Less than half an hour, but he didn’t want to miss. Pope Francis, as soon as he stopped raining, at 2.55 pm, and before he started to drip, at 15.25, he put himself in the car and reached the Regina Coeli prison, a stone’s throw from the Vatican to meet the prisoners. On Holy Thursday, as he has always done, even when he was Archbishop in Bueno Aires, Bergoglio visits the prisoners asking the question, as he often explained, “why are they and not me?”. To wait for him, in the roundabout of the Roman criminal institute where he had already been in 2018, about seventy prisoners. The chorus “Francesco Francesco”, alternating with the cry “freedom freedom”, continued even after the release of the Pope’s car. Francesco spoke for a few minutes, without noselli for oxygen, welcomed by the director, Claudia Clementi, and by the penitentiary staff.
“I like to do every year what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, the lavender of the feet in prison,” he explained. «This year I can’t do it, but I can and I want to be close to you. I pray for you and for your families ». At the end he personally greeted all the 70 prisoners, of different nationalities, who regularly participate in the activities and catechesis organized by the institute chaplain.
When he came out, aboard the white 500, answering the questions of the Cristiana Caricato colleague, of Tv2000 stressed that “Whenever I enter a place like this I ask myself: why are they and not me? ” And on Easter he said “I will live it as I can”.
