From the time of his election, Pope Francis has called us to go to the marginalized.

But Francis, like Jesus, does not just simply tell us to do something. He does it himself. He practices what he preaches, and calls us to do the same.

Francis’ interest in the incarcerated did not begin with his papacy. This was part of his life and ministry in Argentina, and we know that he called inmates he had been visiting after his election as Pope.

Before he was Pope, he went to prisons on Holy Thursdays, and continued that tradition after his selection as the successor of St. Peter. He has continue to give an example of visiting the imprisoned in his visits around the world, including the United States, when he took time during his trip to Philadelphia to spend time with inmates at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

In his words to those in prison, Francis speaks to them about bringing themselves to Jesus. On his first Holy Thursday as Pope, through both words and actions, he told youth in an Italian juvenile institution of the importance of allowing Jesus to wash the dust off their feet and treat the wounds that have come into their life’s journey.

In Bolivia, he told inmates at a prison there that “We can all bring our wounds, our pain, our mistakes,
our sins, and all those things which perhaps we got wrong. In the wounds of Jesus, there is a place for our own
wounds.” Why come to Jesus? “So that there they can be soothed, washed clean, changed and healed.”

Francis is aware of an attitude that exists about the incarcerated. It says that they cannot change and that
they have no hope for the future. In Philadelphia, he told the inmates that Jesus “comes to save us from the
lie that says no one can change.” He speaks of a future back in society, saying “confinement is not the same
thing as exclusion.” In Bolivia, he said that being “shut-in” is not the same thing as being “shut-out.” We need to
see “detention [as] part of a process of reintegration into society.”

He sees and understands that these people are those marginalized and he goes to them to assure them
that while others may have forgotten them or given up on them, God has not and never will give up on their
salvation. “This time of your life can only have one purpose,” he told the inmates in Philadelphia, “to give you
a hand getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society.”

But Francis is also aware of a prison mentality that does not favor trusting other inmates. As a part of his
call for rehabilitation and change, he challenges inmates about that attitude. To the inmates in Bolivia he said, “The way you live together depends, to some extent, on yourselves. Suffering and deprivation can make us selfish of heart and lead to confrontation, but we also have the capacity to make these things an opportunity for genuine fraternity. Help one another. The Devil wants quarrels, rivalry, divisions, gangs. Don’t let him play with you. Keep working to make progress, together.”

Francis also takes time to speak to prison administrators about their roles in rehabilitation. He talks about the
prison systems that “do not care for wounds, to soothe pains, to offer new possibilities. He believes they will be best served by remembering their own fallibilities.

In Bolivia, he was strong with the prison officials, telling them that they “carry out a vital public service…facilitating the process of reintegration. It is your responsibility to raise up, not to put down, to restore dignity and not to humiliate, to encourage and not to inflict hardship.”

Francis has also spoken outside prisons about issues that have an effect on prison reform. Before our Congress, he asked for an end to the death penalty, an appeal that, sadly, fell on deaf ears in the days after his visit.

The Pope has also spoken against the isolation of prisoners for long periods as being a “form of torture.”
This practice of putting men “in the hole” for disciplinary reasons as punishment can go on for a significant and undetermined time is seen by Francis as being a serious moral issue.

Francis reveals a concern and awareness of the plight of the incarcerated in another symbolic way. In his letter about Indulgences to be gained during the coming Year of Mercy, he wrote specifically for the incarcerated. “My thoughts also turn to those incarcerated, whose freedom is limited…May all be touched in a tangible way by the mercy of the father who wants to be close to those who have the greatest need for his forgiveness. They may obtain the Indulgence in the chapels of the prisons.

"May the gesture of directing their thought and prayer to the father each time they cross the threshold of their cell signify for them their passage through the Holy Door, because the mercy of God is able to transform hearts, and is also able to transform bars into the experience of freedom.”

Francis shows great concern for the incarcerated of the world. Sadly, many in society believe those in
prison have no hope for rehabilitation or redemption. This Pope knows they’re wrong, and encourages us to
believe and act on God’s complete, all-encompassing love for each and every one of us.

Father Martin McGeough, C.M., is coordinator of jail and prison ministries for the Diocese of Trenton.