Pope washes feet of Muslims, other refugees, says ’we are brothers’

Pope washes feet of Muslims, other refugees, says ’we are brothers’

Mangalore Today News Network

Rome, March 25, 2016: Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu and Catholic refugees Thursday, declaring them children of the same God, in a gesture of welcome and brotherhood at a time when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment has spiked following the Brussels attacks.

Francis denounced the carnage as a "gesture of war" carried out by blood-thirsty people beholden to the weapons industry during an Easter Week Mass with asylum-seekers at the shelter in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside Rome.

"We have different cultures and religions, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace," Francis said in his homily, delivered off-the-cuff in the windy courtyard of the center.

Several of the migrants then wept as Francis knelt before them, poured holy water from a brass pitcher over their feet, wiped them clean and kissed them.

 

 

 

 

“Today as well, there are two gestures. All of us here, (coming) together — Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelicals — but (being) brothers, sons of the same God who want to live in peace,” he said.

However, recalling the recent terrorist attack in Brussels, the pope said there was a second gesture made by those want war. Like Judas, he said, behind those who committed the attacks there are “arms traffickers who want blood, not peace.”

“In this moment, when I do Jesus’ same gesture — to wash the feet of you 12 — all of us are making this gesture of brotherhood. And all of us can say: We are diverse, we are different, we have different religions and cultures, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace,” he said.

Acknowledging the suffering endured by the refugees, Pope Francis asked them to pray in “their own religious language” so that there may “always be brotherhood and goodness.”

After his homily, the pope removed his vestments and put on a large white garment tied over his alb. He kneeled before each of the 12 people, washed each person’s foot slowly and dried it.

The refugees barely contained their emotions, tears streaming down their faces as the pope bent low and kissed their feet. A young mother wiped her tears as the pope gazed at her and reached out to touch her baby.

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.

Before going around and greeting each of the center’s residents individually, Pope Francis asked them to remember the beauty of living together as brothers and sisters despite their different cultures, religions and traditions.

This beauty, he said, “has a name: peace and love.”