How Pope Francis spoke to the prisoners about the possibility of change

[pnwmom]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/09/27/see-this-touching-image-of-pope-francis-holding-a-prisoners-hand/


During much of the speech, the pope sat in a wooden chair made by him for some of the inmates in the prison workshop. He stood before it as he spoke as well, as though he wanted to get even closer to the men and women in prison-issue blue clothes. Bishops and archbishops, clad in black with red trim, sat to the pope’s right, sometimes looking at him, sometimes watching the faces of the prisoners.

SNIP

All of us have something we need to be cleansed of, or purified from,” he told them. Then going off-script — as he did with great effect at Independence Hall and at the Festivals of Families, he added, “I am first among them.”

The prisoners seemed visibly moved. Some bowed their heads, one or two had eyes the welled.

Before stepping down to shake the hands of many, one by one, he gave them a last message of hope:’

They can be saved from “the lie that says no one can change.”

[Ilsa]

1. I must give him so much credit

for reaching out a way that no other pope in my memory has done. He's trying his best to be a real disciple of Christ in this kingdom.

"I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
...snip...
`Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

[pnwmom]

2. He is trying to model "the way" instead of just lecturing about it.

And what a difference that makes.

[goldent]

3. He is using his position to great effect.