The Commission for Evangelization, Catechesis and Catechumenate of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has launched a campaign aimed at brotherhoods and confraternities throughout Spain to finance the delivery of 3,000 Catholic Bibles to inmates in penitentiary centers on the occasion of the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV.
The initiative, coordinated together with the Prison Pastoral Care, is directly linked to the visit that the Holy Father will make on June 10 to the Brians 1 Penitentiary Center, in Barcelona.
The goal is that every prisoner who wishes to live and deepen their faith can receive a copy of the Holy Scripture as a gift from the Pope during that day. According to the Episcopal Conference, it will be the representatives of the Prison Pastoral Care who will be in charge of distributing the Bibles in the different centers.
A special low-cost edition
To facilitate the campaign, the Library of Catholic Authors (BAC) has prepared an economical edition of the Bible at a cost of five euros per copy. The CEE has expressly requested the collaboration of brotherhoods and confraternities, one of the most rooted realities in Spanish popular piety.
Contributions must be made by bank transfer to an account set up by the Spanish Episcopal Conference under the concept “Biblias P. Penitenciaria”. In addition, it is requested to communicate by email the number of copies sponsored and the amount donated to facilitate the organization of the distribution.
Prison pastoral care, present in Leo XIV’s trip
Leo XIV’s visit to Brians 1 focuses on one of the pastoral dimensions that the Church has historically maintained through prison chapels, volunteering, and spiritual accompaniment programs for people deprived of liberty.
With this campaign, the Episcopal Conference seeks to directly involve Spanish confraternities in a concrete work of evangelization and charity linked to the Pontiff’s passage through Spain, hoping to reach the goal of the 3,000 Bibles before the Pope’s arrival, so that they can be delivered during the days of the apostolic visit.