Andrew Bolt reports:

This new Pope has made his mark with astonishing speed:

POPE Francis washed 12 young offenders’ feet, including two girls at a Rome prison as he pushes for the Catholic Church to reach out to the needy.

In an apparent break with tradition by Latin America’s first pontiff, local prison ombudsman Angiolo Marroni said that one of the two girls taking part in the ceremony was Muslim.

“Whoever is the most high up must be at the service of others,” the Pope said at the start of the Holy Thursday ceremony.

This has some relevance here, in this political climate:

Earlier on Thursday, the 76-year-old Argentinian pontiff told Catholic priests at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica to stop their “soul-searching” and “introspection”.

“We need to go out … to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said.

“Prisoners in thrall to many evil masters.” It will be fascinating to see who he defines as the “evil masters”.