Last week a man said to me before breaking down in tears, “in the past three months I have learned everything that I failed to learn in the past thirty-seven years. When I arrived here I was not mad at God, I was mad at myself for not having recognized God’s invitation to follow him throughout my life.” Last week I entered a room full of men dressed in orange. They looked disoriented, lost and somewhat fearful. They carefully gazed at the three of us dressed in clerics and wondered why we were inside the unit. One asked, “are you here to get us out?” These men had been in the prison for just three days. One man recognized Bishop Hartmayer and me; he had seen us at his parish in Tifton when his daughter was confirmed one month before. Several men remembered Bishop Hartmayer ‘s visit to the prison in Folkston where in December he celebrated Mass in Spanish for over 500 inmates in the prison’s basketball court.
Our Diocese has thirty-one federal and state prisons. Every county has a jail and the youth detention centers are numerous. Georgia State prisons alone house over 46,000 inmates. Considering that Catholics make up approximately 8.9% of Georgia’s population, this means that about 4,100 Catholics are imprisoned. Regardless of the crime or offense, in Matthew 25:36, Jesus specifically states, “I was in prison and you visited me.” Driven by these words, we must realize that prison ministry is not just an aside or something done by a select few in the life of the Church. Visiting the imprisoned is being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
The most rewarding ministry in my six years of priesthood has been prison ministry. Thousands of incarcerated men and women hunger for the Gospel at a difficult moment in their lives and the Catholic Church must be present. Perhaps as a lay person you have never considered prison ministry as a possible ministry for you. Many feel uncomfortable at the thought of going inside a prison or become fearful at the thought of being around inmates. Those in prison are men and women like you and me who are in need of God’s mercy and love. Talk to your pastor or our diocesan liaison for prison ministry, Deacon Jim Hunt at Sacred Heart Parish in Warner Robins, if you would like more information and to get involved in this very important and fulfilling ministry of the Church.
Written for The Southern Cross. Top picture taken from Wikipedia.
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