Communion wine decision pleases Catholic Bishop

Catholic officials are pleased with a decision to once again allow communion wine in New Zealand prisons, according to a Catholic Communications press release. Recently, Department of Corrections had held that such wine was prohibited by the 2004 Corrections act, prohibiting the celebration of Mass in prisons.

Acting General Manager Public Prisons Service, Paul Monk said that the prohibition of Communion wine in prisons was an "unintentional consequence" of the Act, and that the consumption of a small amount of Communion wine would not affect the good order of a prison. "In fact it will support the invaluable role that the Church plays in the rehabilitative process of some of our prisoners," he said.

Mr Monk confirmed the exemption will allow the consumption of Communion wine as soon as possible, while Corrections looks at how a more permanent amendment to the Act can be made.

On behalf of the Catholic Church's prison chaplaincy, Bishop Barry Jones of Christchurch, said that all the New Zealand bishops are delighted that this difficulty has been worked through. "It is good to know that the prison service realises that the Church is able to offer help to some prisoners in their rehabilitation programme," he said.

(via Scoop)

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A sort of homecoming

Mothers Day -- a difficult time for incarcerated women. Charles McCarthy of the Fresno Bee reports on the program that brings children and their mothers together at California prisons. Tammy Price is serving her time at Valley State Prison for Women (one of two women's prisons in Chowchilla) and her child was one of more than 400 who made the trip this time:

Price said Friday was just the second time in nine years that she has seen her son, Preston Price, 17. And she has three years remaining on her prison sentence.

"It's a blessing from God to be able to see him," said Price, 43.

The buses were part of a program -- called Get On the Bus -- that this year brought 650 youngsters aboard 36 buses to visit their moms behind the barbed wire in Valley State, the Central California Women's Facility and three other facilities in Southern California.

At Valley State, it was a long-awaited morning for 140 inmates as their children, many accompanied by grandparents, filed into the prison's visiting center.

Many of the visitors wore souvenir purple T-shirts, which also helped the prison staff identify them in the crowded center and on the lawn outside.

The Mother's Day bus program was founded by Sister Suzanne Jabro of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She also founded a smaller Father's Day visitation last year. Both programs are a collaboration with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and both continue to grow.

When the first Mother's Day visitation bus left Southern California in 2000, seven children were aboard to visit their mothers behind prison walls. Last year, buses took 595 children -- plus sponsors -- from all over California.

Participants receive teddy bears, T-shirts and travel bags. Volunteers help make it work.

This program has recieved quite a bit of praise over recent years, and an additional service, Chowchilla Family Express, now makes monthly runs from a number of cities. It is operated by the Get on the Bus organization, and funded by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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'Mother Teresa of Prisons' Passes Away

Sister Carmelita of St. Anne's Congregation of Chennai, also known as the Mother Teresa of Prisons for her work among the prisoners, died May 1, aged 73 years after a prolonged battle with cancer. The funeral service will take place May 3.

Having served as headmistress in schools run by her congregation in different states across the country, Sister Carmelita had taken up prison ministry in Bangalore after her retirement. An indefatigable champion for prisoners' rights, the Catholic nun arranged lawyers to fight cases of under-trials and help them get parole. She was also involved in the rehabilitation and counseling of prisoners.

Her work included "just listening to the prisoners problems", counseling them, informing the family members about the progress and status of various cases, arranging for lawyers and providing stationeries and toiletries to the jail inmates.In an interview to SAR News last year, Sister Carmelita had said: "When we started my prison mission work, we used to visit the prison daily between 3p.m. and 5p.m. I felt the duration was very short to do anything. It's then that I decided to spend a full day in the prison. The silent pangs of the prisoners made me to take up this ministry."

"Some prisoners tell me that if people like me don't visit them, they would go mad," Sister Carmelita had told SAR News. During her ministry, the nun helped arrange the release of nearly 1200 prisoners.

(SAR News)

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Salem priest to face accusers at trial

Alan Gustafson of the Salem Statesman Journal (Oregon) reports on lawsuits charging that a Catholic priest sexually abused boys while a juvenile corrections chaplain. Fr. Michael Sprauer denies all such allegations:

The priest allegedly molested the boys in segregation cells, his chaplain's office, in a storage closet and in a car that he drove to transport one youth to his sister's funeral.

