L'Aquila, Italy, Jul 3, 2010 / 15:43 pm
During his pastoral visit to Sulmona, Italy on Sunday, in addition to events on the official program, the Holy Father will also meet with a delegation from the local prison. According to their chaplain, the event will serve to communicate the hope found in Christ for inmates' "interior freedom."
Pope Benedict XVI, visiting the city in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Celestine, will meet with a representation composed of five inmates, security personnel and the director of the prison after he blesses a new home for elderly and sick priests.
Looking forward to the event, prison chaplain Fr. Franco Messori told Vatican Radio on Friday that the encounter with the Pope is valuable because it serves as an "announcement of a salvation that is for everyone and that freedom is Jesus Christ.
"In the end," he said, "the chaplain's task is announcing to him who seeks freedom that it is Jesus Christ who gives (it), even if one is in jail, even if justice sees fit that he or she must stay there."