On the morning of this Sunday, December 14, third Sunday of Advent, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Prisoners in St. Peter’s Basilica, within the framework of the Iubilaeum 2025. The celebration was specially dedicated to people deprived of liberty and to those who work in the penitentiary field.
During his homily, the Pontiff placed the Jubilee in the key of hope, conversion, and joy, emphasizing the particular meaning of the Gaudete Sunday liturgy, which recalls “the luminous dimension of waiting” and trust in a new future, even in contexts marked by suffering.
The prison, a place of trial and also of redemption
Leo XIV acknowledged that the penitentiary world remains an area where “much remains to be done,” despite the commitment of many people. Alluding to the prophet Isaiah, he recalled that God is the one who frees and redeems, and that this certainty constitutes a demanding mission for both the Church and society.
The Pope warned of the real difficulties of prison life—discouragement, structural obstacles, misunderstanding—but insisted that one must not give in to weariness or fatalism. He emphasized that no human being fully identifies with their mistakes and that authentic justice must always be a path of reparation and reconciliation.
Justice, mercy, and “civilization of love”
In his reflection, the Pontiff highlighted that even behind prison walls, gestures of humanity, projects of good, and processes of conversion can flourish when sensitivity, respect, mercy, and forgiveness are preserved. In this sense, he recalled that the Jubilee is, above all, a call to conversion and, for that very reason, a source of hope.
Taking up words from St. Paul VI, Leo XIV spoke of the need to promote a “civilization of love”, also in the penitentiary field, based on charity as the principle of social and public life. In this line, he evoked the desire expressed by Pope Francis that the Holy Year include measures such as amnesties or sentence reductions aimed at reintegration and the recovery of personal and social trust.
The Gospel as a call to start anew
The Pope linked the jubilee message with the figure of St. John the Baptist, presented in the Gospel as an example of a courageous prophet and, at the same time, merciful. He recalled that Christian conversion always implies the possibility of starting anew, with a heart reconciled with God and with others.
In the final part of the homily, Leo XIV addressed with realism the concrete challenges of the prison world: overcrowding, the lack of stable educational and work programs, the wounds of the past, and the temptation of discouragement. In the face of all this, he reaffirmed the core of the Christian message: that no one is lost and that all are saved.
A message of hope ahead of Christmas
Looking toward the upcoming celebration of Christmas, the Pope encouraged inmates, penitentiary officials, and the faithful to embrace Christian hope with greater strength, remembering that the Lord is near and walks with his people even in the most difficult situations.
We leave below the full homily:
Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the Jubilee of hope for the prison world, for prisoners and for all those who care for the penitentiary reality. With a choice full of meaning, we do so on the third Sunday of Advent, which the liturgy defines as “Gaudete!”, from the words with which the entrance antiphon of Holy Mass begins (cf. Phil 4:4). In the liturgical year, this is the Sunday “of joy,” which reminds us of the luminous dimension of waiting: the trust that something beautiful and joyful will happen.
In this regard, on December 26 of last year, Pope Francis, upon opening the Holy Door in the Church of the Our Father at the Rebibbia detention center, launched an invitation to all: “I tell you two things,” he affirmed. “First: the rope in hand, with the anchor of hope. Second: open wide the doors of the heart.” Referring to the image of an anchor cast toward eternity, beyond any barrier of space and time (cf. Heb 6:17-20), he invited us to keep alive the faith in the life that awaits us and to always believe in the possibility of a better future. At the same time, however, he exhorted us to be, with a generous heart, agents of justice and charity in the environments in which we live.
As the end of the Jubilee Year approaches, we must recognize that, despite the commitment of many, much remains to be done in this sense even in the prison world, and the words of the prophet Isaiah that we have heard—“The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing to Zion” (Is 35:10)—remind us that God is the one who redeems, who frees, and this message resounds as an important and demanding mission for all of us. It is true, prison is a difficult environment and even the best intentions can encounter many obstacles. Precisely for that reason, one must not grow weary, become discouraged, or retreat, but move forward with tenacity, courage, and a spirit of collaboration. In fact, there are still many who do not understand that one must rise from every fall, that no human being coincides with what they have done, and that justice is always a process of reparation and reconciliation.
