Pope Francis’s love for prisoners lasted until the end

The prisoners always occupied a special place in the heart of Pope Francis, something he kept showing throughout his pontificate.

He visited them in the different countries to which he traveled and even decided to open himself A holy doorfor the first time in history, in the prison of Rebibbia for the Jubileo de la Esperanza.

In his first Holy Week after being elected Pontiff, in 2013, he moved to jail to wash the feet to the prisoners, a gesture that repeated every year until his last Holy Thursday, four days before he died.

On April 17, in the midst of its fragility, it visited the prisoners of the jail Regina Coelinear the Vatican, testimony of his tireless defense of human dignity and his predilection for the discarded.

Fr. Raffaele Grimaldi, inspector of the chaplains of Italian prisons stood out in conversation with ACI Press that this gesture of the Holy Father, loaded with symbolism, is a sign that “his attention to the last and to the poor manifested it until the last day”.

The “great message” of Pope Francis

“When going to Regina Coeli, A few days before returning to the father’s house, he wanted to leave us a great message of attention to the imprisoned. He fought for them from the first moment since he was chosen Pontiff, but also before, already when he was in Buenos Aires, ”he said.

For Fr. Grimaldi, who before coordinating the 230 priests who serve the prisoners in Italy was chaplain in jail Secondigliano From Naples for 23 years, he said that, in some way, the Holy Father wanted to say goodbye to them, after giving them hope for more than 12 years.

“Pope Francis left this earthly world by giving us a task: to continue his work with those imprisoned,” said the Italian priest.

Despite his delicate state of health, the Holy Father met with 70 prisoners at the beginning of the Pascual Triduum. During the meeting, the Pontiff explained the reason for his visit, linked to Holy Thursday and the traditional gesture of the sink of the feet: “I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, the sink of the feet, in jail.”

“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,” the pontiff told prisoners with a weak tone of voice.

After a moment of prayer, Pope Francis personally greeted all the detainees one by one, whom he gave his blessing.

Fr. Grimaldi said that each prisoner has a story to share: “stories of suffering, loneliness, abandonment, but also a story of sin.”

“Pope Francis, when in these years he washed his feet on Holy Thursday in several Italian prisons, wanted to make understand that, in front of the feet, he had no prejudice, not even towards those who had committed serious crimes. Thus, the detainee feels welcomed, without being judged, he feels raised by the words and gestures of the Pope,” he added.

“Why them and not me?”

At the exit of the prison last Holy Thursday, Pope Francis remembered the question that appeared inside each time he visited a penitentiary center: “Why them and not me?”

Fr. Grimaldi recalled that, during his meetings with the imprisoned, “he frequently repeated this expression to say that within our penitentiary institutes there are also innocent people.”

“Because you can easily end in jail,” said the priest, “because of a human conviction, which can also be a wrong conviction, of human people who can be wrong.”

Therefore, he said that within prisons “there are many innocent people, who hope to leave because they have not committed crimes.”

In this context, Fr. Grimaldi said that the future bishop of Rome will also have “the commitment to continue with the work of Pope Francis for prisoners.”

“He sowed a seed and his message must be maintained,” he concluded.