Sprauer has denied all of the sexual-abuse accusations through his attorney and in a videotaped deposition.

To loyal parishioners, he remains a trusted man of God. Some think the well-known priest is being railroaded by ex-convicts seeking to cash in on bogus allegations.

"They've got nothing to lose and everything to gain," said Kevin Mannix, a former state legislator and long-time parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Salem, where Sprauer remains on the staff as a parochial vicar, assisting the Rev. James Coleman.

Mannix said he has known Sprauer for 20 years. He described him as "quiet, intelligent, diligent and completely dedicated to ministry."

"Yes, I think he's being falsely accused," Mannix said. "The best way to see this resolved is through a fair trial."

By law, it's too late for any criminal investigation or possible prosecution of the sex-abuse allegations against Sprauer. The statute of limitations expired long ago.

But Oregon law allows victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits as long as three years after discovering the impact of abuse on their lives. In some cases, that can mean years, or decades, later.

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Church leaders see opportunity in proposed prison facility

Joan Gandy of the Natchez Democrat interviews local clergymen on a proposed commercial facility for federal prisoners in their area. Fr. David O’Connor, pastor at St. Mary Basilica and Assumption Catholic Church, responded that prisons are a part of society and must be accepted as such:

“It’s an amazing opportunity for ministry, as well," O’Connor said. "I’ve been to Woodville many, many times. Those people need ministry in a big way. We can help them find direction with their lives." O’Connor referred to the federal prison built in Wilkinson County near Woodville, where several Natchez churches have regular ministries among the inmates.

The Wilkinson County facility is a Corrections Corporation of America prison. CCA is seeking a site to build a prison in Natchez, estimating that it will house 1,500 mostly nonviolent inmates.The prison is estimated to be a $90 million construction project. When completed, it would employ about 300 people.

O’Connor said the jobs are important. "If a prison brings jobs to the community, I’m in favor of that," he said. The Rev. Steve Pearson, pastor at Community Chapel Church of God, agreed. "I’m for the prison for several reasons — first of all, for all the job opportunities," he said. "The economic opportunity is tremendous, and it’s long term." Pearson also believes a community that has a prison has a chance to offer special ministries within the prison.

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NZ government asks for review of communion wine ban

New Zealand government leader are seeking a way out of the controversy caused recently when prison officials there banned communion wine for Catholic inmates, based on a new law:

From 1999 Catholics were granted an exemption to bring communion wine into prisons, but that was recently revoked as it was deemed to be inconsistent with the new Act.

The ban has outraged Catholics, who say it is a denial of religious freedom.
Public Prisons Service head Harry Hawthorn told the NZ Catholic newspaper the Act allowed no discretion.

But Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor today said he had been told legislative change was not necessary to achieve a solution.

NZPA understood a possible solution was Catholic priests being allowed to bring communion wine into prisons and drink it to celebrate mass, so long as prisoners did not partake of the wine.

"The ban is clearly an unintended consequence of the Act. I understand a legislative change is not required and I hope we can continue to accommodate the invaluable services of the church through the prison system," Mr O'Connor said.

(NZPA)

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Parishioner provides job training to the incarcerated

Well, it's not what one might think of first regarding prison ministry, but Bob Mattucci credits his Catholic faith as the foundation for his work teaching inmates plumbing. Claudia Mathis of the (Syracuse) Catholic Sun (New York) writes that Mattucci worked as a plumber for 22 years, then became a vocational education teacher. His intention was to create a program for local schools to fill in the gap formed as plumbers retired without replacements:

Mattucci said he got into the corrections field by accident. After being marketed, his program was rejected by all of the public school vocational education programs in the Syracuse region. But Mattucci was determined to find a way to put his training program into practice. After researching education in correctional facilities, Mattucci learned that there was a void in education programs in the corrections system and that educating the inmates could reverse the likelihood of re-incarceration.

