Visioning Prison Ministry
Prison Ministry Development Day
19 October 2013
Fathers, volunteers in prison ministry, dear friends:
Introduction
It’s always a great – and humbling pleasure – to be with the prison ministry volunteers for your study day. At the outset I would like especially to thank Evelyn Vollet, Director of our Office of Service and Justice, Maureen Donegan and Blair, and all involved in Catholic Charities Justice Services, as well as all of you who play such a vital role in ensuring that we, in the Archdiocese, are fulfilling the Lord’s mandate of bringing the good news to the poor and proclaiming release to captives (cf. Lk 4:18). From my heart, I thank each and every one of you for placing your gifts and talents in the Lord’s hands so that, as his instruments, you can bring his healing to the incarcerated, the recently released and to their families.
Direction from the Example of Pope Francis
Pope Francis is setting a wonderful, inspiring and challenging example for us of what it means to be of service to others, of what it means to bring the corporal works of mercy to life among us. One of his first gestures as Pope was to celebrate the Mass of Holy Thursday evening with young men and women in prison, kneeling down before them and washing their feet. He imitated what Jesus did at the Last Supper, giving us a living example of what it means to be the “Vicar of Christ.”
During a morning meditation on the feast of the Apostle Thomas, the one who wanted to touch the Lord’s wounds before he would believe in his rising from the dead, the Holy Father said this to us: “We must come out of ourselves, we must take human routes if we are to discover that Jesus’ wounds are still visible today on the bodies of all our brothers and sisters who are hungry, thirsty, naked, humiliated or slaves, in prison and hospital: visiting and offering assistance to those wounded. By touching and caressing these wounds “we can adore God alive in our midst.”[1] Something to think about in your ministry: “caressing the wounds” of those afflicted by their marginalization. In our day, in doing works of mercy, we encounter the wounds of Jesus in our day. When you visit those in prison, you are touching the wounds of Jesus. You are on the front lines of the “field hospital” which is the Church: bringing mercy to the afflicted.
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“The love of Christ impels us!”, Paul said (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). Again, to cite Pope Francis, “For the Good Shepherd what is far, what is on the margins, what is lost and unappreciated is the object of greater care, and the Church cannot but make her own this special love and attention. The first in the Church are those who are the most in need, humanly, spiritually, materially, the neediest”[2] – among them, the incarcerated in our prisons, their victims and all the families harmed.
By following Christ on this path of mercy, we can becomes heralds of hope, spreaders of hope. Spreading hope: today Canadian society is in great need of hope. And this is what you do as volunteers in our prison: you spread hope to prisoners, to victims, to families harmed, and tot society at large.
You also embody, by your actions, but above all by your attitude, what is arguably at the heart of our faith: forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation. We are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, his redemptive action for us. God achieves this reconciliation through the “handing over” of his Son, through Christ. And our God is a God “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), a richness which is manifested throughout the ministry of Jesus. While we undoubtedly all agree on this, I would suggest to you that mercy, reconciliation and forgiveness are not to be relegated merely to interpersonal matters but should be the raw materials of our approach to how we should think about the criminal justice system.[3]
Our Priorities
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Last year I offered five such suggestions about how the Archdiocese should envision its response to crime and punishment in today’s Canadian society. I spoke at some length about the importance of trying to help one another rethink our understanding of the criminal justice system in light of the concept of restorative justice: that locking a person up without regard for the motivations, circumstances, or actual severity of their crime, or without adequate programs to help them change behaviours is a recipe for disaster. From the Catholic perspective, the state of our prison system is, moreover, a moral tragedy. While we do not tolerate behaviour that threatens lives and violates the rights of others, we also do not give up on those who violate these laws. As Christians, we believe those who cause harm must be held accountable. But we also believe that both victims’ and offenders’ lives and dignity must be protected and respected. We seek justice, not vengeance. We believe that punishment must have clear purposes: protecting society and rehabilitating those who violate the law. Why do we so often forget rehabilitation?
We are all sinners, and our response to sin and failure should not be abandonment of those who have fallen. Nor should we despair at having hope for change. Rather justice, contrition, reparation, and return or reintegration of all into the community should be what we seek.
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In light of Scripture, Catholic social teaching, and our core beliefs, the Catholic Church seeks criminal justice reform that fully recognizes the humanity of both victims and offenders. Our penal system should provide victims with opportunities to be heard by those who caused them harm, while, at the same time, giving offenders the opportunity to fully understand and face the consequences of their actions.
Concern for restorative justice also entails that we ask our government leaders to recognize that most prisoners will eventually return to society and that they should be prepared to reintegrate in positive, meaningful ways, not as more skilled re-offenders. Not every prisoner will rise to the occasion, but as a matter of human dignity, they should be given the opportunity to repent and transform their lives into something that better reflects their dignity.
In order to provide some direction, some “visioning” for the future, I will not repeat the five suggestions that I offered last year. Bearing those in mind, this year I would like to make three other recommendations. I hope they might provide some of the guidelines that will enable all of us in the Archdiocese to become increasingly aware of our obligation to improve the Canadian criminal justice system. Admittedly, this requires a conversion of heart and mind, and so it will not be easy or quickly achieved.
