Encouraged by the success of their Book Bank Project over the previous years (almost 10,000 books collected), this year too the FSP Publishing House of Italy is holding this initiative. During the month of November, all the FSP book centers throughout the country are encouraging their customers to purchase books to donate to prisons located in their cities.
The initiative is being held in November this year because on 6 November the Church celebrated the Jubilee of Prisoners and it will officially close the Jubilee Year of Mercy on 20 November.
The initiative’s provocative slogan, “Good Escapes,” wants to highlight the fact that books are food for the mind and heart. When made available to prisoners, they can help them escape the confines of their cells and point out to them new horizons of freedom and dignity. The FSPs hope that their Book Bank Project will not only offer people the chance to express their solidarity with the incarcerated, but that it will also help them become more aware of the conditions of life in one of the existential peripheries that Pope Francis has repeatedly urged everyone to take notice of and aid.