Despite the uncontrolled rumours going round regarding a worsening in Benedict XVI’s state of health, the Pope was, in fact, on top form during Sunday’s visit to the Rebibbia prison.
Indeed he transformed the pastoral visit to the Rebibbia New Complex prison in Rome, into an occasion for re-launching the prison pastoral care programme. Inmates shouted out “amnesty” in chorus, as the Pope walked by.
The Pope criticised the “overcrowding and degradation” that make “imprisonment an even more bitter experience.”
Sixty years ago, Pius XII sent his Christmas greetings to the inmates via a radio message and the photo of the smiling John XXIII, surrounded by prisoners of the “Regina Coeli” detention centre in 1958 (he presented himself with the words: “I am your brother Joseph”) is still on display in many households. If it is true that the civilization of a Country is measured by the state of its prisons, it is equally true that the humanity of a pontificate is measured by the warmth of its visits to detention centres."
This is the second time Benedict XVI has visited a prison; his first visit was to the Juvenile Prison of Casal Del Marmo in Italy, four years ago.
His visit happily coincided with Italy’s recent approval of a decree regarding the emptying of its prisons. It is not right that inmates should serve “a double sentence”, therefore the Pope asked institutions to analyse “structures, resources, personnel,” and ensure they were “tailored to the needs of the human person, even with the use of the non-custodial sentences or different modes of detention.”
The most moving moment was when the Pope embraced one of the inmates. The inmate had just a few seconds to give the Pope a quick hug and say in a faint voice “this is on behalf of all of Italy’s inmates.”
The message was communicated to the Pope by Gianni, the prisoner who surprised Benedict XVI with his comments on the meaning of confession and absolution. With his boxer’s body and hands, ultra short grey hair and a pair of glasses that give away his passion for reading, Gianni is known throughout the prison as the “theologian”.
“His response was very convincing. His Holiness explained to me that sin does not only have “vertical” consequences, it does not just involve the sinner and God, but has horizontal effects on the whole community,” Gianni said, showing that the title attributed to him was well deserved.
Today’s event gave Rebibbia’s inmates a chance to talk about their problems and to ask the Minister for Justice, Paola Severino, for “amnesty”.
Sixty years ago, Pius XII sent his Christmas greetings to inmates who were Faithful to the Precept of Jesus. For centuries (especially when they united temporal and spiritual power), His vicars have been leaving their palace at the Holy See, to offer a word of comfort to inmates and to take a look at the conditions in which they live.
Paul VI followed in the steps of his predecessor, Roncalli, in 1964 and climbed up the “Regina Coeli” stairs, which according to an old legend; one had to climb in order to really call themselves Roman.
Next, it was Rome’s first foreign bishop in half a millennium, Karol Wojtyla, to make the very Roman pilgrimage to the prison world, at the beginning and end of his pontificate: the first was to Rebibbia in 1983 to meet his attacker Alì Agca, and the second to Regina Coeli during the Jubilee.
Two years later in Parliament, right in the midst of the prison overcrowding crisis, John Paul II spoke out in defence of inmates, asking that mercy be shown toward them.
“We were encouraged by the fact that one of the first provisions the minister included in the decree, attempts to offer a solution to the problem of overcrowding in prisons,” Gianni said.
He then commented on the emotions provoked on such an unusual day: “I am a man of faith. I was raised by priests and my neighbourhood’s church was like a second home to me. I pray on my own a lot and I often ask Jesus to take care of us. I also prayed a lot for today’s meeting, asking the Lord to give me the strength to speak to the Pope. I come across as strong and courageous but I was unable to sleep these past few nights because of the excitement.”
A Sachertorte and a strudel: these were the simple gifts Rebibbia’s inmates offered the Pope.
A little afternoon snack after the meeting with the Pope in the prison chapel.
Benedict XVI paid a brief visit to the prison, accompanied by minister Severino.
He also made a quick stop at the prison’s social cooperative.
