Holy Thursday marked

After Holy Thursday Mass, Noah Tubbs, an Ohio State University student from Indianapolis, and other Catholic parishioners light candles outside the St. Thomas More Newman Center before a silent vigil walk through campus. The walk was in support of immigrants and refugees.

ROME — Pope Francis urged inmates at a Rome prison on Thursday to never let their hopes be clouded like cataracts cloud the eyes — and revealed that he suffers from the condition and has to have surgery for it next year.

Francis, 81, disclosed the news as he bid farewell to inmates and staff members at the Regina Coeli prison, where he washed the feet of 12 prisoners in a Holy Thursday ritual.

Francis frequently uses his visits to prisons to encourage

inmates not to lose hope, and he repeated that Thursday by telling the prisoners that they must clear their eyes every day so they can see and spread hope.

“At my age, for example, cataracts come and you don’t see reality well. Next year, I have to have an operation,” he said.

He said the same thing happens with life, when disillusionment, errors and fatigue cloud the soul. Francis urged the inmates to do a daily cleansing of their view on life — a “cataract surgery for the soul” — so they can keep hope alive.

During the foot-washing ceremony, Francis knelt down and, one by one, poured water over the feet of the 12 inmates, wiped them dry and kissed them. Most of the men then embraced the pope.

The 12 inmates included Catholics, Muslims, an Orthodox Christian and a Buddhist, the Vatican said.

Earlier Thursday, Francis presided over another Holy Thursday service in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he urged priests to be spiritually close to their flocks and not insist only on preaching laws when they sin.

Even when people commit adultery, he said, priests should not condemn with legalisms but rather help them look forward so they don’t sin again.

Holy Thursday marks the start of an intense four days of activity leading up to Easter Sunday. On Friday, Francis presides over the Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion. On Saturday night, he celebrates the solemn Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by the joyful Easter Sunday Mass marking Christ’s resurrection.