Pope
Francis has urged Catholic priests to devote themselves to helping the
poor and the suffering instead of worrying about their careers.The Pope was speaking during his first Holy Thursday Mass as Pontiff.
Commemorating the anniversary of Christ's first ordinations, Pope Francis blessed the oils used by priests for anointing the sick and for many other Christian Sacraments.
He urged priests to go out to the margins of society and devote themselves to helping the poor and suffering and those longing to see the truth instead of worrying about their careers as church managers.
This year's celebrations will see at least one break from tradition.
Pope Francis washed the feet of young inmates at the Casal del Marmo youth detention centre near Rome.
Previous popes have washed the feet of priests in one of Rome's basilicas.
In his ministry as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Bergoglio used to celebrate the mass in a prison, hospital or hospice for poor and marginalised people.
It has been reported in Italy that the youths will give the Pope a wooden cross and a kneeling stool they made in their workshop.
Meanwhile, in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin commented on the feel-good factor generated by Pope Francis' election.
He also referred to the sentencing last week of a former Dublin priest, Patrick McCabe for indecently assaulting two 13 year-old boys, one of them in the precincts of the Pro-Cathedral.
Archbishop Martin remembered McCabe's victims and the horror they had experienced but gave thanks for the great progress the Church here has made in safeguarding children.
Much of what Judge Yvonne Murphy had to say about McCabe in her landmark 2009 Report has yet to be published.
It was held back at the request of the State to avoid prejudicing his trial.
The Department of Justice has told RTÉ News that some time ago, the High Court adjourned reviewing the question of full publication until next June.