After tasting the sweets prepared for him, the Pope exited the building. He answered the questions posed to him by six of Rebibbia’s inmates.
One of them was from Benin and another was an Italian who worked in the infirmary.
The latter mentioned the problem of seropositivity, picking up from the comments made in the opening speeches.
The Pope’s meeting with the prison’s inmates ended with a “Prayer behind bars”, written by one of the inmates, followed by the recitation of the Our Father and the Pope’s blessing.
When he exited the Church, Benedict XVI blessed a cypress tree that was planted in memory of his visit in the front court yard.
“A very warm thank you for this welcome, I wish you a merry Christmas; we know that we are moving towards the light of God,” the Pope said as he said goodbye to the inmates at about 11:20.
The Pope received goodbyes from Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope’s Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, the chaplains, Fr. Sandro Spirano and Fr. Roberto Guarnieri, head of the penitentiary administration department, Franco Ionta and the prison director Carmelo Cantone.
As inmates said goodbye to the Pope, a small group of them sung the praises of the “amnesty”.
Significantly, in reply to a comment made by one of the inmates, the Pope said: “You say that people talk cruelly about you, unfortunately it is true, but I would say not only that, there are others who speak well of you and think of you. I think of my little Papal family, I am surrounded by 4 lay sisters, and we often talk about this problem.”
“We must bear with the fact that some people talk fiercely, some even talk fiercely about the Pope and yet we have to move on,” Benedict XVI said.
Furthermore, “we must remember that anyone can fall but God wants everyone to get closet o him, to recognise their own fragility, move on with dignity and find joy in life. We are aware that even dark acts happen for a reason and help us to become more ourselves and children of God. The Lord will help you and we are close to you.”
“Benedict XVI’s visit to Rebibbia, is a gesture that follows a long tradition of merciful acts carried out by Popes; however, there are certain important biographical elements that made this visit more personal from an emotional point of view,” the historian Giovanni Maria Vian, director of the Holy See’s newspaper, “L’Osservatore Romano”, commented.
“Having been forced to enlist and to go East, hundreds of kilometres away from home when he was less than 18 years old, Joseph Ratzinger knows what it is like to be put behind bars and perfectly understands the suffering caused by deprived freedom,” Vian emphasised.
During his unjust confinement, he managed to get hold of a notebook and a pencil, which he used to write down his feelings, in Greek.”
Before rising to the papal throne, Ratzinger served in the Roman Curia for two decades, where as Vian underlined, “it was customary for clerics to carry out the apostolate in Roman prisons, as the Secretaries of State, Tardini and Casaroli did for example.”
According to the Pope, a theologian and pastor, the key to the reading is in preaching. “A life without God does not work because it lacks light,” Benedict XVI said to the inmates of Rome’s youth detention centre.
“Surrounded by marginalised adolescents, most of whom were foreign, memories came flooding back to the Pope, taking him back to his days as a student in “Germany Year Zero”, a country devastated by Nazi madness and by ally bombings – Vian said. When he visited the juvenile prison in Casal del Marmo, the Pope urged inmates to abandon sin and choose the path of inner freedom back towards God, together.”
At Rebibbia, Benedict XVI guaranteed that: “we can be certain that our Government and leaders will do all that they can to improve the situation.”
He assured inmates that: “I have come above all, to express to you my personal and deepest closeness, but this personal visit is also a public gesture to remind our fellow citizens and our Government, of the great problems and difficulties that exist in Italian prisons.”
The Pope then mentioned the Italian Minister of Justice, highlighting that: “We spoke to the Minister of Justice and she told us that she understands what you are going through. We can be certain that our Government and leaders will do all that they can to improve the situation and ensure that justice is done towards you, so that you can enter society once more, confident in your human vocations and be respected for that.”
The Pope emphasised: “In as far as I can, I will always try to highlight the importance of the need for prisons to promote human dignity rather than attack it. Let us hope that the government will be able to respond to this calling.”