However, when the beauty of feelings, sensitivity, attention to the needs of others, respect, the capacity for mercy and forgiveness are preserved, even in difficult conditions, then from the hard ground of suffering and sin spring wonderful flowers and even behind prison walls mature gestures, projects, and encounters extraordinary in their humanity. This is a work on one’s own feelings and thoughts, necessary for people deprived of liberty, but even more so for those who have the great responsibility of representing justice before them and for them. The Jubilee is a call to conversion and, precisely for that reason, it is a reason for hope and joy.
For this reason, it is important first of all to contemplate Jesus, his humanity, his Kingdom, in which “the blind see and the lame walk; […] and the Good News is preached to the poor” (Mt 11:5), remembering that, while sometimes these miracles occur through extraordinary interventions of God, more often they are entrusted to us, to our compassion, to our attention, to the wisdom and responsibility of our communities and institutions.
And this leads us to another dimension of the prophecy we have heard: the commitment to promote in all areas—and today we emphasize especially in prisons—a civilization founded on new criteria and, ultimately, on charity, as St. Paul VI said when closing the Jubilee Year of 1975: “This—charity—would like to be, especially in the plane of public life, […] the principle of the new hour of grace and goodwill that the calendar of history opens before us: the civilization of love!” (cf. Catechesis, December 31, 1975).
With this purpose, Pope Francis particularly desired that during the Holy Year “forms of amnesty or remission of sentence aimed at helping people to regain confidence in themselves and in society” (Bull Spes non confundit, 10) be granted, and real opportunities for reintegration be offered to all (cf. ibid.). I trust that in many countries his wish will be fulfilled. The Jubilee, as we know, in its biblical origin was precisely a year of grace in which, in many ways, the possibility of starting anew was offered to all (cf. Lv 25:8-10).
The Gospel we have heard also speaks to us of this. John the Baptist, while preaching and baptizing, invited the people to convert and to cross the river again, symbolically, as in the times of Joshua (cf. Jos 3:17), to take possession of the new “promised land,” that is, of a heart reconciled with God and with others. And his figure as a prophet is eloquent in this sense: he was upright, austere, frank to the point of being imprisoned for the courage of his words—he was not “a reed shaken by the wind” (Mt 11:7)—; and yet, at the same time, he was rich in mercy and understanding toward those who, sincerely repentant, strove to change (cf. Lk 3:10-14).
St. Augustine, in this regard, in his famous commentary on the Gospel episode of the adulteress forgiven (cf. Jn 8:1-11), concludes by saying: “going away one after another […], the miserable one and mercy remained alone. And the Lord says to her: […] go, and from now on sin no more” (Sermon 302, 14).
Dear brothers, the task that the Lord entrusts to you—all of you, inmates and those responsible for the prison world—is not easy. The problems to be faced are many. Let us think of overcrowding, the still insufficient commitment to guarantee stable educational recovery programs and job opportunities. And let us not forget, on a more personal level, the weight of the past, the wounds to be healed in body and heart, disappointments, the infinite patience needed with oneself and with others when paths of conversion are undertaken, and the temptation to give up or to forgive no more. However, the Lord, beyond everything, keeps repeating to us that there is only one important thing: that no one is lost (cf. Jn 6:39) and “that all be saved” (1 Tm 2:4).
May no one be lost! May all be saved! This is what our God wants, this is his Kingdom, this is the goal of his action in the world. As Christmas approaches, we too want to embrace his dream with even greater strength, persevering in our commitment (cf. Jas 5:8) and full of trust. Because we know that, even before the greatest challenges, we are not alone: the Lord is near (cf. Phil 4:5), he walks with us and, with him at our side, something wonderful and joyful will always happen.