On Maundy Thursday, Pope Francis will wash the feet of Prisoners in a youth detention centre near Rome.

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Thousands of pilgrims and tourists are arriving in Rome to attend ceremonies during the holy week ahead of Easter.

The washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter is a Christian tradition commemorating Christ's Last Supper.

It is part of a papal calendar of events running up to Easter, the most important festival in the calendar of the Catholic Church.

The new leader of the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics has brought a new sense of simplicity to the Vatican, reports the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

He has decided to live in a small suite in a residence for clerics, eating with other priests in a common dining room, after deciding not to move into the palatial apartments occupied by his predecessors in the Apostolic Palace.

He has again broken with tradition for the foot-washing ceremony, which is normally performed on lay people in one of Rome's basilicas.

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