Pope to inmates: "Jesus doesn't ask us where we have been or what we have done"

Pope to inmates: "Jesus doesn't ask us where we have been or what we have done"

Pope Francis blesses an inmate at the Curran-Fromhold Correction Facility in Philadelpkia.

(Vatican Radio) Before wrapping up his Apostolic Visit to the United States on Sunday afternoon, Pope Francis met with inmates at Philadelphia’s  Curran-Fromhold Correction Facility.

During his time there he exchanged words with some of the inmates and their families as well as with prison staff. 

Travelling with Pope Francis was Vatican Radio's Seán-Patrick Lovett who witnessed, first hand, what he describes as an encounter that was both moving and disturbing.

He sent us this report:  

The "Fantasy Island" pornography store and the "Kingdom of God House of Worship". These are the last two things you see before you disappear behind the gates and walls and barbed wire fences of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility - a long-winded euphemism for what I would call a prison. 

You turn to catch your last glimpse of the Philadelphia skyline, a faraway blur in the smoggy distance, then you are inside. Literally. There are no windows. Only sliding metal doors and the acrid smell of freshly painted concrete walls. Actually the ceilings and floors are made of concrete too, which adds to the claustrophobic sensation of bring inside a bunker - outside of space, outside of time. Why else do we describe serving a prison term as "doing time"?

60 men and 11 women (sitting in the front row and the only ones who smiled when the Pope came in) - and at least that many security guards lining the walls (one for one). All the inmates dressed in the same regulation blue shirt, pants and canvas shoes. No belts. No laces. The smiling PR person in the room (yes, the prison hired a public relations firm to "manage" the Pope's visit to the jail) told me the prisoners were chosen on the basis of their "good behavior". Which makes you wonder what the "bad behavior" was that got them here in the first place. 

But then it really doesn't matter. Because Jesus, said Pope Francis, "doesn't ask us where we have been or what we have done". The Pope used the beautiful image of washing feet (something with which he is very familiar) to make his point that "life means getting our feet dirty from the dust-filled roads of life and history" and that Jesus "washes our feet so we can come back to the table". 

Pope Francis didn't spare his criticism of the prison system either: "confinement is not the same thing as exclusion", he said. In fact, "it is painful when we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities". 

Just for the record, those who know (not the PR person) describe the current punitive system as anything but "correctional". 40% of inmates suffer from some form of psychological or mental problem and risk leaving prison (if they ever do) worse off than when they arrived. 

On a less disturbing note: the Pope's chair was made by the prisoners themselves. And he guessed as much. Who knows how many similar chairs he sat in when he regularly visited prisons as Archbishop of Buenos Aires? Pope Francis caressed the chair approvingly, then he turned to the inmates and gave them the thumbs up. When a female prisoner in the front row shyly indicated she'd had a hand in sewing the cushion - he blew her a kiss. 

A caress, a thumbs up, and a kiss. That's how you soothe pain. At least for a moment.

With Pope Francis on his final day in the United States - I'm Seán-Patrick Lovett.

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