The washing of the feet of prisoners and the Holy Door. Attention to prisons in the pontificate of Francis

The washing of the feet of the prisoners on Holy Thursday, the Holy Door opened at Rebibbia in the new complex. And that phrase 'why you and not me'. Pope Francis has been the Pontiff of openness to prisons, with a focus on those who have done wrong and, behind bars, pay and try to settle the account with society. A battle against prejudice but also, against populist drifts.

Words that echo among the army of volunteers who daily serve for free in prison. "He has been a guide and reference. Simply with his loving attention and. his physical presence in prisons Bergoglio has opened up to the world the suffering humanity that lives 'restricted' - says Roberto Monteforte, former Vaticanist of L'Unità and today a volunteer at Rebibbia and coordinator of the news bulletin Non tutti sanno-. He did this with many gestures, in particular by celebrating during the years of his pontificate at the beginning of Holy Easter the service of the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday, in a prison in the capital, or wherever he could". In the Pontiff's words, the invitation to put at the centre, always, respect for the person and his dignity, his right to hope and to the future.

'With his gestures, Pope Francis has invited us to break the mechanisms that lead to condemnation without appeal and kill hope,' Monteforte adds. For those who live the reality of prison, Bergoglio has truly been the Pope of Mercy and of the last ones. He testified to this with his life. His relationship with the prison reality is ancient. He himself testified to it when he recalled how, when he went to visit his inmate 'friends' as bishop of Buenos Aires, he asked himself the question "Why you inside and not me?". He will always repeat it and he will do so by urging everyone to reflect on the human condition, on the possibility that everyone has of making mistakes. So not to become prisoners of indifference and preconception towards the world of the 'inmates''.

And then art and beauty: 'He wanted them to enter prisons: thus the Holy See's pavilion at last year's Venice Biennale exhibition was set up with female inmates inside the Giudecca women's prison'. And then the strength of the act considered most significant this year, that of the Jubilee. "Bergoglio decided that there should also be a Holy Door in the Rebibbia prison. So the Church of the Our Father in the New Complex became the fifth Papal Basilica, the one of 'suffering', of hope and forgiveness,' Monteforte continues. A very strong message, because it indicated all prisoners as brothers to be loved and welcomed'.

Behind bars, Pope Francis has been "the voice of the prisoners and the most beloved father. He has resolutely demanded respect for the dignity of every imprisoned person. He has invoked humanity for the inhuman living conditions in prisons and in this Jubilee year has asked the rulers for concrete acts of clemency and humanity. He has not been heard'.