"When the state of prisons and jails does not tend to the process of regaining a sense of dignity, with the related duties, the institutions fail to pursue one of their key purposes". This is the strong warning made today by the Pope, who, from Castelgandolfo, received in audience the participants in the 123rd World Congress of the International Catholic Commission for the Pastoral of Prisoners, which is in progress in Rome. The Pope, in particular, exhorted the "public authorities" to "be vigilant, avoiding any punishment or corrective measure that might degrade or undermine the human dignity of the prisoners: hence his "ban" on the use of torture, "which should by no means be breached", as provided by the Digest of the Social Doctrine of the Church. "Judicial and criminal authorities said Benedict XVI play a key role in protecting the citizens and defending the common good" and at the same time they are responsible for rebuilding "the social relations that have been destroyed by the criminal deed. Therefore such authorities "should contribute to the rehabilitation of the culprits, by helping them move from desperation to hope and from unreliability to reliability". (continued)
