Scottish Catholic Observer

The Holy Father is to send a special Easter gift to a numbers of Italian prisoners.

Tomorrow, the detainees in the Roman prison of Regina Coeli will receive, as an Easter gift from the Pope, 1200 pocket-sized copies of the Gospel.

It is the same volume, also containing the Acts of the Apostles, that the Pope had handed out to the participants in the Angelus of Sunday April 6 in St Peter’s Square (above), and to the faithful who on the same day attended Mass celebrated by the Pope in the church of St. Gregory the Great.

Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, Almoner of His Holiness, will be responsible for distributing the Gospels during a visit to the prison.

The next day the Archbishop will celebrate Mass In Cena Domini at the Isola dell’Amore Fraterno, a voluntary association founded in 1996 that works to provide preventative measures, solidarity and assistance for detainees, ex-convicts and those who are socially marginalised or estranged from their families.

Prisoners from a different jail in Sanremo, Italy, have sent Pope Francis a new pastoral staff, which he used on Palm Sunday. Carved out of olive wood, it featured a simple cross on top and elements from Pope Francis’ coat of arms: the official seal of the Society of Jesus, an eight-pointed star symbolising Mary and the spikenard flower, a symbol of St Joseph.

During Holy Week last year Pope Francis washed the feet of prison inmate during the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Rome’s Casal del Marmo prison for minors.

In two days the Pontiff will visit the Centro Santa Maria della Provvidenza Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi home and wash the feet of the residents, many of whom are elderly and have disabilities.

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