Venice should be “a sign of beauty available to all, starting from the last, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home”, Pope Francis told pilgrims in St Mark’s Square on Sunday.
He reflected widely on the city’s history, patrimony and geography during his four-hour visit.
This began at the Vatican’s Biennale pavilion inside the city’s women’s prison, where Francis told artists to oppose “the selfishness that makes us function as solitary islands rather than collaborative archipelagos”, and culminated in a Mass with 10,000 people in the square and the veneration of St Mark’s relics in the basilica.
In his homily, Pope Francis called for “carefully-made choices to preserve our environmental and human heritage” and for “our Christian communities, neighbourhoods and cities to become welcoming, inclusive and hospitable places”.
“Venice is one with the waters upon which it sits,” he said. “Without the care and safeguarding of this natural environment, it might even cease to exist. Similarly, our life is also immersed forever in the springs of God’s love.”
The Pope arrived from Rome that morning by helicopter, landing inside the prison on Giudecca island where he visited the Vatican pavilion, titled “With my eyes”, and met inmates, staff and volunteers.
He told them it was not an “official visit” but a moment of “prayer, closeness and fraternal affection”. Noting the serious overcrowding in the Italian prison system – which has 10,000 more inmates than its capacity, according to recent figures – Francis emphasised the need “for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth” in prison.
“Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others,” he said.
The Pope used a wheelchair throughout his visit but was reportedly unfazed by the travel. After meeting a group of artists at the pavilion, he left the prison in a motoscafi water taxi to address a gathering of young people. He cited Venice’s canal traffic as he encouraged them to “go against the current”, as gondoliers must.
Francis enjoined them to “arise” like Our Lady in Luke 1:39 (“Mary arose and went with haste” – the text taken as the theme for the 2023 World Youth Day).
The Pope left Venice by helicopter that afternoon after venerating the evangelist’s relics in St Mark’s Basilica. The next day, the Vatican published the schedule for a papal visit to Verona on 18 May, the eve of Pentecost. His engagements will again include a visit to a prison.
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