Pope Benedict XVI to visit Rome’s Juvenile Detention Center

(Wed. 07 Feb. 2007):- Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the Casal del Marmo detention center for minors in Rome.
News of the upcoming March 18 visit was announced Feb. 6 by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office. It will be the Pontiff’s first visit to a prison since his papal election. Pope Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II, visited two of Rome’s prisons – Regina Coeli and Rebibbia. He visited the former in the year 2000 to repeat his appeal for prisoners worldwide. In 1983, he went to Rebibbia to forgive Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk, who shot and gravely wounded the Pope two years earlier. The Casal Del Maro prison was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1980.