Pope Francis Speaks to Prison Chaplains, Discusses Imprisonment
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iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(ROME) — Pope Francis had some frank words Thursday about the prison system, saying imprisonment is often promoted by unscrupulous politicians and journalists stirring up society’s desire for revenge.
Speaking to a group of prison chaplains in Rome, Francis said imprisonment is often used to punish the weak in society while the “big fish” go free. He reiterated the Vatican’s call for the abolition of the death penalty but went a step further, calling life sentences “hidden deaths.”
He said that each time after he makes a Sunday phone call to someone in prison in his home city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he asks himself, why is he in there and not me?
The pope went on to call the “one billion people trapped in absolute poverty” a real crime, one that damages human dignity and the common good.
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