The Vatican confirmed today that Francis and the heads of Vatican offices would travel to Ariccia, in the hills south of Rome, for spiritual exercises March 9-14. Jesuits typically to do such Lenten retreats away from home and the Society of St. Paul offered up a retreat house.
The pope's official Easter schedule doesn't include a Holy Thursday foot-washing service, but Vatican officials said Francis would once again re-enact Jesus' washing of his apostles' feet in a "pastoral" setting outside the Vatican.
Francis' decision last year to go to a juvenile detention center to wash the feet of women and Muslims set the tone for his rule-breaking papacy.