Like the many other prisons Bishop Dennis Sullivan has visited in recent months, