The chaplain of Rome's severely overcrowded Rebibbia prison has urged Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate mass there for the religious Assumption of Mary holiday on Saturday."Dear Pope Benedict, after praying for the soul of another prisoner who died here yesterday, this is my dream," Sandro Spriano wrote in an open letter to the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, on Thursday.
"That you, Holy Father, arrive at Rebibbia on Saturday without an an escort or insignia... that we listen devotedly to your homily.
"The inmates will give you a round of applause that will last at least 20 minutes," Spriano said.
He said of the 1,600 prisoners pairs of inmates were being crammed into single-occupancy cells and four into cells designed for two people - for at least 20 hours per day.
A 45-year-old and a 51-year-old prisoner have died in the jail in recent days, Spriano said.
"Maybe they would have survived, had they received better medical care," he said.
Besides severe overcrowding, the prisoners are currently enduring terrible heat inside the prison, a shortage of showers, and are rationed to one toilet roll each per month, he noted.
The prison houses drug addicts, HIV patients and lifers as well as "social outcasts who are driven to crime to achieve the idea of affluence that our relentlessly consumer society encourages", said Spriano.
"Whoever has made mistakes and sinned - as we all do - even those who have committed terrible crime and caused dreadful tragedies, are the children of God and our brothers and sisters," he stressed.
The pontiff, who is currently at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo outside the Rome, usually celebrates the Assumption of Mary - or 'Ferragosto' as it's called in Italy with mass and a traditional prayer.
The Assumption is one of the most important Catholic holidays and is a public holiday in Italy and other Catholic countries in Europe, such as France and Spain.
The Assumption of Mary into heaven, also called the Dormition, is also taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental and Coptic Orthodox Churches.
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SIC: AKI