and whether so many people had to die in the rescue operation.

Critics say officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, mishandled the hostage crisis and ignored intelligence indicating that a hostage-taking scenario was being planned. 

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(Vatican Radio) In Venezuela officials confirm a fifth person has died, as a result of the ongoing anti-government protests, which have already lasted two weeks.  More demonstrations are happening today. 

Listen to the report by James Blears:

The dead include two students and a thirteen year old child.  The latest protests flared, with a government decision to ban opposition leader Henrique Capriles from public office for 15 years. 

Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro are demanding that postponed regional elections must be held.  President Maduro's vehicle was attacked by protesters, as he left a military celebration in the South Eastern State of Bolivar.  It was pelted with stones, and also eggs...an increasingly rare commodity in Venezuela, where basic daily necessities are in scarce supply. 

Venezuela's Electoral Court has ruled against a Referendum on President Maduro's Administration, saying there was fraud in the initial voting process. This is denied by the opposition. 

Once oil rich Venezuela is economically imploding in a deepening crisis as its infrastructure crumbles.  The Government claims this is a part of a sustained capitalist/imperialist conspiracy.  While the umbrella opposition coalition known by the nickname MUD, claims it's chronic mismanagement.  

More street protests are planned for today. 

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Rome, Italy, Apr 13, 2017 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis spent Holy Thursday washing the feet of inmates, telling them in a brief homily that God is someone who loves until the end. He urged them to imitate this love even while in prison.

“Having loved his people who were in the world, he loved them to the end. God loves like this, to the end,” the Pope said April 13. “He gives life to each one of us and he boasts of this because he has love, and to love until the end isn’t easy.”

“We are all sinners and we all have limits and defects,” he said. While we all know how to love, “we are not like God who loves without looking at the consequences.”

He encouraged the inmates to imitate the love Jesus showed in washing the feet of his disciples, saying they didn’t need to get up and take their shoes off, but “if you can act as a help, do a service, here in prison, do it. Because this is love, it’s like washing the feet.”

Pope Francis visited the maximum security facility of Paliano prison in the south of Rome. It houses former mafia collaborators.

The Paliano prison is famous for being the only institution in Italy reserved specifically for “collaborators of justice,” that is, criminals who choose to come clean and collaborate with the police in exchange for police protection and, at times, compensation from the State. As of April 1, there were 70 detainees in the prison.

The visit marks the Pope’s third Holy Thursday visit to a prison since he became pontiff in 2013.

After arriving around 4 p.m. local time, Pope Francis met with the inmates before celebrating the Mass that marks Jesus Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples.

During the celebration, the Pope washed the feet of 12 inmates. Three of these were women and one was a Muslim who will be baptized in June.

All of them were Italians apart from one Argentinian and one Albanian. They are serving sentences for various crimes. And apart from two who have life sentences, the rest are expected to be released between 2019 and 2073.

About 60 collaborators collaborators of justice were present for the Mass. Two of them, a man and a woman, were from solitary confinement. The Pope met with these two privately just before he celebrated Mass.

He also greeted each inmate personally.

In his brief homily, the Pope noted that even though Jesus knew his hour had come and that he would be “betrayed and handed over” by Judas, he still chose to love.

“He who was the head, who was God. He washed the feet of his disciples,” he said, explaining that washing the feet of guests was a custom at that time. Since there were no paved streets, people would frequently arrive full of dust.

According to the custom, “the slaves did this,” he said, adding that “Jesus knew and he did it.”

Pointing to how Peter in the Gospel initially doesn’t want Jesus, the Master, to stoop and wash his feet, Pope Francis said that in the moment Jesus explained “that he came into the world to serve and to serve us. To make himself a slave for us. To love until the end.”

The Pope said that although the Pope is the head of the earthly Church, the true head of the Church is Jesus: “The Pope is only the figure of Jesus and I would like to do the same that he did and the priest washes the feet of his faithful.”

“Whoever is greatest must do the work of a slave,” the Pope said, recalling the Gospel scene where the disciples were fighting among themselves about who was the greatest.

