Pope washes 12 men's feet on Holy Thursday

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict washed and dried the feet of 12 men at a traditional Holy Thursday service commemorating Christ's gesture of humility to his apostles on the night before he died.

The 79-year-old German Pope, approaching the second Easter of his pontificate, called on Catholics to pray for the "purification of the heart".

"We pray to help us not keep our lives to ourselves, but to devote them" to God, the Pope said.

At the midpoint of the service the Pontiff poured water over the right feet of 12 men sitting on raised platforms, and dried them.

The ritual was held in Rome's Basilica of St. John's in Lateran, the Pope's cathedral in his capacity as bishop of the Italian capital. He wore cream and gold vestments.

Earlier on Thursday, the Pope said in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica that priests should recognise the faults in their own lives and seek purity from God.

"When we approach the liturgy to act in the person of Christ, we realise how far we are from Him and how much filth exists in our own lives," the Pope said.

He said only Christ could donate to them the gift of total purity.