"The wine of detainees" Pope Francis tastes it and meets them in Rome

Monday, 14 December 2015, a group of inmates of the House of Detention of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi attended the audience with Pope Francis.


The idea of a meeting of the detainees with the Pope arose when Fiorenzo Vespasiano, deputy Chairman of the cooperative of Sant’Angelo, had the opportunity to acquaint himself with Pope Francis and to offer him a bottle of "Il Galeotto" wine, produced by inmates in the agricultural estate of the prison of Sant’Angelo and presented at Expo 2015.


The Pope wanted to know more about the involvement of inmates in the wine making activity that took place in the house of imprisonment. The Pope appreciated very much the implied added value of wine production, as it is the "wine of the detainees".

«A time of significant share – Fiorenzo Vespasiano anticipates – which must be put in close connection with the Jubilee of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis. The audience, making inmates live also the experience of the pilgrimage to Rome, goes to bind to topics like the work in prison and even more to the reintegration in the world of work, too often denied to former inmates. Issues that are very dear to the Pope, who never misses a chance to recall the institutions the solidarity duty to pursue, after imprisonment, social re–inclusion».