Enzo, from the Santa Giovanna Antida parish in Rome, wanted to share his experience: for 25 years, every week – together with his wife and two other couples – he has been going through the numerous gates of the Regina Coeli prison, which currently holds 1084 inmates, with a capacity of just 638 places.
Like many other Italian penitentiary structures, Regina Coeli faces problems of overcrowding, lack of personnel and difficulties in guaranteeing dignified conditions for the prisoners.
It is no coincidence that in the parish dedicated to Saint Giovanna Antida there is a stable group that is committed with enthusiasm, loyalty and missionary fervour to prison pastoral care.
Enzo’s testimony
‘Those who are in prison think with regret or remorse of the days when they were free, and suffer heavily from a present time that never seems to pass. A strong experience of faith can be a decisive help to the human need to achieve inner balance even in this difficult situation. Herein lies one of the reasons for the value of the Jubilee in prisons: the Jubilee experience lived behind bars can lead to unexpected human and spiritual horizons’ (John Paul II for the Jubilee of Prisons in 2000).
The appeal for the Jubilee of 2000
Accepting this message, in February 1999 the parish of St Giovanna Antida in Rome began a mission at the Roman prison of Rebibbia, with a priest and two couples of catechists from the Neocatechumenal Way.
In 2000 the mission began to take place in all eight sections of the Regina Coeli penitentiary, once a week throughout the Jubilee year.
After the Jubilee, an invitation arrived from the Regina Coeli chaplain, Father Vittorio Trani: so three pairs of catechists continued this mission, concentrating on section VIII, which houses men who have committed crimes ranging from violence against women to paedophilia.
Currently, the Regina Coeli prison is frighteningly overcrowded and requires major renovations. The prison police are also suffering from this situation.
Overcoming the social stigma against prisoners
In our experience over the years, we have become aware of the lack of knowledge about this world. There is a filter, morbid and at the same time prejudicial, whereby one is distant and severe, hard and uncompromising with those who have made mistakes.
But when one approaches this world, one discovers the people, their stories, one approaches their existential complexity: you find yourself in front of a person who has made a mistake, but first and foremost a person.
This closeness changes your outlook, your attitude, your level of attention and listening and for us Christians, in those people we discover what we know from the Gospel to be the presence of Christ himself.
The mission in prison
For over 25 years, we at the parish of Santa Giovanna Antida have been praying with the inmates, reading the Scriptures together, organising penitential celebrations, Mass, all the rites of Holy Week: the Palm Sunday procession, the washing of the feet…we proclaim the Gospel, going from cell to cell, bringing them the Lord’s blessing.
Pope Francis has asked us to pass on this message to the prisoners on his behalf: ‘To the prisoners, in the Pope’s name, you can say this: The Lord is with them. No cell is so isolated that the Lord is not there. His fatherly and motherly love reaches everywhere’.
This love also reached me, who, in the dark times of my life, could have found myself behind those bars.
Why them and not me?
Enzo, Santa Giovanna Antida parish, Rome
On the cover – The balconies inside Regina Coeli prison (photo by Alberto Cristofari/Contrasto)
In the article Facebook Ombudsman for the rights of prisoners in the Lazio Region Stefano Anastasia
