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The Southern Cross, Page 8
Faith Aliy& i
Thursday, August 31, 2000
The underpinnings of the
jubilee day in prisons
By Mary Ann Wyand
Catholic News Service
p
JL rison ministry requires people
to look beyond the prisoner’s crime
and see the person created in
God’s image and likeness.
That isn’t easy, but God calls
people to do it anyway, said Fa
ther Lawrence Voelker, pastor
of Holy Cross Parish in India
napolis, Ind.
Pope John Paul II asked
Catholics to respond to Christ’s
call to help the imprisoned — “I
was in prison and you visited
me” (Mt 25:36) — and July 9
was designated as the Jubilee
Day in Prisons.
This day is a reminder of the
need to take the word of God and
Christ’s healing love to people
incarcerated inside the
razor-wire fences and multiple
locked doors of high-security
correctional facilities.
The Indiana Women’s Prison
is located within the Holy Cross
Parish boundaries, and Father
Voelker also serves as Catholic
chaplain there.
A few years ago he read a
newspaper story about a
woman who committed a vio
lent crime. As he thought
about her actions, he felt
shock and anger, and won
dered how she could have done
such a terrible thing.
Some time later, while talk
ing with women at the prison
about God’s love and forgive
ness, a prisoner asked him if he
really believes in forgiveness.
“I try to,” he told her. Then
he realized he was talking to the
woman whose crime had
shocked him.
Therein lies the paradox of
prison ministry: Hate the sin
but love the sinner.
“I never ask a prisoner about her
crime,” he said. “If she wants to tell
me about it, I listen. But I never ask.”
Prison ministry is bittersweet,
Holy Cross pastoral associate Linda
Hirsch of Indianapolis explained. A
prisoner’s loss of freedom, family,
friends and other priceless aspects of
life are cause for grief as well as con
version, she said.
During an interfaith Bible study
session, Hirsch said, a prisoner
talked about missing simple plea
sures like holding a seashell or pet
ting a dog. She hadn’t touched an
animal in 22 years.
Concerned about the woman’s
grief, Hirsch got permission to bring
seashells to a Bible study and obtained
permits for volunteers who train Ca
nine Companions for Independence to
visit the prison with their dogs.
“I think the Holy Spirit whispers in
prisons,” Hirsch said. “It is apparent
in the caring and creativity of the staff
of the Indiana Women’s Prison and in
the service of the volunteers. But
mostly, God moves in the hearts of the
prisoners, and if you listen you can
Wisdom in their words.”
Twice a month, Providence Sister
Denise Wilkinson of St. Mary-
of-the-Woods, Ind., visits a man incar
cerated in the secure housing unit at
the Carlisle, Ind., correctional facility.
“When we visit, we’re separated
by glass,” she said. “We have devel
oped a friendship of sorts. I try to
listen and not judge. The circum
stances that life handed him as a
child were pretty defeating. He told
me the only people who care about
him are another Providence sister
and myself. I felt sad because all I
do is visit him every other week and
write in between.”
Before her first visit, she said,
she “thought prison was about reha
bilitation. But it isn’t. It’s about in
carceration and punishment. Words
like ‘freedom,’ ‘forgiveness’ and
FOODFORTHOUGHT
Crime introduces unwelcome loss and pain into victims’ lives. How,
then, should they react to men and women convicted of crimes, including
those sentenced to death?
The U.S. Catholic Conference Administrative Board reflected on
questions like that in an April 1999 statement on the death penalty.
The bishops recognized the plight of crime victims and their families.
“Our family of faith must stand with them as they struggle to overcome
their terrible loss and find some sense of peace, ” the bishops said, and
encouraged compassionate responses to “the terrible pain and anger”
those affected experience.
The bishops said they were “challenged by the evolution in Catholic
teaching” on the death penalty and hoped those supporting it would
“come to see, as we have, that more violence is not the answer.”
Why oppose capital punishment? Because, the bishops said, it
perpetuates “a cycle of violence and [promotes] a sense of vengeance”; it
definitively denies criminals the chance to reform; its increased use “is a
sign of growing disrespect for human life. ”
The bishops said: “The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we
can defend life by taking life.”
t9 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!
CNS photo of woman petting dog at party for prisoners at Indiana Women’s Prison by Linda Hirsch
All contents copyright©2000 by CNS
‘power’ have new meanings for me.
Every other week I am made to
think about that again, but prayer
and conversations with sisters give
me support and insight. Prison min
istry is one of the most sure ways to
transformation and conversion.”
■ ■ ■
St. Paul the Apostle parishioner
Teresa Batto of Greencastle, Ind., vol
unteers at the U.S. penitentiary in
Terre Haute, Ind., as a member of the
Prisoner Visitation and Support
Group, a national secular organiza
tion.
Batto also volunteers as an assis
tant chaplain at the Putnamville,
Ind., correctional facility, where she
A prisoner talked about
missing simple pleasures
like holding a sea shell or
petting a dog.... Hirsch got
permission to bring sea-
shells to a Bible study and
obtained permits for ...
Canine Companions... to visit
the prison.... Parishes could
become much more involved
in prison ministry.”
coordinates a weekly interfaith Bible
study group and a Communion ser
vice for Catholics.
“This ministry is so dear to me,”
she said. “We read Scripture and dis
cuss it.”
Batto said she isn’t afraid to volun
teer in prisons because the men treat
her with respect and enjoy talking
about God.
“I see the Holy Spirit working,” she
said. “So many transformations hap
pen in this group. These men know
they have to change their lives and
turn toward God. However, prisoners
who find God need prayers and sup
port after parole too. Parishes could
become much more involved in prison
ministry.”
Providence Sister Rita Clare
Gerardot of St. Mary-of-the-Woods vis
its a death-row inmate at the federal
penitentiary in Terre Haute twice a
month.
“When I look in his eyes, I see a
man who is fully alive,” she said. “It is
life-giving for me to visit him because
he has turned his life around.
“He prays, and has experienced a
conversion. He is truly sorry for the
evil deeds he did in the past. He ad
mits to them, knows they were wrong
and takes responsibility for his ac
tions. He said it is God’s place to
judge. And he knows that, even if his
sentence is commuted, he will still die
in prison.”
(Wyand is an assistant editor for
The Criterion, the newspaper for
the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.)