On that occasion, “Jesus said: whoever wants to be the most important must make himself the smallest,” the Pope said, adding that “all of us are poor, but he loves us as we are.”

The washing of the feet, he said, is not “a folk ceremony.” Rather, it is “an act to remember what Jesus did. Let us think of the love of God alone today.”

Inmates at the prison have access to various activities provided by the prison’s institutional projects, such as opportunities for work, education, cultural and recreational activities, religious and sporting events, and meetings with family members.

Some of the courses available to inmates include iconography classes, ceramics, a pizzeria and kitchen for sweets, a carpentry workshop and an agricultural area with organic farming and a zone blocked off for breeding goats, rabbits, chickens and pigs, and for producing honey.

According to an April 13 communique from the Vatican, prison director Nadia Cersosimo has said these efforts are “initiatives that avoid idleness, reduce distances, fight prejudices and open the path to reinsertion.”

The prisoners offered Pope Francis a handmade cross and a buffet  prepared with products from their gardens.

The Pope’s decision to visit isn’t surprising given the attention Pope Francis has often given both to prisoners, and to condemnations of mafia activities.

He has often condemned the violence of organized crime. He has made a point to visit prisons in nearly all of the international trips he takes, as well as local trips within Italy.

Right after his election in March of 2013 Francis decided to offer his Holy Thursday Lord’s Supper Mass at the Casal del Marmo youth detention center in Rome. He washed the feet of young men and women, both Christians and Muslims, detained there.

In 2014, Pope Francis said the Holy Thursday Mass at the Don Gnocchi center for the disabled. In 2015 he visited another prison, celebrating Mass at Rome’s Rebibbia prison.

For Holy Thursday in 2016 Pope Francis visited a center for asylum seekers in Castelnuovo di Porto, a municipality just north of Rome. He washed the feet of refugees, who included Muslims, Hindus, and Coptic Orthodox Christians.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A French biblical scholar not only wrote the meditations to guide Pope Francis' 2017 celebration of the Via Crucis at Rome's Colosseum, she also designed her own set of Bible-based Stations of the Cross.

Pope Francis asked Anne-Marie Pelletier to share her reflections with the worldwide audience that follows the stations on the night of Good Friday. She is the first wife, mother and grandmother to author meditations for the papal service.

In the past, writers chosen by the popes have used either the traditional 14 stations followed by pilgrims walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem or the 14 biblical stations used by St. John Paul II in 1991. The main difference is that Jesus falling three times and Veronica wiping the face of Jesus are in the traditional devotion, but not in any of the Gospels.

Pelletier's stations are a variation on St. John Paul's Scriptural Stations of the Cross. She starts with Jesus being condemned to death, rather than with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and ends with the women preparing to anoint Jesus' body in the tomb.

Because the Stations of the Cross do not have a "binding form," Pelletier told Vatican Radio, "I chose those moments that seemed particularly significant."

"I didn't think about what I wanted to say or what I wanted to transmit," she said. "Rather, my idea was to put myself on this path, to try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he went up to Golgotha."

The driving idea, she said, is that "love is stronger" than any evil. "The love that comes from God is victorious over everything. I believe the task of Christians is to give witness to that."

In the third station, "Jesus and Pilate," she said she felt it was important to show the "complicity" of Pilate and members of the Jewish Sanhedrin in condemning Jesus to death.

In the meditation, which was to be read at the Colosseum, Pelletier wrote: "For all too long, Christians have laid the blame of your condemnation on the shoulders of your people Israel. For all too long, we have failed to realize the need to accept our own complicity in sin, so as to be saved by the blood of Jesus crucified."

She titled the fourth station, "Jesus, King of Glory," and focused on the soldiers dressing Jesus in a purple robe and crowning him with a crown of thorns.

Their actions show "the banality of evil," she wrote. "How many men, women and even children are victims of violence, abuse, torture and murder in every time and place."

"Can the sufferings of yet one more innocent person really help us?" Pelletier asked people to consider.