Mattucci contemplated what a plumbing curriculum could potentially offer to the incarcerated individuals. His training program was designed to foster success and focus on motivation, decision-making, respectful environment and teamwork as a foundation for change. He saw his program as an experience that might motivate those in prison to contribute to society in a positive way. Tim Gangemi, a fellow parishioner at St. Margaret’s, thinks Mattucci’s training program is a wonderful idea. "I also think some of the other skilled trades like carpentry and masonry should be taught to the inmates," he said.

Taking into consideration the many barriers associated with working within the prison system, Mattucci developed a plan for three phases of inmate education that would build the students’ commitment and responsibility over time while rewarding them with immediate successes in the classroom. Phase I consisted of an eight-session program while in prison; phase II included a 42-session program for after they were released and phase III included admission to a plumber’s union as second-year apprentices.

Convinced of the value of his training program, Mattucci persisted, presenting his program to the education coordinator at the Onondaga County Department of Correction facility in Jamesville, N.Y. in 2000. Mattucci taught the training program in the evening at the Jamesville facility from 2000 to 2002.

(via Catholic Online)

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Call for inquiry over communition wine in prison

The issue of communion wine in prisons is causing controversy in New Zealand. Political party leader Peter Dunne is calling for a human rights investigation of a prison adminstration decision to bar communion wine:

Harry Hawthorn, the head of the Public Prisons Service, confirmed that Communion wine cannot be taken into prisons and said the department has "no discretion" in allowing an exemption to the Corrections Act 2004.

The Act prohibits unauthorised items, including "any drug, alcohol, or other intoxicating substance", from being taken into prisons.

"The last thing Parliament had in mind when passing the legislation in 2004 was banning the celebration of Mass in prisons, and it is stretching logic and common sense beyond any reasonable bounds to imply otherwise," Mr Dunne said.

"The Bill of Rights upholds all New Zealanders' rights to freedom of worship, wherever they may be, and to deny prison inmates the opportunity to go to Mass if they wish is a denial of their basic human rights."

Said Mr Dunne: "I will be raising the matter with the Human Rights Commission. If this decision is allowed to stand it will make a complete mockery of the recent statement on supporting religious diversity."

(New Zealand Press Association)

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Suffering witness to faith, says jailed Vietnamese priest's brother

A Perth man whose brother, Fr Nguyen Van Ly, was recently sentenced by a Vietnamese court to eight years for political activities, says that the dissident priest has converted many people to Catholicism, including prisoners and guards, during his many years in prison.

'He has said that going to jail, for him, is a chance to convert people and baptise them,' Fr Ly's older brother Nguyen Hoang An told the Perth Record.

Vietnamese prisons do not allow inmates to be visited by priests, An told The Record through an interpreter. An has lived in Australia since 1983 but speaks little English.

An said that during Fr Ly's long years in jail he has converted many prisoners and prison guards to the Catholic faith.

Fr Ly, who has already spent 14 years in Vietnamese prisons - much of it in solitary confinement, was recently sentenced to eight more years in jail.

Fr Ly and four pro-democracy lay Catholic activists were jailed after speaking against Vietnam's one-party government.

Though there has been speculation about the mental effect such intense incarceration might have had on Fr Ly, An said his brother is mentally strong and that his frequent prayer to God while in jail acts as a preventative against mental deterioration."

(Catholic News)

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Prison ministers take the word behind bars

Raymond Cordani writes in the Florida Catholic about the work of the Diocese of Orlando Criminal Justice Office, which coordinates prison and jail ministries in that nine county area. The office trains volunteers that visit facilities:

Seminarian Ben Lehnertz had never visited the inside of a correctional facility. He spent the first half of the summer teaching Bible camp to students at San Pedro Center in Winter Park. After Bible camp ended, he shifted gears into prison ministry when he was assigned to aid Connelly at the Coleman Correctional Complex.

Lehnertz recalled visiting the prison and said the setting reminded him of the movie "The Shawshank Redemption," but the prisoners he met contradicted his image of men and women behind bars.

"The group came in. They were smiling. They shook my hand. They were easy to talk to. I thought they would be socially inept, but it really allowed me to see them as people, not as objects or animals. They’re not caged because they’re bad people. They’re good people who have done bad things."

