Pope Francis kisses the foot of one of the 12 women whose feet he washed at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Thursday washed the feet of 12 prisoners at a prison facility in Rome, with the pontiff continuing a regular tradition of holding the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at local penitentiaries.
The Holy Father told female inmates at the Rebibbia correctional facility, located about six miles from Vatican City, that Jesus “never tires of forgiving” but rather “we are the ones who get tired of asking for forgiveness.”
Pope Francis speaks during a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
“We all have our small or big failures — everyone has their own story. But the Lord always awaits us, with his arms open, and never tires of forgiving,” the Holy Father said, according to Vatican News.
Pope Francis presides over a Mass at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
The pope during the Mass washed the feet of 12 of the female prisoners present. The dozen inmates were of “different nationalities,” the Vatican said.
Pope Francis washes the feet of 12 women at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
The pope subsequently “met with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary” and received several gifts including products from the prison complex’s farm.
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
In years past, Francis has traveled to prisons and other facilities in and around Rome to wash the feet of marginalized individuals.
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
The Holy Father skipped the tradition in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pope Francis meets with the inmates and staff of the penitentiary Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media
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Pope Francis’ General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 29, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Mar 31, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA).
The Vatican said Friday that Pope Francis may be discharged from the hospital on Saturday, after responding well to treatments yesterday and sharing a pizza dinner with those assisting him.
In two brief statements in the early afternoon March 31, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni also said Pope Francis is scheduled to be present at the Vatican’s Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 2.
Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Wednesday afternoon with difficulty breathing. He was later diagnosed with bronchitis.
“Yesterday passed well, with a normal clinical progression,” Bruni said around 12:30 p.m. on Friday.
“In the evening Pope Francis had dinner, eating pizza together with those assisting him during his hospital stay,” the Holy See Press Office director said. “With the Holy Father were the doctors, nurses, assistants and Gendarmerie personnel.”
On the morning of March 31, the pope had breakfast, read the newspapers, and resumed work, he said, adding that “His Holiness is expected to return to his Santa Marta home tomorrow, upon the outcome of the results of the last tests this morning.”
Around 1:15 p.m., Bruni added the information about the pope’s presence for the Palm Sunday Mass.
In the afternoon on March 29, Bruni issued a brief statement to say Francis was at Gemelli Hospital “for some previously scheduled checkups.” Later that day, he said the 86-year-old pope would remain hospitalized for “some days” after being diagnosed with a respiratory infection.
Gemelli is the same hospital where Pope Francis was hospitalized in July 2021 when he underwent surgery on his colon for diverticulitis, or inflammation of the intestinal wall.
In an interview with the Associated Press in January, Pope Francis disclosed that the diverticulitis had “returned.” At the time, the pope — who traveled to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in late January — insisted he was in relatively good condition.
Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. / Credit: ACI Africa
Kampala, Uganda, Jun 4, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).
Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged believers gathered at the Namugongo Shrine in Kampala, Uganda, for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on Monday to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region.
Speaking after the Eucharistic celebration for the event celebrated annually on June 3, Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country who have embraced unity and rallied under their religious leaders to foster unity and religious tolerance.
“A Christian must be an example to other people. A Christian must lead by example in fighting for peace,” the Ugandan president said during the event, which was hosted by the Diocese of Nebbi.
Museveni urged Christians to give reconciliation and dialogue a chance, saying: “Our countries have a challenge of peace, and a lack of peace many times is caused by unresolved issues.”
Priests, religious, and laypeople from across Africa gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
He lamented that rather than fostering peace and unity, many in the region, including some Christians, resort to guns and violence to solve issues.
“Therefore, I besiege all believers to do all that is necessary to bring peace in our East African countries,” Museveni said. “It is only after fostering peace in our region that we should now embark on eradicating poverty.”
In his speech, the president also acknowledged with appreciation the collaboration of religious leaders and the government of the East African country in curbing religious and tribal divisions.
“I want to thank the believers in Uganda and their religious leaders… this is because, before the 1960s and even after, Ugandans were divided according to tribes and religion,” he said. “This was part of the chaos that engulfed Uganda.”
Museveni chastised those who have sowed division, decrying what he described as “hypocrisy among religious leaders in the country,” saying: “You who claim to be religious are more unreligious than those who are irreligious, and you were dividing our people.”
But he also added: “I want to thank Ugandans very much because they embraced the call for unity that we are still enjoying up to now.”
Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
The Ugandan president further lauded the Nebbi Diocese for organizing this year’s pilgrimage, which he described as “enriching.”
He also acknowledged the presence of Mary Nyerere, who he said always attends the pilgrimage at Namugongo to pray for the beatification and canonization of her spouse, Servant of God Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who was former prime minister and then president of what is now Tanzania.
Pope Benedict XVI declared Nyerere a servant of God on May 13, 2005.
“I want to thank Mary Nyerere for coming here every moment we have this pilgrimage to pray for the beatification of Julius Nyerere,” Museveni said. “I am a witness to the good work of Julius Nyerere.”
Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, urged all those gathered at the event to emulate the late Tanzanian president for his heroic virtues.
Priests, religious, and laypeople gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Credit: ACI Africa
Ugandan Martyrs’ Day dates back to the first decade of Christian presence in the East African nation when 45 men between the ages of 14 and 50 were killed because of their faith between 1885 and 1887.
Among the 45 were 22 Catholics who were beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1964. These martyrs continue to inspire the Catholic faith in Uganda and around the world.
Bishop Gerald Barbarito of Palm Beach. Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Palm Beach. / null
Palm Beach, Fla., Aug 24, 2021 / 15:02 pm (CNA).
Catholic school students in the Diocese of Palm Beach will be required to wear masks indoors for at least… […]
2 Comments
When I was in prison, you came to console me – says the Lord.
However we may fault him otherwise, we cannot justifiably find fault in his good examples of humble service to the most abject. An extreme form of witness needed to awaken a soulless world. That is, unless we are determined to call a good an evil. As in the similar, though opposite manner of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, whose message of orthodoxy condemning the moral excesses of the hierarchy and Church at large were correct, although his ungainly manner of protestation cost him his life.
When I was in prison, you came to console me – says the Lord.
However we may fault him otherwise, we cannot justifiably find fault in his good examples of humble service to the most abject. An extreme form of witness needed to awaken a soulless world. That is, unless we are determined to call a good an evil. As in the similar, though opposite manner of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, whose message of orthodoxy condemning the moral excesses of the hierarchy and Church at large were correct, although his ungainly manner of protestation cost him his life.