Pope to Cardinal Simoni: No prison can separate a person from God's love
Pope Leo XIV sent a message to 97‑year‑old Cardinal Ernest Simoni, who presided over a Mass at the former prison camp of Spaç, Albania, commemorating those who suffered or died there. The Pope highlighted that no prison can separate a conscience enlightened by the Gospel and praised Cardinal Simoni’s personal testimony of enduring forced labour and secretly celebrating Mass during his 18‑year imprisonment. The message reflected on the historical suffering under Albania’s communist regime, urging remembrance of victims buried in unmarked graves and calling for a renewed commitment to human dignity, freedom, and peace. The Mass and the Pope’s message served as a reminder of the resilience of faith and the transformation of the Cross into a promise of life, with the Pope invoking prayer for those who perished at Spaç.
about 2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV sent a heartfelt letter to 97‑year‑old Cardinal Ernest Simoni after the cardinal celebrated a public Mass on 31 July 2026 at the former Spaç forced‑labour camp in Albania, honoring the victims of the communist‑era persecution and underscoring that no prison can separate a person from God’s love. 1
Cardinal Simoni, who spent 18 years in forced labour at Spaç, returned to the site to celebrate the Eucharist publicly for the first time since his release. 2 The Mass was attended by clergy and laypeople and concluded with the reading of the pope’s letter. 3
The pope wrote, “No chain is strong enough to imprison a conscience enlightened by the Gospel; no night is so long that it can prevent the dawn the Lord prepares for His children; and no prison is deep enough to separate a person from the love of God.” 1 He described Spaç as “one of the most painful chapters in the nation’s history” and a place where “many carried the heavy cross of injustice.” 2 The letter called for the memory of the victims to remain alive as a reminder of human dignity, freedom, and peace. 3
Simoni recounted celebrating Mass from memory in Latin, hearing confessions, and distributing Communion in secret, noting that discovery would have meant execution. 1 He described baking bread on makeshift stoves and using grape juice for wine, and he displayed the miner’s helmet he wore while working underground. 2 He also recalled being arrested on Christmas 1963 for offering a Mass for President John F. Kennedy and later sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to forced labour. 3
Spaç was built in 1968 around a copper and pyrite mine and operated as one of Albania’s harshest forced‑labour camps under Enver Hoxha’s officially atheist regime. 2 Prisoners, including Simoni, endured severe conditions; many were buried in unmarked graves, their names unrecorded. 1
Leo XIV prayed for those who suffered and died at Spaç, asking that their prayers and sacrifices be remembered by future generations. 3 He emphasized the inviolable dignity of every human person, the value of freedom, and a commitment to peace as lasting legacies of the site’s history. 1*
Pope emphasizes that faith endures beyond imprisonment
The headline captures a central Christian conviction: imprisonment can restrict a person’s body, but it cannot imprison faith. In Catholic understanding, Christian endurance does not mean that suffering is good in itself or that injustice should be tolerated. Rather, it means that Christ remains present even when believers are deprived of freedom, public worship, security, or social recognition.
The supplied material presents this theme through three connected ideas: the witness of persecuted Christians, the Church’s defence of religious freedom, and the transformation of suffering through hope in Christ.
Pope Leo XIV has emphasized that the suffering of Christians is never merely an individual matter. Addressing Aid to the Church in Need, he recalled St Paul’s teaching:
“If one member suffers, all suffer together.”
The Pope applied this principle to Christians facing hostility and violence, insisting that the Church must remember them, stand with them, and work to protect their God-given freedoms.
This has particular force when applied to prisoners. Imprisonment may isolate a Christian from family, parish, and society, but it does not remove that person from the Body of Christ. The Church’s communion is not dependent on physical proximity. A prisoner remains a member of the Church through Baptism, and the prayers and solidarity of the faithful express the reality that no Christian suffers alone.
The same theological perspective appears in Pope Pius XII’s words to Christians who had been imprisoned, expelled, or deprived of their ministry. He assured them that Christ does not abandon His Church:
“The Redeemer never forgets his Church, nor does he ever abandon her.”
He connected this assurance with Christ’s promise, “I am with you all days, until the end of the world.”
Thus, the endurance of faith is not simply a matter of personal determination. It is grounded in the abiding presence of the risen Christ.
The life of Cardinal Ernest Simoni provides a particularly powerful illustration of the headline’s message. During Albania’s communist persecution, he was arrested after celebrating Christmas Mass, held in solitary confinement, sentenced to death, and ultimately imprisoned for eighteen years, including twelve years of forced labour in the mines. Even after his release, he remained under suspicion and was forced to work in the sewers.
Yet imprisonment did not extinguish his priestly identity or his apostolic mission. In prison, he became a spiritual father and a point of reference for other prisoners. After his release, he continued to exercise his priestly ministry clandestinely until the fall of the communist regime.
