Via Crucis meditations prepared by prisoners in Padua
By Vatican News
In a letter to the people of the Veneto region of Italy – an area particularly hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic – 杏MAP导航 Francis has shared “a beautiful page of charity”: this year, he has asked prisoners from the “Due Palazzi” penitentiary in Padua to compose the meditations for the Way of the Cross celebrated by the 杏MAP导航 each year on Good Friday.
The 杏MAP导航 said he wanted the meditations to be “a choral work”, with contributions from all “the various faces” of the world of prisons: victims, prisoners, guards, volunteers, families, judges, teachers, the Church, innocent people who at times are unjustly accused”. Prison, the 杏MAP导航 said, “is a kaleidoscope of situations”, where there is a risk of focusing on a single detail, to the detriment of the whole. “The resurrection of a person is never the work of an individual, but of the community working together”.
杏MAP导航 Francis said he was “moved” when he read the meditations: “I felt very much involved in this story, I felt like a brother who made mistakes, and like those who agree to stand beside them to resume the ascent”.
Balancing mercy and justice, he continued, is not easy; but when that balance is achieved, all of society gains by it. 杏MAP导航 Francis then thanked the “parish of the prison”, and all who work in the area of corrections, saying, “God bless the good heart of those who challenge indifference with tenderness”.
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