The hope that does not disappoint

Pope Francis opens the Holy Door in the Rebibbia prison. "It is the first after the one in the Vatican Basilica" with which the Jubilee 2025 began. The Pontiff in the prison encourages the inmates: "Never lose hope. Open your heart. Every day I pray for you. I wish you much peace".

On the day of St. Stephen 2024, when thousands of pilgrims have already passed through the Holy Door in St. Peter's, Bergoglio opened one in the Roman penitentiary, "a cathedral of pain and hope". A symbolic gesture strongly desired by Francis to involve the prison population of the world in the Holy Year dedicated to hope. It is unique in the history of Jubilees. "I wanted the second Holy Door to be here, in a prison. I wanted each of us, inside and outside, to have the opportunity to open the doors of our hearts and understand that hope does not disappoint.

Francis likes to think of hope as the anchor that is on the shore and we with the rope are there, safe, because our hope is like the anchor on dry land – he explains in the homily – Do not lose hope. This is the message I want to give you; to all of us. I am the first. The rope in his hand, and then the windows wide open, the doors wide open. Above all the door of the heart. When the heart is closed it becomes hard as a stone; it forgets tenderness. Even in the most difficult situations – each of us has our own – always the heart is open.

The Pontiff shakes hands with the people inside – 300 including inmates, volunteers and prison police officers – and then, before leaving, with some outside, where just as many are waiting for him. He jokes, hugs, smiles.

He also stops with the TV journalists. "The prison has become a 'basilica' like the others", he says in response to a question from TV2000. In the bull of indiction Spes non confundit he had asked for a gesture of clemency for prisoners in the Jubilee, as happens in all Holy Years: "Forms of amnesty or remission of sentences". That day the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, was there: did he renew this invitation? "No, we didn't talk about this". Moreover, acts of this kind are expected in the Vatican.


Domenico Agasso
NP January 2025