Inmates work to create chair for Pope’s prison visit

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, United States (AP) — Pope Francis will have a nice place to sit when he meets with Philadelphia prisoners next month.

Inmates in the city’s correctional system have been working for the past couple of weeks on a stately chair that they hand-carved out of walnut. On Monday, another group of prisoners sanded, oiled and refinished the piece, which stands nearly 6 feet (2 meters) tall.

Rameen Perrin, who said he’s spent 13 months behind bars on drug charges, said it meant a lot to be chosen for the papal project. Prisoners were picked based on work ethic, skill and reliability.

“It made me honored because I’m one of the ones that work hard, and they noticed,” said Perrin, 21.

The chair was made and refinished at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, one of six jails in the municipal system.

Next, it will be upholstered at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, where Francis plans to meet Sept. 27 with about 100 prisoners and their relatives during a two-day trip to the city.

Francis has made prison ministry a focus of his pontificate. He meets frequently with inmates and has washed prisoners’ feet during pre-Easter rituals. In July, he visited a notorious Bolivian prison where he urged inmates to help one another and exhorted staff to rehabilitate prisoners, not humiliate them.

Anthony Newman, assistant director of a vocational program in the Philadelphia prisons, designed the gift for Francis and has been overseeing its construction. He hopes to see the pontiff enjoy the finished product but isn’t sure how the chair will be presented to him.