For the sixth year running, the pope held the ritual in an institution rather than in the splendors of the Vatican or a Rome basilica, as his predecessors did. Conservatives have criticised him for including women and non-Christians in the rite in the past.

He visited Rome’s Regina Coeli jail in the centre of the city to perform the rite recalling Jesus’ gesture of humility toward his 12 apostles on the night before he died.

The 12 male inmates were from Italy, the Philippines, Morocco, Moldova, Colombia, and Sierra Leone. Nine were Christian, two were Muslim, and one was Buddhist.

Francis wove the sermon of a Mass around the theme of service, saying many wars could have been avoided in history if more leaders had considered themselves servants of the people rather than commanders.

He spoke of the death penalty just before leaving the prison, a former 17th-century Catholic convent that was transformed into a jail in 1881.

“A punishment that is not open to hope is not Christian and not humane,” he said in response to closing comments by the prison director.

“Each punishment has to be open to the horizon of hope and so the death penalty is neither Christian nor humane,” he said.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has several times called for a worldwide ban on capital punishment, prompting criticism from conservatives, particularly in the United States.

The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

Francis has asked that the Church’s new position on the death penalty be better reflected in its universal catechism.

On Good Friday, Francis is due to lead a Via Crucis procession at Rome’s Colosseum. On Saturday night he leads an Easter vigil service, and on Easter Sunday he delivers his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” message.