The Latest: Pope brings message to Panama’s detained youth
Posted Jan 25, 2019 10:54:30 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PANAMA CITY — The Latest on Pope Francis’ visit to Panama (all times local):
10:50 a.m.
Pope Francis is denouncing how society marginalizes and stigmatizes sinners and criminals when instead it should create opportunities for them to change.
Francis made the remarks during an emotional penitential liturgy Friday at Panama’s main youth detention facility, where more than 150 young people are serving time for murder, robbery and other crimes.
Francis brought World Youth Day to the Las Garzas de Pacora detention centre so that its inmates, even behind barbed wire fencing, could participate in the Catholic Church’s big festival of faith.
In his homily, Francis recalled that society tends to label people good and bad, the righteous and the sinners. In his words:
“This attitude spoils everything, because it erects an invisible wall that makes people think that, if we marginalize, separate and isolate others, all our problems will magically be solved. When a society or community allows this, and does nothing more than complain and backbite, it enters into a vicious circle of division, blame and condemnation.”
Francis has made a tradition of visiting prisoners during his foreign visits, and has long made prison ministry part of his priestly vocation to preach to the most marginal in society. Just last year, Francis changed church teaching on the death penalty, saying it was inadmissible in all cases.
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2 a.m.
Pope Francis is bringing World Youth Day to Panama’s juvenile delinquents who can’t participate in the Catholic Church’s big festival of faith.
Francis on Friday will celebrate a special penitential Mass inside the Las Garzas de Pacora detention centre, which is Panama’s main youth lockup. In a twist, he will also hear the inmates’ confessions inside confessionals the detainees made themselves.
It’s part of Francis’ belief that prisoners deserve the same dignity as everyone else — as well as hope.
Francis opened his first full day in Panama with that message of hope Thursday, formally welcoming tens of thousands of pilgrims to World Youth Day at a twilight pep rally at the capital’s seaside park.
He urged them to be builders of bridges of encounter, not “builders of walls that sow fear and look to divide and box people in,” a clear reference to the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Associated Press
