'Why them and not me,' pope asks after Holy Thursday visit to prison

ROME -- While he did not celebrate Mass or wash the feet of inmates, Pope Francis made his customary Holy Thursday visit to a detention facility, arriving at Rome's Regina Coeli jail at about 3 p.m. April 17.

The pope was welcomed by Claudia Clementi, the jail's director, and met with about 70 inmates in the building's rotunda, a space where various wings of the jail intersect. The inmates who joined the pope are those who regularly participate in the jail's religious education program, the Vatican press office said.

In 2018 the pope had celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at Regina Coeli, which is less than a mile from the Vatican. But his continuing convalescence, after spending more than a month in the hospital, meant there was no Mass or foot washing ritual.

Pope Francis told the inmates, "Every year I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, washing feet, in a prison," the Vatican said. "This year I cannot do it, but I can and want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families."

The pope personally greeted each of the people in the rotonda, prayed the Lord's Prayer with them and gave his blessing.

Vatican photos of the visit also show him in the prison yard waving at inmates looking out the barred windows of their cells and waving from the rotonda to inmates pressed together against an iron and glass door hoping to see him.

The Italian Ministry of Justice website said that as of April 16, there were 1,098 men detained in the jail awaiting trial or sentencing. The facility is designed to hold fewer than 700 prisoners.

As he left the prison, sitting in the front passenger seat of a small car, he stopped to speak to reporters and told them, "Every time I enter these doors, I ask myself, 'Why them and not me?'"

He has explained on several occasions that all people are sinners, himself included, but grace, providence, family upbringing and other factors play a determining role.

Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, has continued a Holy Thursday practice he began as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina: usually celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper at a prison or detention facility and washing the feet of inmates.

In his first year as pope, he set aside the usual papal practice of washing the feet of 12 priests during a public celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass by going to a juvenile detention facility and washing the feet of Catholic and non-Catholic teens. He returned to the same jail in 2023 to wash the feet of young men and women.

In 2014, he washed the feet of people with severe physical handicaps at a rehabilitation center, and in 2016, he celebrated the liturgy and foot-washing ritual at a center for migrants and refugees.

On Holy Thursday in 2020, the COVID lockdown led the pope to celebrate the Mass at the Vatican with a small congregation and omit the optional foot-washing ritual.

Pope Francis also has celebrated the Mass at prisons outside Rome -- in the towns of Paliano, Velletri and Civitavecchia.

After the pope's "private" visit to Regina Coeli, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, celebrated the basilica's parish Mass of the Lord's Supper.