The pope has met female prisoners in Venice who are stars of the Vatican’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show, and urged the women to rebuild their lives in the first ever papal visit to one of the world’s biggest art gatherings.
Pope Francis, 87, arrived by helicopter in the courtyard of the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca, amid concerns over his health. He has not travelled outside Rome since visiting the French city of Marseille in September.
The pope, who throughout his papacy has spoken up in defence of prisoners and the marginalised, encouraged the women to reconstruct their lives “brick upon brick, together, with determination” during their time in prison.
“Prison is a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding, the lack of facilities and resources, and episodes of violence, give rise to a great deal of suffering there,” he said, sitting in front of the prisoners. “But it can also become a place of moral and material rebirth.”
Francis called on the prison system to “offer detainees the tools and room for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth, creating the conditions for their healthy reintegration”.
The pope toured an art exhibition housed at the prison which examines the daily lives of the inmates through the work of 10 different artists. The exhibit is the Vatican’s entry for this year’s Biennale festival of art, which began last weekend.
As some of the women wept, Francis praised the art show. “Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolised by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute,” he said.
The Vatican exhibit has turned the Giudecca prison – once a convent for reformed prostituted women – into one of the must-see attractions of this year’s Biennale, even though to see it, visitors must reserve in advance and go through a security check. It has become an unusual art world attraction, with visitors greeted at the entrance by Maurizio Cattelan’s wall mural of two giant filthy feet, a work that recalls Caravaggio’s dirty feet or the feet that Francis washes each year in a Holy Thursday ritual that he routinely performs on prisoners.
Francis’s visit represented “a historic moment because he will be the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale,” said the exhibition’s lead curator, José Tolentino de Mendonça.
Later, during a meeting with young people at the iconic Santa María della Salute basilica, Francis acknowledged the miracle that is Venice, admiring its “enchanting beauty” and tradition as a place of east-west encounters, but warning that it was increasingly vulnerable to climate change and depopulation.
“Venice is at one with the waters upon which it sits,” Francis said. “Without the care and safeguarding of this natural environment, it might even cease to exist.”
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Venice, sinking under rising sea levels and weighed down by the impact of overtourism, is in the opening days of an experiment to try to limit the sort of day trips that Francis undertook on Sunday.
This weekend, the city launched a new entry fee for daytrippers, aimed at easing the pressure of tourism on the Unesco world heritage site. As a guest, the head of the Catholic church was exempt from buying a €5 (£4.25) ticket – but non-resident pilgrims visiting for his mass had to pay.
Francis acknowledged Venice’s beauty in his homily at a mass before about 10,000 people in the shadow of St Mark’s basilica, one of the most celebrated churches in Italy.
But he said the city also faced an array of challenges, including climate change, the fragility of its cultural heritage, and overtourism. “Moreover, all these realities risk generating … frayed social relations, individualism, and loneliness,” he said.
Last year in December, a bout of bronchitis forced the pope to cancel a trip to Dubai, where he was to have addressed UN climate talks. He also pulled out of an Easter event at the last minute in March, after suffering for several weeks from what the Vatican called a “light flu”.
The pontiff, who uses a wheelchair, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years, from knee pain to surgery for a hernia and on his colon. Despite his health, the Vatican is planning for him an ambitious 12-day trip to Asia in September, taking in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. Before that, the pope is due to make two other trips within Italy: to Verona in May and Trieste in July.