Pope Francis spent Holy Thursday visiting those who were serving time in a prison in Rome.
Despite recovering from an episode of pneumonia, Francis with inmate boxes in the prison of Regina Coeli while maintaining an appointment of the Easter season among the least fortunate.
Francis offered words of encouragement and inmates endowed with a rosary and a pocket gospel, according to the news of the Vatican.
“I have always liked to come to prison on Holy Thursday to wash your feet like Jesus,” said the pontiff. “This year, I can’t do it, but I want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families.”
Pope Francis appears after Ramos Sunday Mass in the Vatican
Pope Francis speaks with journalists while at the end of his visit to the Regina Coeli penitentiary in Rome on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Andrew Medichini)
Francis’s visit lasted about half an hour.
“Every time I enter a place like this, I wonder: why and not me?” Francis told journalists out of prison.
Pope Francis denounces the war in Sudan, he suggests that Lent ‘lives’ as a moment of healing’
Pope Francis visited a prison in Rome on April 17, 2025. (Andrew Medichini)
The fact that the 88 -year -old Pope maintained the appointment, while under the orders of doctors to take it easy and avoid crowds, it was a clear sign of the importance it gives to the prison ministy and the need for priests to serve more on the margins. That is the most true duration of the Holy Year 2025, which opened and will close with special papal events for prison inmates.
Francis is expected to do at least other appearances in Easter time in the next few days, even when the cardinals will preside in their place making the busy events of Holy Week.
Security details escort to Pope Francis while visiting a prison in Rome in Holy Thorsday. (Andrew Medichini)
Click here to get the Fox News application
On Sunday, Francis wished a “Sunday of the happy hand and a happy Holy Week” to the faithful gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro after the conclusion of a Mass chaired by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri instead. It was his first public appearance since he was discouraged from a hospital, where he was not receiving oxygen through a small hose under his nose.
Fox News Courtney Walsh and Associated Press contributed to this report.