Muslim girl takes part in washing ceremony

Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young offenders including a Muslim girl at a Rome jail in an unusual take on a traditional Easter ritual by Latin America’s first pontiff.

Francis celebrated his first Holy Thursday Mass as Pope in the Casal del Marmo youth prison on the outskirts of Rome rather than a traditional basilica in the city centre, a move seen as another sign of his less formal style.

Prison ombudsman Angiolo Marroni said that out of the 12 young inmates — a number chosen to commemorate Jesus’s apostles — there was also two girls, one Italian Catholic and one of Serbian Muslim origin.