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16 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF CEORGIA WORK OF A FEDERAL PRISON CHAPLAIN By REV. MICHAEL J. BYRNE. Catholic Chaplain, U. As requested by the Editor of The Bulletin, I shall endeavor to give a brief outline of my work as Catho lic Chaplain in the. United States Penitentiary at; Atlanta, Georgia, to which post of duty I was ap pointed on September 1, 1917. Though my chaplaincy here covers only a period of less than four years, it has been fraught with experience. When I first came here I had not the slightest conception of the nature of the work before me beyond the mere fact that I was to be the spir itual advisor of men of my creed who had broken the laws of man. I had no predecesor to instruct me and was compelled to map out my work with time and experience as teachers, and from the very first day I have had the hearty co-operation of the inmates. When I first took charge here, there was no Catho lic Chapel. I had to say Mass on the stage of the big auditorium on a small, portable altar that was rolled out on Sunday mornings and immediately after Mass rolled back into obscurity to make room for the general services held shortly after. For Catho lics accustomed to the devotional beauty of outsidd churches and cathedrals, there was nothing in the auditorium to lead the thoughts to God beyond the priest at the altar in the anything but Catholic sur roundings. The inevitable result was that the attendance at Mass averaged only something like seventy men, and my weekly list of communicants seldom exceeded five. It did not take me long to realize that, if I were to accomplish any good as Chaplain, most radical changes would have to be made, and my first fight was for a separate Catholic Chapel. In this I met with the hearty co-operation of the warden, Fred A Zerbst. A large room just above the auditorium, which formerly had been used as a tailorshop and hospital, was, with the permission of the Department of Justice, remodeled and made into a little Chapel with a seating capacity of about five hundred. It was opened and blessed on Anril 14, 1918, by Bishop Keiley of Savannah, as the Chapel of Our ‘Lady of Perpetual Help. While it was little more than a large, white-painted hall with a small altar and a bare sanctuary in one end, it had the immediate ef fect of increasing the attendance. There happened to be among the inmates an Ital ian artist, and to him was given the task of beautify ing the chapel. During the two years he remained here, he turned the chapel into a wonderful little place of worship. The windows were nainted in imi tation of stained glass; the walls and ceiling of the sanctuary were covered with canvas and decorated in Louis XIV style, and the altar was enlarged and beautified with an oil painting of Our Lady of Per petual Help. The Eagles of Savannah donated two beautiful statues, one of the Sacred Heart and the other of St. Josenh, and from other well wishers I received a very fine set of stations of the cross and two kneel ing angels for the altar, while the government gave me a beautiful imitation pipe organ, for which a choir loft was built in the rear of the chanel. I have a very fine little choir of twelve voices chosen from among the Catholic inmates. As I look back across the vista of the vears, while progress at times has seemed slow and discouraging, I feel that it has been given me to accomplish a great deal. My chapel is filled _ every Sunday morning, though attendance at religious service is no longer compulsory, and the number of weekly communicants is so great that very often I am compelled to ask the assistance of some outside priest to heln me hear confessions. There are at present 660 Catholic in mates in this institution and 90% of them have made S. Penitentiary, Atlanta, Ga. their Easter Duty. I say mass at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning and on all holy days of obligation, and we have about ten High Masses a year, followed by benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Confessions are heard in the chapel on Saturdays, and Tuesdays are set aside for personal interviews with the men. Through these private talks I strive to come into closer contact with the men under my charge, endeavor to learn their special needs and individual shortcomings, and try to bring them back to the folds of the Church, knowing full well that none of them would ever have passed through the portals of a prison if they had lived up to their Holy faith. But the duties of a chaplain are not limited to hearing confessions, saying Mass on Sundays, vis iting the sick in the hospital and holding interviews. In fact, the longer I stay and the older I get in the job, the more duties seem to pile up on roe. Some of the difficulties I am facing may be realized from the fact that my congregation numbers men from all parts of the world, and at present is represented by twenty-one different nationalities, many of the in mates being unable to speak a word of English. And the prisoner himself is not the only one I have to look after. There is the prisoner’s family, bereft of support and protection by the father’s and husband’s arrest and conviction. Many and many a time, in truth hardly a day passes but some inmate comes to me with a tale of the hardships the family has to undergo, tales of starvation, of prostitution. So.my work has come to include the families of tha Catholic inmates and, through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, I try to alleviate their sufferings. Another and most important part of the work is to assist the men when they leave here to find work and take up the broken threads of their lives. Until recently a prisoner upon his discharge received only ten dollars with which to start life anew on, and this small and inadequate remuneration has been the cause of many a man being returned to prison. Owing to his utter lack of references he finds it im possible to secure work at once, and when the money, insufficient to tide him over even a single week, has gone, he must either starve or go back to crime. The unfairness of this has again and again been impressed upon the powers that were without any at tempt to remedy it, but since the new administra tion has taken office, the matter has been taken uo and. as an experiment, the men who work in the Duck Mill, which employs the majority of the men in the institution, are paid a certain amount for their work. If the plan proves feasible, the pay will be in due time extended to all the prisoners so that, when a man leaves here, he will have a little money to fall back on and thus his chances to secure honest employment will materially increase. It has been part of my job to endeavor to secure work for many of the discharged men as well as to vouch for those who are released on parole. I have also inaugurated a Catholic library for cir culation among the men under my charge. This has been made possible only through gifts from pub lishers and well-wishers, but we now have a seua- rate library of more than five thousand volumes, in cluding books in practically every language. It has been my endeavor to svstemat.ize every branch of my work, keeping an individual record of every man under my charge, thereby making it possible for a limited office force to obtain greater results. And, without thought of self-glory, looking back I feel that it has been given me to accomplish much in the field of labor to which Almighty God has assigned me.