Pope Francis's response to the Synod's call for the ordination of married men and for women deacons eagerly awaited.

Commenting on the retired pope’s new book, Dr Austin Ivereigh, Vatican expert and biographer of Pope Francis said, “It’s a totally imprudent and ill thought-out intervention which has the effect of undermining Francis’s authority.”

"These baptized are martyrs. They have not betrayed the Gospel," - Cardinal Sarah.

At the Church of Notre Dames des Enfants in Nimes, the building was smeared with human excrement, the main altar and tabernacle were looted and consecrated hosts were stolen and dumped.

New votive Mass will be celebrated annually on the Monday after Pentecost.

The bread must be only wheat and recently made so there is no danger of spoiling – 1983 Code of Canon Law.

A change in the rules made at the request of the Pope means women may now officially be among those whose feet are washed.

Change has been made in order that the Holy Thursday liturgy “might express more fully the meaning of Jesus' gesture in the Cenacle ... His limitless charity.”