WARREN – The leader of Maine’s Roman Catholics is celebrating Mass with inmates at the state’s maximum security prison.

Bishop Robert Deeley of the Diocese of Portland is visiting the Maine State Prison on Thursday. He’ll also be celebrating Mass at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham on Christmas Eve.

Deeley says Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year of Mercy that began this week.

He says one of the works of mercy is to visit the imprisoned. He says those inmates who join him “will know that they are accepted as a part of the church.”