Pope’s General Intention for August 2012

July 31, 2012: The General intention of Pope Benedict XVI for the month of August 2012: That prisoners may be treated with justice and respect for their human dignity.
Criminals disrespect the human dignity of their victims when they steal, hurt, or kill. So do criminals lose their own dignity in prison? No. Church teaching respects the human dignity of all people, including criminals. In an Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Prisoners are human persons who, despite their crime, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. They need our care. With this in mind, the Church must provide for pastoral care in prisons, for the material and spiritual welfare of the prisoners.”
Part of that pastoral care involves praying for the conversion of prisoners. Rehabilitation is possible only when human dignity is respected. That’s why Pope Benedict asks us to join him in praying this month that prisoners may be treated, not only with justice, but also with respect for their human dignity. The Pope said: “Pastoral workers have the task of studying and recommending restorative justice as a means and a process for promoting reconciliation, justice, and peace, and the return of victims and offenders to the community.” Restorative justice is a process in which offenders, victims, and the community come together to repair the damage caused by a crime. Justice must be accompanied by reconciliation that leads to healing. Without reconciliation, prisons will be places that make people worse, not better.

We owe respect, justice and dignity to every person, in the same way that we owe it to ourselves, as sons and daughters of God, Father and Mother of all men and women, who for that reason are brothers and sisters to one another.

But when someone has committed a crime, which deserves punishment according to law and justice, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that he or she is condemned for ever, that there is no solution, and we make a ‘global’ judgement. God, on the contrary, says ‘You can start again, I forgive you’, and, still more, ‘I still love you’. This is dignity restored, this is true respect. Because God looks at the depths of the heart, its sincerity; we very often judge by appearances.

This month’s general intention of the Pope invites us all, to think about our brothers and sisters in prison and to take a positive attitude to them, that they may be treated with justice and dignity.