Leo XIV to prisoners in Buenos Aires: “An opportunity to begin your lives anew”

On 11 November, at 7:10 a.m. local time (11:10 a.m. in Rome), Leo XIV left the Apostolic Nunciature in Buenos Aires and travelled by car to the Buenos Aires Federal Penitentiary Complex. This is the account given in the Holy See Press Office Bulletin (B0899).

Accompanied by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, H.E. Bishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, the Pope approached, along the central corridor, the stage set up inside the Complex’s gymnasium, where he was welcomed by the Director and the other authorities present. After the welcome hymn, the Archbishop’s introduction, the Director’s words of welcome and testimonies from two inmates and a person who has served his sentence, the Holy Father delivered his address.

He thanked the Archbishop, the Minister of Security, the Minister of Justice and the Chief of the Prison Service, as well as the chaplain, Father Matías, and, “especially,” those who had shared their testimonies: Cristian, Maximiliano and Reinaldo. “I hope that all of us, myself included, can carry in our hearts this message that a new life is possible. It is the hope we need.”

The Pope then offered a reflection on “something we all have in common by virtue of being human: the experience of our limitations.” Society, he observed, often presents everything that constitutes a limitation — incapacity, illness, old age and suffering — as a defect to be corrected, while offering possibilities that can make people feel “immortal.” He pointed to “troubling realities” all too familiar: “the sense of omnipotence produced by drugs, the false power that comes from easy money, the cowardly sense of security that comes from inflicting violence upon the weakest, and the impunity that results from corruption.”

Even when evil “wreaks havoc on society and on the lives of many people,” he added, “a small light continues to shine,” one that can be rekindled “along paths of conversion and reconciliation.”

He then spoke directly to those listening in the gymnasium: “Even amid the evil, pain and deepest failures you may have experienced or caused, your present circumstances can become an opportunity to begin your lives anew, as you have shared with us in your testimonies.” Time spent in that institution, he said, “can be an opportunity to begin anew, making peace with God and returning without fear to the embrace of your families and society.”

He did not hide the harshness of the place: “being unable to leave freely, being unable to embrace your children each day,” sleepless nights, the disappointment of not finding “a friendly hand.” But he insisted that when limitation is “truly accepted, [it] does not diminish us but opens us to recognizing the face of God and others.”

This was followed by the signing of the Book of Honour and the exchange of gifts, with an introduction from the chaplain. After the blessing and the final hymn, Leo XIV bade farewell to the Director at the main entrance and travelled by car to the Basilica of Luján for Holy Mass.

Sources: Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 11 November 2026, B0899 (official text of the address).