(February 17, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday expressed deep sorrow for the victims
of this week’s deadly prison fire in Honduras that has killed over 300 inmates. The
fire that swept through the overcrowded prison of Comayagua early Wednesday morning
killed 355 inmates who died by asphyxiation, burn or were trapped in their cells.
Vatican Secretary of State sent a message on the Pope’s behalf to Bishop Roberto Camilleri
of Comayagua, saying the Holy Father raises fervent prayers for the more than 350
dead while expressing his spiritual closeness to the families and hoping for a quick
and total recovery of the wounded. In such a tragic moment as this, the Pope invoked
the loving protection of the patroness of Honduras, Our Lady of Suyapa, on all. Even
Holy See’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi commented on the deadly prison fire in
the overcrowded Comayagua prison saying it deeply challenges our capacity for compassion.
Commenting in his weekly editorial ‘Octava Dies’, the Jesuit priest described the
tragedy as ‘horrific’, ‘an agony’ and ‘an arrow through the heart’. He however cautioned
that despite the fact that some people have done wrong it does not deprive them of
dignity and cannot justify brutalizing them in a climate of violence that degrades
also those who often have to manage them and renders any rehabilitation virtually
impossible. The Vatican official regretted overcrowding in prisons, especially in
poorer countries such as Chile, Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Saudi Arabia,
Morocco, El Salvador, Tunisia, Argentina and Mexico. In this regard, Fr. Lombardi
recalled that Pope Benedict XVI’s African synod document where he evokes the terrible
condition of prisoners in Africa, and also his visit to Rome’s Rebibbia prison a week
before Christmas, always drawn attention on the circumstances and serious problems
of prisoners around the world, remembering how their conditions are fact a measure
of the level of civilization of different countries.