7th Rangers: Pope washes feet of young Muslim woman prisoner in unprecedented twist on Maundy Thursday By Harriet Alexander, and agencies 6:39PM GMT 28 Mar 2013
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Pope washes feet of young Muslim woman prisoner in unprecedented twist on Maundy Thursday By Harriet Alexander, and agencies 6:39PM GMT 28 Mar 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
While popes have for centuries washed the feet of the faithful on the day
before Good Friday, never before had a pontiff washed the feet of a woman.
That one of the female inmates at the prison in Rome was also a Serbian
Muslim was also a break with tradition. āThere is no better way to show his service for the smallest, for the least
fortunate,ā said Gaetano Greco, a local chaplain.
Pope Francis kissing the feet of a young offender
Pope
Franciswashed the feet of 12 inmates aged 14 to 21, among them the
two women, the second of whom was an Italian Catholic. Mr Greco said he
hoped the ritual would be āa positive sign in their livesā. The pontiff, who has largely disregarded protocol since his election earlier
this month, urged his fellow clerics before the ceremony to prioritise the
poor.āWe need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed,
blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil
masters,ā he said at a mass in St Peterās Basilica.āIt is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the
Lord.ā Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church from Latin America, led a
mass with a mixed group of young offenders at the Casal del Marmo prison
outside of Rome. The 76-year-old, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires until chosen as pope, has
already made a name for himself as a champion of the disadvantaged. In his
homeland of Argentina he was known for his strong social advocacy, working
in slums and shunning the lavish lifestyle adopted by some senior clerics.
He lived in a small flat near the cathedral, flew to the Rome conclave in
economy class, and chose to travel with his fellow cardinals by minibus
rather than in the papal limousine.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio - as Pope Francis was previously known - had
already washed and kissed the feet of women in past ceremonies in
Argentinian jails, hospitals and old people's homes, including pregnant
mothers and AIDS patients. Before performing the traditional feet washing, in his first general audience
on Wednesday, Francis called on the worldās 1.2 billion Catholics to reach
out to ālost sheepā over the coming days. āHoly Week challenges us to step outside ourselves so as to attend to the
needs of others: those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of
comfort or help,ā Francis told thousands of faithful gathered in St Peterās
Square. On Good Friday, Francis will recite the Passion of Christ ā the story of the
last hours of Jesusās life ā in St Peterās Basilica, before presiding over
the Via Crucis ceremony by the Colosseum, where thousands of Christians are
believed to have been martyred in Roman times. While last year his predecessor, 85-year-old Pope Benedict, presided over
celebrations from under a canopy next to the Colosseum, Francis is expected
to take part in the procession and even carry the wooden cross on his
shoulder for part of the way. On Saturday, the pontiff will take part in an evening Easter vigil in St
Peterās Basilica, and on Easter Sunday the he will celebrate Easter mass in
front of tens of thousands of pilgrims in St Peterās Square and then
pronounce the traditional āUrbi et Orbiā blessing to Rome and the world. Also on Thursday, the Pope made his first appointment of a bishop, naming
Mario Poli, 66, to succeed him as archbishop of Buenos Aires and the top
churchman in Argentina. Francis also put his first people on the path to sainthood, unveiling a list
of 63 people including victims of the Spanish Civil War, Nazism and
Communism. The largest number are considered martyrs of faith killed during
the 1931-45 conflict in Spain. Telegraph
