Pope Francis began Holy Week with a request for humility towards the Church

Tens of thousands of people waved palm trees and olive branches on Plaza de San Pedro Sunday, during a mbadive commemoration in which Pope Francis began Holy Week by calling the Church to be humble.

Palm Sunday is the party with which Christians celebrate the day the Bible says Jesus came to Jerusalem and he was praised as a messiah, to be crucified a few days later.

After a long procession on St. Peter's Square, accompanied by dozens of bishops and cardinals and followed by gospel readings, Francis said in his homily It was important to resist the temptation of triumphalism and to be humble.

"Happy cheers at the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem, followed by his humiliation, his enthusiasm, followed by brutal tortures, this mystery of dualities accompanies each year our entry into Holy Week," he said. .

The Church herself had to resist triumphalism and spiritual worldliness, she added, calling them "the most treacherous temptation that threatens the institution". "Triumphalism lives by gestures and words that have not yet pbaded through the crucible of the cross, it feeds on comparisons with others, judging them always worse, with defects, failures …" lamented.

"Jesus destroyed triumphalism with his pbadion"added Francisco.

For the pontiff, "the true triumph must give way to God"; and to make room for God, he declared "there is only one way: to empty oneself, to empty oneself, to be silent, to pray, to humiliate oneself".

After two hours of religious service, Francis asked the crowd to pray for peace, especially in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East..

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Catholicism's most important week which ends with Easter Sunday, the most important moment of the Christian liturgical calendar.

On Holy Thursday, Francisco will visit the city of Velletri, south of Rome, wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates in a prison and to commemorate Jesus' humble gesture to his apostles the night before his death, according to Catholic tradition.

With information from Reuters and AFP