Pope Francis is wrapping up the first-ever papal trip to Bahrain by encouraging priests and nuns to keep ministering to the Gulf kingdom’s tiny Catholic flock. He specifically mentioned its prisoners.
“Caring for prisoners is good for everyone, as a human community, since the way in which these ‘least ones’ are treated is a measure of the dignity and the hope of a society,” he said.
Francis has long maintained a prison ministry, staying in touch with Argentine inmates he got to know while archbishop in Buenos Aires. He frequently visits prisons during his foreign trips and has celebrated Holy Thursday liturgies with Rome-area inmates, but no such encounters were scheduled during his Bahrain trip.
Bahrain’s government maintains it respects human rights and freedom of speech, and that its criminal justice system is compliant with international law. However, activist groups repeatedly have criticized the condition of prisons and prisoners in the yearslong crackdown on dissent on the island. According to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Bahrain in 2017 ended a de-facto moratorium on the death penalty and has executed six prisoners since. The group and Human Rights Watch have documented a “dramatic increase” in the number of death sentences being handed down since 2011, with 26 people currently on death row, half for political activities.
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