The late Pope Francis donated all his remaining money to a youth rehabilitation project inside a Roman prison in one of his final acts as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Before his death last month, Francis withdrew all the money from his personal bank account to support a pasta factory that employs current and former inmates from the Casal del Marmo detention center, according to several reports.
The factory is called Pastificio Futuro, and it was developed “from the desire to transform hope in the future,” according to its website.
The project was started by Gustolibero Onlus, a social cooperative, to answer Pope Francis’s call to people: “Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope,” according to the website.
Francis died of a stroke and cardiac arrest at 88 on Easter Monday.
Before his death, Francis was battling double pneumonia after a series of health challenges in recent years.
During his time as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis focused heavily on helping imprisoned inmates.
According to the Vatican News, Francis has also called on society to create more compassion and respect for such individuals and to view them as those individuals capable of transformation.
Toward the end of his life, he continued efforts to help and uplift those who were incarcerated, including the opening of a Holy Door at the Rebibbia prison, which is an Italian prison intended for rehabilitation and social reintegration of inmates, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 to Italian immigrant parents in Argentina, Francis made history as the first pope from the Americas, as well as the first Jesuit to hold the position.
He was elected pope in 2013 after the unprecedented retirement of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
He entered the priesthood at the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto in Argentina.
Francis was ordained a priest in 1969 and made his final profession with the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, in 1973.
The same year, he was appointed as a provincial for the order.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II appointed Bergoglio as titular Bishop of Auca and as an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires.
This was done at the request of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, who consecrated him to the episcopacy.
Bergoglio proved vital to the nation’s Catholic community, and he was quickly raised to the dignity of coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving alongside Quarracino and taking over the archdiocese in its entirety after Quarracino’s death the following year.
Bergoglio was given the crimson hat of a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
In 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Bergoglio was elected to the papacy, selecting the pontifical name “Francis” after St. Francis of Assisi, a choice that set the tone for the rest of his papacy.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall, Emma Colton and Chris Massaro contributed to this report.
Credit: Source link
