Pope to wash prisoners' feet on Holy Thursday

Pope Francis is to celebrate a mass on Holy Thursday in a youth detention centre in Rome where he will wash the feet of prisoners.

The Vatican said it continues a tradition when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and held masses in prisons, hospitals or old people's homes.

The new pope has called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people and has warned Catholic leaders to abandon the pursuit of worldly glories.

He was a strong voice for the dispossessed in Argentina during its devastating economic crisis and a fierce critic of the IMF and unregulated free-market capitalism.