His testimony demonstrates an important distinction: the State may imprison a person, but it cannot possess the conscience. A Christian’s deepest identity comes from belonging to Christ, not from the recognition granted by political authorities. Even when public ministry is suppressed, charity, prayer, forgiveness, and fidelity remain possible.
This witness also challenges an overly narrow understanding of evangelization. Evangelization does not always take place in churches, schools, or public institutions. In conditions of persecution, it may take the form of listening to a fellow prisoner, forgiving an aggressor, refusing hatred, or remaining faithful in silence. Cardinal Simoni’s ministry shows that the prison itself can become a place where the Gospel is embodied.
Pope Leo XIV’s message also places imprisonment within the broader question of religious liberty. He states that religious freedom is rooted in the dignity of the human person, created in God’s image and endowed with reason and free will. It enables individuals and communities to seek truth, live according to it, and bear witness openly.
The Pope further warns that religious freedom is not merely a privilege granted by governments:
“Religious freedom is not merely a legal right or a privilege granted to us by governments.”
He describes it as a foundational condition for conscience, reconciliation, and a just society. When it is denied, fear replaces trust, suspicion replaces dialogue, and oppression can generate further violence.
This is significant for interpreting the headline. The endurance of faith should not be used to minimize the evil of unjust imprisonment. The Church praises the spiritual courage of prisoners while also defending their human rights. Christian acceptance of suffering is not the same as approval of persecution.
The Catholic position therefore has two dimensions:
The Church’s concern is not only that Christians remain faithful under oppression, but also that oppression itself be confronted.
The Christian understanding of endurance is not stoicism, which attempts to suppress emotion or deny pain. The sources acknowledge anguish, loneliness, injustice, and fear. Pope Pius XII speaks of those who suffer “anguish, losses and harms” for Christ and prays that God will strengthen their faith, alleviate their pain, and grant them peace founded on truth, justice, and charity.
A similar theology appears in the account of the Vietnamese martyr Paul Le-Bao-Thin. Writing from prison, he described chains, violence, insults, calumny, and profound distress. Yet he also testified that God was present in his suffering and that he was not alone because he was with Christ. His prison became, in his words, a place where suffering was transformed through divine grace and hope.
This does not mean that imprisonment ceases to be terrible. Rather, grace enables the sufferer to discover that persecution does not have the final word. The Christian prisoner can still pray, forgive, hope, and offer his or her suffering in union with Christ’s Passion.
Pope Paul VI expressed this in describing faith tested by persecution as more precious than gold refined by fire. He interpreted faithful endurance as a testimony that can strengthen the whole Catholic community.
The Christian claim that faith endures beyond imprisonment ultimately rests on the Resurrection. Pope Leo XIV has described death not as a wall but as a door opening onto divine mercy. In reflecting on Pope Francis’s death, he presented the Christian life as a pilgrimage that reaches fulfillment in the embrace of the risen Christ.
This perspective gives persecution its proper horizon. Prison, forced labour, exile, and even death can wound the person profoundly, but none of them can destroy the relationship with Christ that leads to eternal life. The prison does not define the final destiny of the believer. The Resurrection does.
The same hope appears in Pope Leo XIV’s message for the Meeting for Friendship among Peoples: “hope does not disappoint.” He presents the biblical desert as a place where God can bring forth freedom, renewal, and new life even when circumstances appear barren.
A prison can resemble such a desert. It is a place of deprivation, but it can also become a place where freedom is rediscovered at a deeper level: freedom from hatred, despair, revenge, and the false belief that one’s worth depends entirely on external circumstances.
The story has implications beyond those physically imprisoned.
For persecuted Christians, it is a reminder that their suffering is seen by the universal Church. Pope Leo XIV insists that the Church must not abandon those whose religious freedom is threatened.
For prisoners, including those who have committed serious crimes, it affirms that human dignity is not erased by incarceration. The possibility of repentance, conversion, and sacramental life remains open. Cardinal Simoni’s prison ministry illustrates how the Gospel can reach people even in places marked by violence and exclusion.
For Catholics who are not imprisoned, it is a call to examine less visible forms of captivity: fear of public witness, addiction, resentment, social pressure, or discouragement. The Christian vocation is to remain faithful not only when faith is socially approved, but also when it is costly.
For civil society, it is a reminder that religious liberty must be protected for all people, not selectively granted to favoured groups. Pope Leo XIV presents this freedom as essential to the formation of conscience and to the construction of peace.
The headline is best understood not as a celebration of suffering but as a proclamation of Christ’s victory over every force that seeks to silence faith. Prison walls may limit movement, public worship, and human contact, but they cannot prevent a person from belonging to Christ, praying, forgiving, and bearing witness.
The witness of persecuted Christians, the teaching of Pope Leo XIV, and the examples of Cardinal Simoni and other imprisoned believers converge on one message: faith endures because Christ remains faithful. The Church therefore has a duty both to accompany prisoners and persecuted Christians spiritually and to defend the religious freedom and dignity that unjust imprisonment violates.