Lehnertz said a prisoner told him, "God wants me here for a reason." Afterward, the seminarian figured out what it was: to save the prisoners from themselves.
For Lehnertz, working with prisoners made him realize how important it is to reach out as a priest. Ministering to felons offered him a broader perspective of the church and his role as a future priest.

"The duty of the priest is to go beyond the parish," he said. "When a priest is ordained, he’s not just given the people of the parish. He’s given the people in the area. It’s allowing me to see the boundaries are bigger than I thought. The parish is much bigger than the four walls of the church."

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Priest urges prisoners to make Easter commitment to reject violence

Helping prisoners confront the violence they may have individually caused is a basic part of prison ministry. But some ministers, such as Father Francisco Barreto, also have to deal with the results of violence arising from social or political conflict:Father Barreto is the face of the Catholic Church's prison ministry for men in Catholic-majority Timor Leste (East Timor). He is a familiar visitor at the small, damp Indonesian-built facility in Becora, Dili, where prisoners are cramped four or five to a cell.

Many of them have been convicted or charged with violence and possession of weapons in civil unrest last year, when 'easterners' and 'westerners' battled with machetes, guns, and bows and arrows on the streets of the capital.

Father Barreto told the men gathered in the prison chapel, where he offers Mass every Sunday, that it is important especially during Easter to reflect, confess and forgive.

According to the priest, the judicial process is slow and many of those charged are awaiting trial. One such prisoner is Luis Viegas, 36, who was detained nearly a year ago during the unrest that erupted in April. He told UCA News after the Mass that he missed celebrating Easter with his family.

H/T to The Indian Catholic.

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Easter prison Mass prevented, rights commission issues notice

Union of Catholic Asia News (UCAN) is reports (via catholic.org) that the human rights commission of Kerala state (India) is investigating why Catholic priests were prevented from celebrating Easter Mass at Thiruvananthapuram jail:

Father Mathew Kulathinal, who went to the prison with two other priests to
conduct the Mass on April 8, said jail officials refused to let them inside,
objecting that the Mass wine the Catholic team carried was liquor.

The priest said he explained to the security guards at the main gate
that he had come to conduct Mass, 'but they told me that I could not enter the
prison with Mass wine and hosts.'

Father Kulathinal said he quickly informed his superior, Father Jacob
Korackel, who contacted state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to explain the
gravity of the situation. The minister assured the priest he would direct the
prison officials to allow Mass inside the prison, but the jail officials stuck
to their position.

Balakrishnan told UCA News he has ordered an inquiry into the matter. Those
responsible will be punished, he added.

Hat tip to Religion Clause.

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Ministry Notes

• a page is turned...: Women’s Prison Ministry
• Calvin College will join forces with Prison Fellowship this month ...
• Backgrounder on Restorative Justice

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Twelve prisoners released for Easter

A unique program of Florida based ministry Food for the Poor gains the release of prisoners in Jamaica by paying fines they cannot afford to pay:

Inside the prison chapel, 12 men - some young, some old - sit on two wooden benches waiting for the final confirmation of their release. Their expressions are hard to read. Indifference? Shock? Perhaps they do not believe that they will be able to spend Easter with their families this year? But they will, and perhaps quite appropriately they are getting this chance at Easter - a time for rebirth and new beginnings.

This is a part of Food for the Poor's prison ministry in Jamaica, led by Sandra Ramsey and financed by a generous anonymous donor. The men are in prison for minor offenses, but cannot pay their fines. This program sends them home with enough money for transportation and other needs:

While the number of prisoners released varies, the aim is to release as many as possible, and if needs be, Food for The Poor will fund the difference. This Easter, an additional J$50,000 was donated by a female ophthalmologist, who had read about the prison release programme and wanted to help. Her money went to free a female prisoner at Fort Augusta, who was incarcerated for unlawful wounding, and could not pay her fine.

