Parolin sees ‘sign of hope’ in release of Cuban prisoners for Jubilee

“It is significant that the Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis’ appeal,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Vatican’s secretary of state called the gradual release of 553 prisoners in Cuba “a sign of great hope” at the beginning of the Jubilee Year.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin also noted US President Joe Biden’s commutation of death sentences for 37 death row inmates, expressing hope that there will be more “gestures of clemency” from governments throughout 2025.

Jubilee years in the biblical tradition included the liberation of slaves and the forgiveness of debts, as described in the Book of Leviticus, which proclaimed liberty and restoration every 50 years as a divine act of justice and mercy.

The Cuban government’s announcement of the prisoner release, dated 14 January, cited “the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025” as a factor in President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s decision, and noted Pope Francis’ mediation in the negotiations, in which the US State Department agreed to remove Cuba from its state sponsor of terrorism list to secure the release of the political prisoners.

“It is significant that the Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis’ appeal,” Parolin said, in an interview published by Vatican News during his visit to France this week.

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for “gestures of clemency” during the year, the cardinal added, particularly in the papal bull Spes Non Confundit inaugurating the Jubilee, which specifically asked governments to implement forms of amnesty or pardon, as well as programmes to help former prisoners reintegrate into the community.

“I propose that in this Jubilee Year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope, forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society, and programmes of reintegration in the community, including a concrete commitment to respect for law,” Francis wrote.

“In every part of the world, believers, and their pastors in particular, should be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”

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Parolin noted that the 2024 year “closed with the commutation by the President of the United States of dozens of death sentences to life sentences, and with the news that Zimbabwe had abolished capital punishment”.

One day before the start of the Jubilee on Christmas Eve, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal inmates on death row, changing their sentences from execution to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since then, two prisoners have rejected the commutation in the belief that it could put them at a legal disadvantage in appealing their cases on the claim of innocence.

Zimbabwe approved a law abolishing the death penalty on 31 December 2024, resulting in the resentencing or commutation in about 62 prisoners. Globally, 113 countries have fully abolished capital punishment, according to Amnesty International.

“We hope that this 2025 will continue in this direction and that the good news will multiply, especially with the truce for the many conflicts still ongoing,” Parolin said.

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