2024-05-10 14:03:32
VATICAN CITY. “I propose to Governments that in the Jubilee Year they take initiatives that restore hope; forms of amnesty or remission of sentences aimed at helping people regain confidence in themselves and in society; paths of reintegration into the community which correspond to a concrete commitment to complying with the law”. Pope Francis states this in the Bull “Spes non confundit” (“hope does not disappoint”) announcing the 2025 Jubilee, delivered and read yesterday afternoon in a ceremony in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica. “To offer prisoners a concrete sign of closeness, I myself wish to open a Holy Door in a prison, so that it may be a symbol for them that invites them to look to the future with hope and a renewed commitment to life”, announces the Pontiff.
“In the Jubilee Year we will be called to be tangible signs of hope for many brothers and sisters who live in difficult conditions. I think of the prisoners who, deprived of freedom, experience every day, in addition to the harshness of imprisonment, the emotional void, the restrictions taxes and, in many cases, lack of respect”, underlines Francis.
“In every corner of the earth, believers, especially Pastors, should act as interpreters of these requests, forming a single voice that courageously calls for dignified conditions for those imprisoned, respect for human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision contrary to the Christian faith and which destroys any hope of forgiveness and renewal”, he adds.
2024-05-10 14:03:32