In an extraordinary witness of Christian love, Pope Francis visited Rome’s Regina Coeli prison just before 3 p.m. this Holy Thursday, April 17, and met 70 inmates in the rotunda of the prison.
The 88-year-old pope was driven in a white Fiat 500 car from the Vatican, with minimal escort, to the prison just five minutes from Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives.
Staff and inmates alike applauded as he entered the prison in his wheelchair. The director of the prison, Claudia Clementi, welcomed him, as did a police chief and the prison chaplain.
Like yesterday, when he met 70 members of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital and Vatican medical staff, Francis did not wear the nasal tubes through which he receives oxygen during today’s half-hour visit. It is the clearest sign yet that he is breathing well and on the road to recovery.
Pope Francis waved gently as he was wheeled into the rotunda by his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, and accompanied by his Argentine secretary, the Rev. Juan Cruz Villalón. Video released by the Vatican shows the pope being greeted by the inmates with warm applause and shouts of “Grazie, Padre!” (“Thank you, Father!”) and “Libertá!” (“Freedom!”). The Vatican reported that the inmates he met were “of various nationalities, who regularly participate in the activities and catechesis organized by the prison chaplain.”
After a brief greeting from the director, who expressed the gratitude of the entire community for the visit, Pope Francis addressed the inmates, saying, “I like to do every year in prison what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, the washing of the feet.” He added, “This year I can’t do it, but I can and I want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families.”
At the end of a moment of prayer, Pope Francis greeted each of the prisoners individually in the rotunda. He concluded the encounter by inviting those present to pray the Our Father together and then imparting his blessing on them.
Francis last spent Holy Thursday at this prison in 2018, when he celebrated the Mass commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus and washed the feet of 12 inmates, including 3 women. This time, however, Francis did not have the physical strength to do so; he is in the 26th day of the at least two-month convalescence period that his doctors prescribed when they discharged him from the Gemelli Hospital on March 23, after treating him for 38 days for double pneumonia, during which he suffered two life-threatening breathing crises.
The Italian Ministry of Justice website said that as of April 16, there were 1,098 men detained in the jail awaiting trial or sentencing. The facility is designed to hold fewer than 700 prisoners.
As he left the prison, sitting in the front passenger seat of a white Fiat 500, the pope stopped to speak to reporters and told them, “Every time I enter these doors, I ask myself, ‘Why them and not me?’”
He has explained on several occasions that all people are sinners, himself included, but grace, providence, family upbringing and other factors play a determining role.
An Italian journalist asked him how he was. Francis, with a smile and his customary sense of humour, quipped, “Seated!” The journalist then asked how he was living this Easter period, given his condition and convalescence. The Argentine pope replied, “As best I can!” With that remark, he waved to the journalists and was driven back to Santa Marta, his residence in the Vatican.
Material from Catholic News Service was used in this report.
