Pope washes feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu migrants, Maundy Thursday

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Mar 25, 2016: Reports from the Vatican indicate,   Pope Francis went to a refugee center to wash and kiss the feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu and Catholic migrants in a gesture of welcome at a time when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment has spiked following the Brussels and Paris attacks.

 
Francis’s traditional Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony at a refugee shelter in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside Rome, on a day marking the priesthood  preceding Good Friday and Easter the most solemn period of the Catholic Church’s Easter season.
 
The Vatican said the people selected for the ritual include migrants and Italians who works at the center: They include four Catholic men from Nigeria, three Muslim men from Mali, Syria and Pakistan; three Eritrean Coptic Christian women and a Hindu Indian man and so on.
 
Until Francis’ rule-breaking papacy, popes performed the ceremony only on Catholic men.