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1. Foster a Change of Heart
My first suggestion is that greater efforts be made to include making known what Catholic social teaching has to say about the criminal justice. We do a very good job on the life issues – and they are vitally important – and on refugees, feeding the poor and fostering development in other countries. Vancouver Catholics are extremely generous in these efforts, sharing their treasure and talents with countless of their brothers and sisters. In fact, they are exemplary.
But I do not think that we pay the same attention to the corporal work of mercy which touches upon prisoners, their families and the victims of their crimes. Too many people, I fear, accept ideas that are politically commonplace and socially acceptable but not founded on the Gospel. As Blessed John Paul noted: “Not to promote the interests of prisoners would be to make imprisonment a mere act of vengeance of the part of society, provoking only hatred in the prisoners themselves.”[4]
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The fundamental starting point for all Catholic social teaching is the defense of human life and dignity: every human person is created in the image and likeness of God and offered redemption by the Blood of Christ. Every person has an inviolable dignity, value and worth, regardless of race, gender, class or other characteristics. Therefore, both the most wounded victim and the most callous criminal retain their dignity that must always be recognized, promoted, safeguarded, and defended.
Those who commit crimes violate the rights of others and disregard their responsibilities. But the test for the rest of us is whether we will exercise our responsibility to hold the offender accountable, but without violating his or her basic rights. Even offenders should be treated with respect for their rights.
Likewise, maintaining community and family connections can help offenders understand the harm they’ve done and prepare them for reintegration into society. Isolation may sometimes be necessary; but while cutting off family contact can make incarceration easier for those in charge, it can make reintegration harder for those in custody.
The social dimension of our teaching leads us to take accoun t of the common good and its relationship to punishment. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, punishment by civil authorities for criminal activity should serve three principal purposes: (1) the preservation and protection of the common good of society, (2) the restoration of public order, and (3) the restoration or conversion of the offender.
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We need to make sure that the our teaching in schools, in the seminary, in our diaconate program, in parish groups and all other places, adequately reflects the light shed on the criminal justice system by our great tradition of Catholic social teaching.
2. Make the Parish the Centre of Prison Ministry
Second, as we increase our efforts to offer pastoral care to victims, offenders and the families of both, I believe that we should begin in the parish. Parishes are the fundamental units of Church life. They centre on the Sacraments and the Eucharist, and they are meant to be the place from which we go forth into the world with the heart of Christ.
This is the way the John Paul II Pastoral Centre operates. In the areas of evangelization, catechetics, First Nations ministry, etc., we see what we do as fostering and strengthening what takes place in the parish community. If this is so in other areas of concern and outreach, it should be no less the case in thinking about how we promote prison ministry. It needs to take root not just at the Archdiocesan level, but in the parish.
One way to do this is to develop a plan which would anchor the ministry in every parish. Think of a parish coordinator and a parish committee on prison ministry. In the area of vocations promotion this is already being organized and carried. This model respects how we carry out pastoral initiatives in the Archdiocese and is familiar to priests and lay people alike. I would very much like to see such a ministry anchored in every parish, as it already is in some.
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I also would like to find a better way to encourage priests to extend their sacramental ministry to the imprisoned, their families and victims and their families. Our permanent diaconate program will, God willing, give an important place in the formation of the men to pastoral ministry with the incarcerated and their families. This, after all, is what “deacons” or “servants” are called to do: works of charity and justice. Do consider making this parish-based focus a priority in planning the future of this ministry in the years ahead.
3. Bring Prison Ministry to All Prisons
My third – and final – suggestion today is a plea to serve prisoners and their families in all the prisoners in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. We do extraordinarily well in serving those in federal prisoners, but I am less sure about how well we do in provincial prisons. They are many reasons for this, but perhaps now is the time to expand our horizon and sphere of action to include those who are not in the federal correction system. It is not an impossible task, and I am sure that you can take up this challenge.
Conclusion
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Once again, in conclusion, I wish to extend to each one of you personally my gratitude for your ministry. It is inspiring and often even heroic. And I encourage you not to become discouraged if your efforts sometimes do not yield the results you hoped for. It is, after all, the Lord who gives increase to the work of our hands. Rest assured, however, that it is his work you are doing.
My suggestions can never replace the heart that you bring to your ministry, one that is open and compassionate, one full of mercy. Reaching out to the incarcerated, their victims and the families of both puts into practice the Gospel. I thank the Lord for you – and you should thank him for giving you a share in his ministry of forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation.
ª J. Michael Miller, CSB
Archbishop of Vancouver
[1] Francis, Meditation at Mass (3 July 2013).
[2] Francis, Address to the Poor and Prison Inmates, Cagliari (22 September 2013).
[3] Cf. William O’Brien, “Revolutionary Mercy,” America (15-22 July 2013), 17.
[4] Blessed John Paul II, Message for the Jubilee of Prisoners (July 2000).