At the end of his life, Pope Francis made one last symbolic gesture: he emptied his personal bank account to donate 200,000 euros ($A356,000) to the prisoners he had long championed. Source: NCR Online.
It was a final act of love toward those he had called his “brothers and sisters behind bars”, an act that Bishop Benoni Ambarus, auxiliary Bishop of Rome and director of the Office for Prison Pastoral Care, said captures the very essence of Francis’ pontificate.
Bishop Ambarus has witnessed firsthand the Pope’s commitment to the incarcerated. Even as his strength visibly declined, Francis refused to abandon the most forgotten members of society during Holy Week.
“A few days ago, the Holy Father dragged his body to Regina Coeli,” Bishop Ambarus told the Italian daily La Repubblica, referring to the Pope’s last visit to the historic Roman prison on Holy Thursday, April 17.
Francis’s bond with the prison population was a core feature of his ministry. From the start of his papacy, he made headlines by washing the feet of inmates on Holy Thursdays and calling for greater compassion within justice systems.
But Bishop Ambarus said the Pope’s heartfelt appeals for prisoners often fell on deaf ears. Institutions, he said, “did nothing to give even a small signal” in response to Francis’s call for action.
In his final months, Francis pushed even harder for symbolic and concrete gestures to bring hope to the incarcerated.
One of the most significant achievements was the opening of a Holy Door at the Rebibbia prison. The idea, born from the inmates themselves, was enthusiastically embraced by Francis as a powerful way to “reignite the light” within prison walls.
The Holy Door at Rebibbia sparked a broader pastoral movement, where groups of volunteers, priests and religious sisters now regularly enter the prison to join the prisoners in Mass and in moments of reflection.
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In final act of mercy, Pope Francis donates entire private bank account to prisoners (By Camillo Barone, NCR Online)