"The scorn and contempt of Jesus' torturers reveal to us -- in an absolutely paradoxical way -- the unfathomable truth of his unique kingship, revealed as a love that seeks only the will of his father and his desire that all should be saved."

While the Gospels do not mention Jesus falling as he carried his cross, Pelletier imagined that he did "on his grueling journey, most likely under the lashings of his military escort."

"He who raised the sick from their beds, healed the crippled woman, raised the daughter of Jairus from her deathbed, made the lame walk, now lies sprawled in the dust," she wrote. "Through him, the Most High teaches us that he is at the same time -- incredible as it is -- the most lowly, ever ready to come down to us, and to descend even lower if necessary, so that no one will be lost in the depths of his or her misery."

In the prayer she wrote for the sixth station, "Jesus and Simon of Cyrene," Pelletier asks God's blessing for every act of kindness every person performs.

"Deign to acknowledge them as the truth of our humanity, which speaks louder than all acts of rejection and hatred," she prayed. "Deign to bless the men and woman of compassion who give you glory, even if they do not yet know your name."

The seventh station, "Jesus and Daughters of Jerusalem," focuses on Jesus' statement to the women, "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children."

"These tears of women are always present in this world," Pelletier wrote. "They fall silently down their cheeks."

But women are not the only ones who weep, she said, noting the "tears of terror-stricken children and of those wounded on battlefields crying out for a mother."

She prayed that God would teach people not to scorn the tears of the poor, but rather "to have the courage to weep with them."

The French scholar's reflection on Jesus being taken down from the cross highlights the "signs of loving care and honor" with which Joseph of Arimathea lowers Jesus' body and how, in death, Jesus "is once again in hands that treat him with tenderness and compassion."

The attitude continues in the final station commemorating Jesus being laid in the tomb and the women preparing to anoint his body.

"Lord our God," she prayed, "graciously look upon and bless all that women everywhere do to revere weak and vulnerable bodies, surrounding them with kindness and respect."

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

Editors: The English translations of the text of the meditations can be found at: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2017/documents/ns_lit_doc_20170414_via-crucis-meditazioni_en.html

The Spanish translation is available at: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2017/documents/ns_lit_doc_20170414_via-crucis-meditazioni_sp.html

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Always preach the whole truth of the Gospel with humility and respect and never be afraid to offer that truth just "one sip at a time," Pope Francis told the world's priests.

The Gospel is truth, "brimming with joy and mercy. We should never attempt to separate these three graces of the Gospel: its truth, which is non-negotiable; its mercy, which is unconditional and offered to all sinners; and its joy, which is personal and open to everyone," he said April 13 during the chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Presiding over the first of two Holy Thursday liturgies, Pope Francis blessed the oils that will be used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick.

With Holy Thursday commemorating the day Jesus shared his priesthood with the apostles, Pope Francis led the more than 1,500 priests, bishops and cardinals in a renewal of their priestly vows and dedicated his homily to the importance of preaching with a joy that touches people's hearts.

"The priest makes the message joyful by his whole being," he said, and it is in "little things" that this joy is best shared.

For example, he said, by stepping into today's "no man's lands" to bring God's mercy to forsaken situations, by picking up the phone and scheduling a needed meeting, by patiently allowing others "to take up our time."

The "good news" of the Gospel is not a thing, he said, but a mission that brings "delightful and comforting joy" to the evangelizer.

The truth of the good news can never be an abstract truth for those who do not let it fully and concretely shape people's lives just "because they feel more comfortable seeing it printed in book," he said in a homily delivered in Italian.

"The mercy of the good news can never be a false commiseration, one that leaves sinners in their misery without holding out a hand to lift them up and help them take a step in the direction of change," Pope Francis said.

And the good news "can never be gloomy or indifferent, for it expresses a joy that is completely personal," coming from a father who cannot bear to have even one of "his little ones be lost."

The Holy Spirit always helps communicate the joys of the Gospel in many, different ways for every age, every person and every culture. he said.

