Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Sunday Mass at a juvenile detention center in Rome on March 18, and used the day’s reading-- the story of the Prodigal Son-- to offer them a new perspective on their lives.The Holy Father visited the Casal del Marmo, an institution that houses young people between the ages of 15 and 18, many of them assigned to the center after arrests for drug-related offenses.
During Mass in the institution’s chapel, the Pontiff remarked that the prodigal son in the famous parable initially had the impression that freedom meant doing whatever he wanted, rather than being “imprisoned by the discipline of life at home.”
Eventually he learned that true freedom comes with an ordered life, the Pope noted. He told the young people that God’s laws are not arbitrary prohibitions, but guideposts to help people choose the correct path to true happiness.
The turning point for the prodigal son came when he threw himself on the mercy of his father, the Pope said.
For Christians, he continued, the sacrament of Confession offers an even greater opportunity “constantly to begin again in life.”
From that point, he said, the sinner can find his way, and realizing that “only by living for others-- by giving of ourselves-- do we find our own lives.”
After the Mass the Pope met in the center’s gymnasium with inmates, the families, and the staff of the institution.
The young people detained at Casal del Marmo are mostly immigrants: of the 32 boys and 14 girls currently living there, 26 are from Romania and 10 are from the lands that once constituted Yugoslavia.
The center, established in 1980, allows youthful offenders to continue their education and learn a trade while living under close supervision.
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