But it is not so much the brutality of the event that is upsetting as what the Pope had entrusted a few days before his death.
A simple but symbolic regret
On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis, weakened, nevertheless wanted to visit inmates in a Roman prison. This gesture, which he used to do every year to wash prisoners’ feet, could not be completed this time. And that is precisely what he told his doctor, almost like a discreet but meaningfully charged confession.
“This time I couldn’t do it…” whispered the Pope to his doctor. These words, which are very simple, contain a deep regret. For this ritual, inherited from Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, embodies for Francis the essence of the Christian faith: the service of the other, humility, fraternity.
A Pope to the Last Septu
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