Italian news agency AGI reports that Pope Francis wants 3,000 of Rome’s poor to be present at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Caritas of the Diocese of Rome has been given the tickets to distribute, along with the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay association that serves the poor.
UPDATE: This report from the Italian media is superseded by the announcement on March 21 – see this post.
Send to Kindle:
#1 by Ellen Joyce on March 20, 2013 - 8:53 pm
I wonder how many of those 6,000 feet he plans to wash? And of what gender?!
Report Comment
#2 by James Murphy on March 20, 2013 - 9:23 pm
Great. Maybe the homeless among them could be invited to stay in the basilica and the museums and audience halls overnight rather than have to go back to the streets when it’s all over. I’ll bet there’s lots of room for the homeless to live in Vatican City. Surely all those edifices weren’t erected to stand empty and useless most of the time.
Report Comment
#3 by Joshua Vas on March 20, 2013 - 9:27 pm
I’m slightly confused: I was under the impression that the tickets to Papal events were distributed free. Is this not the case, or are they only given to certain groups of people, or something? In any case, I hope that the people who receive these tickets will simply be allowed to mingle with everyone else and not seated in a “special” section up front, or something like that.
Report Comment
#4 by Martin Badenhorst OP on March 20, 2013 - 9:42 pm
The article states that the Pope will wash the feet of 12 elderly priests of the diocese of Rome. Tickets are available to those who apply, without charge, to the limit set for the event. It appears that tickets will be offered to those who would usually not think of applying.
Report Comment
#5 by Ellen Joyce on March 20, 2013 - 9:44 pm
@Martin Badenhorst OP – comment #4:
Report Comment
Thanks, yes, I should have read the Italian before responding to the headline! I think it is a wonderful effort to reach out in this way.
#6 by Martin Badenhorst OP on March 21, 2013 - 5:24 am
Well, events have overtaken, again. The Vatican Press office reports that the Pope will celebrate the Mass “cena del Signore” in the juvenile prison of Rome. Ellen’s question, #1, returns to intrigue as both boys and girls are inmates.
Report Comment
#7 by John Wotherspoon on March 21, 2013 - 6:05 am
This means he has read “The Homeless Bishop” by Joseph Girzone!
(at end of story, Pope invites poor for Mass at St Peters!)
See: http://www.v2catholic.com/johnw/2012/2012-11-23book-review-the-homeless-bishop.htm
Report Comment
#8 by Jeffrey Pinyan on March 21, 2013 - 8:21 am
So Pope Francis will be celebrating Holy Thursday Mass with 3000 juvenile prisoners, 12 of whom are elderly priests?
Sounds like he “has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and spends most of his time with senior citizens.”
Report Comment
#9 by Teresa Berger on March 21, 2013 - 12:44 pm
@Martin Badenhorst OP – comment #6:
Report Comment
Yes, and hopefully the focus on juvenile detainees will move the focus away from the gender-specifics of the owners of the feet. I would hate for Pope Francis not to be able to wash the feet of poor women as he has done in Buenos Aires, with one of them holding her baby while the Cardinal washed her feet.
#10 by Fr. Allan J. McDonald on March 21, 2013 - 12:51 pm
I’m a little bit confused. The Holy Father invites 3000 poor people to come to the Holy Thursday’s Pontifical Mass and then decides he won’t be there. Am I the only one who thinks this a bit odd? I think if I was a poor person who got a ticket for a Mass with the pope and then found out he wasn’t go to be there and he knew it, I’d be a bit put off and marginalized again.
Report Comment
#11 by Anthony Ruff, OSB on March 21, 2013 - 1:49 pm
@Fr. Allan J. McDonald – comment #10:
Report Comment
I take it that this report about the 3,000 invited poor people was false.
Is this a first – that the Italian media report something inaccurately??
awr
#12 by Bryon Gordon on March 22, 2013 - 6:48 am
This is so fitting. The collection that is taken up on that evening is for the poor. Unfortunately, this point is grossly overlooked in most dioceses here in the U.S.A. More attention is given to the collection taken up on Good Friday for the maintenance of Christian shrines and sacred places in the Holy Land.
Report Comment