On Sunday morning, February 2, 2020, members of the Vatican Secretariat of State went to a Roman prison, to meet with detainees and celebrate the Eucharist with them. They offered them Rosaries blessed by Pope Francis.
Speaking to the press in Italian, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, said: “A group of the Secretariat of State went to Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, to share the Sunday Eucharist with detainees and to deliver to them the fruit of the solidarity collected for the poorest, by the staff of the Vatican institution during Advent and Christmas.”
They encouraged the volunteers that work alongside the detainees. “At the end of the celebration, characterized by the prayer of the faithful in different languages <and> proclaimed by officials of the linguistic sections, after a brief greeting to the prisoners, the visitors also went to the headquarters of VO.RE.CO., the voluntary work Association run by the Friars Minor Conventuals, which operates on the territory, for the human and Christian promotion of prisoners, former prisoners and marginalized people of society.”
The Rosaries were then offered to the detainees. “Before returning to the Vatican, Rosaries blessed by Pope Francis, which he received during his Apostolic Journey to Thailand and allocated to the neediest, were delivered to the Prison Chaplain, Father Vittorio Trani, OFM Conv.”
