Unlike the beginning of the Jubilee at the Vatican, the 88-year-old pontiff showed a more dynamic attitude, leaving aside his wheelchair for this special occasion. During his visit, Francis addressed a message of hope to the inmates.
Francis indicated that "closed hearts, hard hearts, do not help us to live. Therefore, the grace of a Jubilee is to break, to open... and, above all, to open hearts to hope".
In addition to solemnly inaugurating the Jubilee, the Pope wanted to highlight a worrying social wound: the crisis in prisons. In Italy, in 2024 alone, about 90 people deprived of their freedom took their own lives before this visit, a problem exacerbated by overcrowding and the lack of adequate staff to care for inmates.
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