Inmates at youth prison to get pope visit

LAS GARZAS, Panama — More than 100,000 young people are expected to show up in Panama City when Pope Francis visits from Jan. 23-27 for World Youth Day. At a detention center about 25 miles away there are 144 more who can’t make the trip, locked up for serious crimes including murder — so the pontiff is going to them.

In an encounter expected to last a little over an hour Friday, Francis will pray and bring a message of peace and reconciliation to the young inmates, and hear the confessions of several, including one convicted of committing a double homicide at just 16 years old.

“The pope is going to listen to them, encourage them,” Panama Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa said. “They have been preparing with high hopes to be able to receive his message.”

Francis nearly always makes side visits to prisons during his foreign trips, in keeping with his belief that even those on the lowest rungs of society have dignity and need ministry.