. . . The chapel has a simple painted concrete floor, and simple wooden benches. Cut-outs high above the altar in the wall stand for a cross with the words, "This Is The Word of The Lord," written simply underneath. Donated by Food For The Poor 10 years ago, the chapel also houses numerous workshops including furniture-making, grillwork, and tailoring. It is also fully equipped with an electric keyboard, drum set, guitar, speakers, and even a bushwacker to cut the grass. Speaking on behalf of the prison, Superintendent Sylvester Lindor addressed the men.

"This is a special gift to you," he said. "This is a gift for you to cherish. It is not my desire to see you again, we want you to go back to your societies, live good and get a job."

Similarly, it is for this reason that Ramsey believes so strongly in the programme. "We all make mistakes, and it's not for me to judge," she said. "They have to come out at some point, and if we don't try and change their lives while they are in there, the situation may be worse for them when they do come out. We want to try to better them and make them productive citizens," she said.

The release programme is not the only purpose of the prison ministry. Their main focus is the after-care programme, where Ramsey and her team of volunteers take time interviewing recently released prisoners, and help them find work with small businesses. Ramsey said that of the approximately 700 prisoners who had approached the ministry seeking assistance since its inception, only three had returned to prison. "We have to help them (and) give them a chance, because if we don't, no one else will."

Ramsey had only one request when it was her turn to address the prisoners. She urged each of them to take their families to church today.

(Jamaica Observer)

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Bishop goes to prison

The Monterey County Herald reports that the new Roman Catholic bishop of Monterey, Richard Garcia, is spending part of his Easter in prison:

Garcia will preside over the Easter Vigil service at San Carlos Cathedral tonight, but will head south to San Luis Obispo, where Sunday he will celebrate Mass with those incarcerated at the California Men's Colony.

'Bishop Garcia has a passion for prison ministry,' said Kevin Drabinski, diocese spokesman, who said Garcia is inspired by St. Peter, who wrote about Jesus preaching 'to the spirits that were in prison.'

The bishop will pay homage to the Rev. Michael Bell, who is retiring at age 80 after serving as prison chaplain for 13 years.

Garcia's appearance at the men's colony is a twist on the tradition started years ago by now-retired Bishop Sylvester Ryan. Garcia replaced Ryan as bishop in Monterey in January.

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Hell on earth

Asian Online looks to the writing and work of Fr. Chibuike Ojilere, CSSP a prison chaplain in the Phillipines:

"Ojilere attempts to understand why people are thrown in jail, by analyzing the crimes of offenders. He points a finger at systemic poverty due to, among others, unemployment and poor environment. He laments, too, the innocent who are doing time simply because their cases have not been heard by the courts for years.

Such complaints against the bureaucracy in the legal system and the callousness and apathy of government officials have been philosophically rendered in the book, which somehow cushions our shock, knowing that we live in relative comfort while others suffer physically every minute they are behind bars.

The far-reaching implications of the 'unimaginable' misery and cruelty witnessed by Ojilere during his prison ministry require that Filipinos should think hard of solutions to help eliminate this social malady.

Ojilere's forceful pleas for compassion toward persons jailed for various offenses are interspersed with quotations from the Bible and philosophy, he being a Philosophy major in Nigeria and in his graduate studies in the United States."

"Behind Iron Bars: Companion and Compassion in Prison Ministry" (Spiritans Publication, Iligan City, 2006), by Fr. Chibuike Ojilere, CSSP, captures the desperation of inmates in the Iligan City jail in Tipanoy as well as in Lanao del Norte's municipal jails and provincial jails, from 2002 to the present.

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Papal Homily at Juvenile Detention Center

Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily on March 18 at a juvenile detention center in Rome, and the text is now up on Zenit, including this excerpt:

We must understand what freedom is and what is only the appearance of freedom.

Freedom, we can say, is a springboard from which to dive into the infinite sea of divine goodness, but it can also become a tilted plane on which to slide towards the abyss of sin and evil and thus also to lose freedom and our dignity.

Dear friends, we are in the Season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. In this Season of Lent, the Church helps us to make this interior journey and invites us to conversion, which always, even before being an important effort to change our
behaviour, is an opportunity to decide to get up and set out again, to abandon sin and to choose to return to God. Let us -- this is the imperative of Lent -- make this journey of inner liberation together.

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