Pope Francis has lunch with Naples prison inmates, including transsexuals, AIDS sufferers
March 23, 2015 9:50pm
Pope Francis on Saturday shared a meal with about 120 male and female inmates in a jail in Naples. Among the inmates lunching with Francis were several transsexuals and AIDS sufferers chosen to represent those sectors of the local prison population, a church official said.
 
The pope was greeted with applause and chanting as he arrived for the lunch meeting.
 
"Good afternoon to all of you, I will greet you personally on my way out because I don't want to delay lunch now. So, let's enjoy our lunch with calm first. Thank you for your warm welcome, thank you so much," the pope told the inmates ahead of the meal.
 
The luncheon came during the pope's day-long trip to the southern Italian city.
 
Francis urged members of organised crime to turn away from violence and exploitation and stop the "tears of the mothers of Naples" after visiting one of the city's most violent and drug-infested neighbourhoods.
 
He also spoke out against political corruption in an address to a crowd in the notorious Scampia neighbourhood, a stronghold of clans of the Camorra, the Naples version of the Sicilian mafia.
 
He urged residents of the area, which has often been the battleground of Camorra clans fighting for control of drug trafficking and extortion rackets, not to let criminals rob them of their hope.
 
The pope also took time to meet with disabled and sick people at a local church.
 
Since his election two years ago, Francis - who renounced the spacious papal apartments used by his predecessors and lives in a small apartment in a Vatican guest house - has made the defence of the poor and weakest members of society a key plank of his papacy.
 
He has also said members of organized crime excommunicate themselves from the Church, and that it would welcome them back if they repent.  — Reuters

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