These joys "need to be poured into new wineskins," so that "the good news is kept fresh -- and preserving it is necessary -- without turning sour but being poured out in abundance."

The pope then offered priests three images of "three new wineskins" so that the good news may be full and contagious, inclusive and concrete, meek and truthful.

Like Mary and the stone water jars at the wedding feast of Cana, be "filled to the brim," ready and willing to do God's will and courageously go out to assist others, the pope said.

Like St. Teresa of Kolkata and the Samaritan woman who drew water at the well for Jesus, be concrete and help Jesus in his mission, he said.

Just as Jesus called to the Samaritan woman, "I am thirsty," he calls to everyone, and Mother Teresa heard him calling her to take him to the poor and be his light.

Mother Teresa was concrete with her smile and the tender way she touched people's wounds, the pope said. Priests need to be like this -- concrete and tender, he added.

The last image is the "fathomless vessel of the Lord's pierced heart, his utter meekness, humility and poverty which draw all people to himself," he said.

Priests have to learn from Jesus that "announcing a great joy to the poor can only be done in a respectful, humble, and even humbling, way."

"Evangelization cannot be presumptuous. The integrity of the truth cannot be rigid," he said, because the truth was made flesh, was born a tender baby, and was a man who died on the cross.

The Holy Spirit teaches the whole truth, but "he is not afraid to do this one sip at a time."

Let the Spirit tell "us in every situation what we need to say to our enemies" as he illuminates every small step forward.

"This meekness and integrity gives joy to the poor, revives sinners, and grants relief to those oppressed by the devil," the pope said.

Later in the day, the pope was scheduled to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at a prison 45 miles from Rome, housing men and women who testified as a witness for the state against associates or accomplices. He was scheduled to wash the feet of 12 inmates.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a gesture of service toward marginalized people, Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates, including three women and a man who is converting from Islam to Catholicism.

Although in Jesus' time, washing the feet of one's guests was performed by slaves, Jesus "reverses" this role, the pope said during the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper April 13 at a prison 45 miles from Rome.

"He came into this world to serve, to serve us. He came to make himself a slave for us, to give his life for us and to love us to the end," he said.

Pope Francis made his way by car to a penitentiary in Paliano, which houses 70 men and women who testified as a witness for the state against associates or accomplices.

To protect the safety and security of the prisoners, only a live audio feed of the pope's homily was provided by Vatican Radio as well as selected photographs released by the Vatican.

The Vatican said April 13 that among the 12 inmates who participated in the foot washing ceremony, "two are sentenced to life imprisonment and all the others should finish their sentences between 2019 and 2073."

In his brief homily, which he delivered off-the-cuff, the pope said that upon his arrival, people greeted him saying, "'Here comes the pope, the head of the church.'"

"Jesus is the head of the church. The pope is merely the image of Jesus, and I want to do the same as he did. In this ceremony, the pastor washes the feet of the faithful. (The role) reverses: The one who seems to be the greatest must do the work of a slave," he said.

This gesture, he continued, is meant to "sow love among us" and that the faithful, even those in prison, can imitate Christ in the same manner.

"I ask that if you can perform a help or a service for your companion here in prison, do it. This is love, this is like washing the feet. It means being the servant of the other," the pope said.

Recalling another Gospel reading, in which Jesus tells his disciples that the greatest among them must be at the service of others, Pope Francis said Christ put his words into action by washing his disciple's feet and "it is what Jesus does with us."

"For this reason, during this ceremony, let us think about Jesus. This isn't a folkloric ceremony. It is a gesture to remind us of what Jesus gave us. After this, he took bread and gave us his body; he took wine and gave us his blood. This is the love of God," the pope said.

Vatican Radio reported that several other inmates took an active role in the liturgy, including four who served as altar servers. Other inmates prepared homemade gifts for the pope, among them were two dessert cakes, a handcrafted wooden cross and fresh vegetables grown in the prison garden.

The evening Mass was the second of two Holy Thursday liturgies for Pope Francis. The first was a morning chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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