Pope Francis Visits Rome Prison As He Recovers from Life-Threatening Pneumonia
After his Holy Thursday visit, the 88-year-old pontiff said: “Every time I enter one of these places, I ask myself: ‘Why them and not me?’”
By Gary Gately
Pope Francis paid a surprise Holy Thursday visit to a Rome prison, where he prayed with and blessed dozens of inmates even as he continues recovering from life-threatening double pneumonia.
As Francis entered Rome's Regina Coeli prison, about a mile from his Vatican residence, shouts of ““Libertá!” (“Freedom!”), “Grazie, Padre!” (“Thank you, Father!”) and “Prega per noi!” (“Pray for us!”) rang out among inmates gathered in the rotunda as well as those watching from upper windows, the Holy See Press Office said.
The 88-year-old Jesuit pontiff has delegated cardinals to preside over Masses and some other liturgical events through Easter Sunday. But reflecting his compassion for the less fortunate and the marginalized, he nonetheless maintained his Holy Thursday tradition of visiting prisoners.
The Holy Father met for about 30 minutes in the prison’s rotunda with roughly 70 inmates, all of whom regularly participate in a prison religious-education program. He greeted them all personally, offered them words of encouragement, prayed the “Our Father” with them, bestowed his blessing upon them and gave each of them a rosary and a pocket-sized Gospel booklet.
In his 12 years as pope, Francis has often visited detention facilities — and, on Holy Thursdays— washed prisoners’ feet, commemorating Christ’s washing the feet of his 12 apostles before his crucifixion. But the pope refrained from doing that Thursday for health reasons — even though he has not exactly been religious about following doctors’ orders to avoid crowds since his March 23 discharge after 38 days in a Rome hospital.
“Every year I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, washing feet, in a prison,” Francis told detainees in the rotunda of the severely overcrowded prison, a former 17th-century monastery. “This year, I cannot do it, but I can and want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families.”
In a sign of his continued recovery, Francis did not wear nasal tubes that provide supplemental oxygen during the visit or during several other recent public appearances.
On Thursday, many of the inmates wore wooden rosaries around their necks.
Some knelt, kissed the pope’s hand or leaned forward to greet him.
One inmate, Ferdinando, handed the Pope a handwritten note that read (in Italian): “May the light of the Lord illuminate my life and that of my family. Thank you, Pope, for your presence.”
Francis asked him about his family and assured him of his prayers
In the prison’s rotunda, where inmates attend weekly catechesis and Masses, some recalled writing to Francis asking him to visit Regina Coeli after his visit last December to another Rome prison, Rebibbia.
“We prayed, and he really came,” one inmate said.
After the visit, the ever-humble Francis, who often calls himself a sinner and asks others to pray for him, told reporters: “Every time I enter one of these places, I ask myself: ‘Why them and not me?’”
In 2013, Francis’ first year as pope, he departed from the traditional Holy Thursday practice of pontiffs washing the feet of 12 priests, instead celebrating Mass at a juvenile detention facility and washing the feet of teens held there. In the years since — except during the pandemic in 2020 — Francis has performed the ritual each Holy Thursday, mostly at detention centers, but also at a facility for the elderly and disabled and at one for migrants and refugees.
In recent days, Francis has made several unannounced public appearances, including one at the end of the Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square. He has also made unannounced visits to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, home to his favorite icon of the Virgin Mary, where he often goes to pray.
And at the Vatican Wednesday, Francis thanked more than 70 doctors, nurses and other staff at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he had been treated. He praised the rector of the hospital-affiliated Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Elena Beccalli, for her leadership. “When women command, things go well,” he said.
On Easter Sunday, the pope normally delivers the “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) address and papal blessing after Mass. But it’s uncertain whether Francis will do so or perhaps delegate someone else to deliver a message he writes.
Asked after the Regina Coeli visit how he would spend Easter, Francis replied: “I am living it as I can.”
