Pope Restores Ancient Foot-Washing Rite for Holy Thursday

Pope Leo XIV marked his first Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper on April 2, 2026, in Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran by washing the feet of 12 priests from the Diocese of Rome. Officials described the choice as a return to an earlier pattern for the rite, placing the Pope’s role as Bishop of Rome at the center of the liturgy in the cathedral of the diocese.

The move contrasted with the approach taken by his predecessor, Pope Francis, who for 12 years held the Holy Thursday foot-washing in prisons. During that period, Pope Francis washed the feet of incarcerated people and also included women and non-Catholics, according to accounts of those celebrations. Pope Leo XIV’s decision to wash the feet of priests instead was presented as a shift back toward a pre-Francis-era practice.

In the Holy Thursday liturgy, the foot-washing is closely tied to themes of service and to the Church’s commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. By selecting priests from the Diocese of Rome, the ceremony also highlighted the local dimension of the papacy, with the Pope acting in a direct pastoral relationship to the clergy of his own diocese.

Eleven of the 12 priests whose feet were washed had been ordained by Pope Leo XIV in the preceding year. That detail, noted in reporting on the service, underscored the connection between the Pope’s recent ordinations and his public gesture of service toward those priests during one of the most symbolically charged liturgies of the Christian calendar.

In his homily, Pope Leo XIV emphasized service and love in language that linked the rite to contemporary suffering. “As humanity is brought to its knees by so many acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the oppressed,” he said. The statement framed the act of kneeling not only as a liturgical sign but also as a call to solidarity.

The decision to wash the feet of priests was interpreted as an encouragement to clergy at a time when there have been reports of possible burnout and dissatisfaction within the priesthood. Pope Leo XIV has signaled attention to those concerns in other ways, including setting his April prayer intention to “priests in crisis,” according to the Vatican’s stated focus for the month.

Separately, Pope Leo XIV appointed Franciscan Fr. Francesco Patton to write the meditations for the Way of the Cross service. Under Pope Francis, that task had at times been assigned to laypeople or to people described as coming from marginalized groups, according to accounts of prior Holy Week planning. Together, the Holy Thursday choices and the Way of the Cross appointment indicated a different emphasis in how key Holy Week moments are being organized under the new pontificate.