VATICAN CITY, JUL 9, 2000 (VIS) - Wearing vestments made by Regina Coeli prison inmates and saying Mass on a platform they made in their workshop, the Holy Father this morning celebrated the Jubilee in Prisons in the centuries-old Roman building which serves as a jail for men. He reiterated the "request to authorities for a sign of clemency towards all prisoners" during the Jubilee Year which he made in his June 30th Message for this particular Jubilee Day.
Several score of prisoners attended the Mass, while the rest watched from either their cells overlooking the rotunda area where Mass was said or followed the celebration on screens placed throughout the prison. Prisoners served as altar boys and also formed the choir. A delegation of women from the city's female prison attended the papal Mass. Also present were the warden, prison guards, chaplains and civil authorities.
Pope John Paul, whose visit lasted two hours, is the third pontiff to visit Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) prison: Pope John XXIII came on December 26, 1958, and Paul VI visited in 1964.
"I come to you as a witness of God's love," the Pope told the prisoners in his homily. "I come to tell you that God loves you and wishes you to walk on a path of rehabilitation and pardon, of truth and justice. I wish that I could personally hear the individual story of each of you. Since I cannot do so, your chaplains can; they are near you in the name of Christ."
He remarked that "at the center of this Jubilee is Christ the prisoner, but at the same time, Christ the lawmaker. It is He Who makes the Law, Who proclaims it, Who consolidates it. In any case, he does not do so with arrogance, but rather with meekness. ... He strongly proclaims justice, but heals wounds with the balm of mercy."
The Holy Father stated that "it is a duty to receive the message of the Word of God in its integral meaning. The 'prison' from which the Lord comes to free us is, in the first place, that in which the spirit is chained. The spirit's prison is sin. ... God takes to heart the integral liberation of man, a liberation which not only regards physical and external conditions, but is above all that of the heart."
He said that "our sin upset God's plans, and not only human life, but creation itself feels it. This cosmic dimension of the effects of sin can be easily seen in ecological disasters. Not any less worrisome are the damages caused by sin in the human psyche. ... Sin is devastating. It removes peace of heart and produces a chain of suffering in human relations. I imagine how many times, going over your personal stories, or listening to those of your cell mates, you have noted this truth!"
John Paul II ended his homily with remarks on the prisoners' sentences: "Sentences, in fact, cannot be a merely retributional in nature or a kind of social retaliation or institutional vendetta. Sentences, and prison, make sense if, while the needs of justice are affirmed and crime is discouraged, they serve to renew man, offering those who have erred a chance to reflect and change life, to be reinstated fully into society."
After Mass, the Pope received gifts from the inmates at Regina Coeli prison and then made a brief speech, following those by civil officials.
He told the prisoners that he extended his greetings to their families as well. "I know well," he said, "that each of you lives in looking forward to the day when, once your sentence is completed, you will again be free and return to your families.
"Aware of this, in the Message I sent the world for this Jubilee day, in the wake of my predecessors and in the spirit of the Holy Year, I asked for a sign of clemency for you, by means of a reduction of sentence, I asked for this deeply aware that such a choice is a sign of sensitivity towards your condition, a sign capable of encouraging the commitment to repentance and of inviting personal reformation."
HML;JUBILEE PRISONS;...;REGINA COELI ;VIS;20000710;Word: 700;
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