Pope Leo to wash the feet of 12 Roman priests on eve of Easter
By Vatican News, April 2, 2026During the Mass “in Coena Domini” on Holy Thursday, Pope Leo will wash the feet of twelve priests – eleven of whom he ordained last year.
On Holy Thursday, Pope Leo XIV is set to wash the feet of twelve priests during the Mass in Coena Domini. The liturgy will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.
The Diocese of Rome issued a statement announcing the names of the 12 priests: Fr. Andrea Alessi, Fr. Gabriele Di Menno Di Bucchianico, Fr. Renzo Chiesa, Fr. Francesco Melone, Fr. Clody Merfalen, Fr. Federico Pelosio, Fr. Marco Petrolo, Fr. Pietro Hieu Nguyen Huai, Fr. Matteo Renzi, Fr. Giuseppe Terranova, Fr. Simone Troilo, and Fr. Enrico Maria Trusiani.
Eleven of them were ordained last year by Pope Leo XIV. Fr. Renzo Chiesa, on the other hand, is the spiritual director of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary.
At the end of the liturgy, the Pope will carry the Blessed Sacrament to the place of repose, in the Chapel of Saint Francis.
Pope on Good Friday
Pope Leo XIV will preside over the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on Friday, 3 April, during the traditional Good Friday liturgy commemorating the journey of Jesus to Golgotha. The meditations have been written by Franciscan Father Francesco Patton.
Pope Leo XIV will preside over all fourteen stations of the Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum, carrying the Cross himself throughout the liturgy in what will be his first Holy Friday celebration as Pope.
The meditations for this year’s ceremony have been entrusted to Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, who served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2016 to 2025. The Holy See Press Office announced that the texts will be published on Friday morning, around midday.
Father Patton, a Friar Minor often writing from Mount Nebo in Jordan, has frequently given voice to the suffering of the people of the Middle East, particularly during the present period marked by conflict and instability.
In the previous year, as in 2024, the meditations were prepared by Pope Francis, following his return to the Casa Santa Marta after a prolonged hospitalisation at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. The Holy Friday celebration on 18 April 2025 was instead presided over, at the Pope’s request, by the Cardinal Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, Baldassarre Reina.