On January 15-18, 2025, the Dicastery for Culture and Education conducted a cultural initiative entitled, Jubilee of Artists. For this event, each evening, portraits of inmates and staff from the Regina Coeli Prison in Rome were projected onto the prison building’s exterior. The purpose of the event was to remind anyone visiting St. Peter’s Basilica that there is a segment of humanity living beyond the walls that is yearning for redemption.
On January 15, 2025, the Dicastery for Culture and Education launched an exhibition in an art space within the palazzo on Via della Conciliazione [near the Vatican] The exhibition is entitled, “Hope Beyond Walls,” It features twenty-seven watercolors by Yan PEI-MING, an artist who resides in Paris. He was chosen by the Dicastery to highlight the inmate community in Regina Coeli, located on Via della Lungara.
In his watercolors, the artist captures the faces of individuals who daily experience a challenging path to redemption. The portraits feature inmates, as well as guards, staff members, doctors, nurses, and volunteers. One among them is Friar Vittorio TRANI, a chaplain who has lived within the prison for fifty years and has collaborated with Friar Renzo DEGNI, the Guardian of the San Giacomo Friary, for eight years. Every day, the prison chaplains engage in intensive pastoral activities with volunteers, providing inmates with smiles, moral support, and the Franciscan message of peace that transforms into hope for genuine human and spiritual redemption.
Simultaneously with the exhibition in the art space, pilgrims and tourists in Rome’s Trastevere district can pause to admire the large-scale images projected on the exterior wall of the prison building. It lets them reflect on the somber reality of what is a container for human beings, a building that houses a thousand inmates plus five hundred guards and auxiliary staff. The exhibition will remain on display in the art space inside the palazzo on Via della Conciliazione until May 15, 2025.
Friar Paolo FIASCONARO
