He has often denounced the mafia. He has declared them "excommunicated" and urged them to change their ways.

Many mafia turncoats have done just that. Read more

Mass was celebrated despite the $2.6 million project not yet being complete.

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He attracted global media attention when, on his first Holy Thursday as pope, he washed the feet of men and women at a juvenile detention centre on the outskirts of Rome. Then at the beginning of this year he issued new rules governing the foot-washing rite, insisting that it should not be restricted to men.

The Pope's guidance will be put into effect around the world for the first time next week. It is therefore a good time to take stock of the practice, its origins and background, and to reflect on what is has to offer us today as disciples.

If you lived in the hot, dusty world of sandals before asphalt roads, when animals provided the only motive power other than your own feet, there would be nothing so welcoming after even a short journey than a chance to wash your feet.

Given that such a journey is always hard on the legs and back, an even better welcome would be if you could sit down and have someone wash your feet for you.

The literature of antiquity abounds with references to foot-washing, but it is enough to mention two examples.

In Genesis 18 we have the story of the wondrous visit of the Lord, in the form of three men, to Abraham at Mamre. The first sign of welcome is that Abraham arranges for the visitors' feet to be washed. The other example is from the Rule of St Benedict on the welcome to be shown to guests. When travellers arrive at Benedictine monasteries they are to be given water to wash their hands, and the abbot and some of the community are to wash the guests' feet. Continue reading

• Thomas O'Loughlin is the author of Washing Feet: Imitating the Example of Jesus in the Liturgy Today (Liturgical Press).

He will do so on March 24, at a center that assists migrants in the city. The Vatican has not yet disclosed the venue.

The breaking news comes at a time when many politicians in Europe, the United States and elsewhere are calling for the closing of the doors of their countries to refugees and migrants. Several governments in Europe, including Austria, Poland, Hungary and Macedonia, have or are in process of closing their frontiers or building barriers or walls to what they perceive as a tidal wave of migrants and refugees from war-torn Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East and Africa. The question of immigration is at the center of political debate in the United States and Australia, as well as in Germany, where yesterday many voters cast their ballot against the more humanitarian approach of Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is an issue that is not going to disappear as long as the wars continue and dire poverty forces people to leave their homes and the countries of their birth.

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Ranging from 16 to 86 years of age, nine of the patients were Italian, one was a Muslim from Libya, one was a woman from Ethiopia and one young man was from Cape Verde.

In washing his disciples' feet, Jesus showed all Christians he wanted them to serve others with love, the Pope said.

Two aides assisted the Pope in kneeling and standing up as he washed each patient's feet.

This proved increasingly difficult for the 77-year-old Pontiff.

Before rising, he gave each of the people he washed a long and loving gaze and a broad smile.

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This will be at the Father Carlo Gnocchi Foundation's Our Lady of Providence Centre, a rehabilitation and care centre on the outskirts of Rome for people with disabilities and the elderly.

Last year, the newly elected Pope Francis broke with tradition and washed the feet of young offenders - including a Muslim woman - in Rome's Casal del Marmo centre.

Previously popes conducted the liturgy at St John Lateran or St Peter's Basilica.

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The Maronite Archbishop of Damascus Samir Nassar, labelled the Pope's action is "a very generous gesture".

"It is a gesture of closeness and solidarity that has a strong meaning for us in this Lenten time and of great suffering: it makes the universal Church feel closer to its faithful in difficulty".

"We keep in mind and we hope that the messages sent by Benedict XVI for a ceasefire, peace, dialogue, freedom in Syria are fulfilled", the Archbishop told Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

The gesture comes amid reports that almost the entire Christian population of Homs has fled the Syrian city and the homes of Christians in Homs have been attacked and seized by fanatics.

Aid to the Church in Need, reports that 90% of Christians have been expelled amid what it is called 'an ongoing ethnic cleansing' of Christians by militant Islamic groups with links to Al Qaeda.

Sources

• CNS
• Fides
• Aid to the Church in Need
• Image: MSNBC