Pope Francis prays for reconciliation after Honduran prison riot

Fr Ismael Moreno SJ

Source: Vatican News

At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis expressed his sorrow over the riot in a Honduran women's prison last week. Pope Francis invoked Our Lady of Suyapa, the patroness of Honduras, praying that she might "help hearts to open themselves to reconciliation and to make room for fraternal coexistence even within prisons."

The Pope made the prayer as he expressed his sorrow over a deadly prison attack that left more than 40 women dead in a female correctional facility in Tamara, Honduras, on 20 June. A preliminary investigation into the riot found severe security breakdowns that allowed gang members in the prison to attack their rivals with guns and machetes, and even burn some of them alive in their cells.

"I was very saddened by what happened a few days ago in the Támara Women's Penitentiary Centre in Honduras", the Pope said, deploring the "terrible violence between rival gangs" that "sowed death and suffering" while praying for those who died and for their families.

Honduran president Xiomara Castro has confirmed that the prison riot was organised by gang members "with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities," and has vowed to take "drastic measures" in response.

The riot in the women's prison underscored the power of the country's criminal gangs and their control over correctional facilities. "Tragedy repeats itself," tweeted Bishop Ángel Garachana of San Pedro Sula. "Who doesn't shudder with pain for them and their families? Who doesn't indignantly wonder when the radical and comprehensive transformation of a corrupt and failed prison system is going to be undertaken?"

Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno, director of a human rights centre in the city of Progreso, tweeted: "Massacres are an epidemic in Honduran prisons. To combat and eradicate it, a new prison system is required with audacious public policy proposals and implemented by an interdisciplinary commission with the presence of international agencies."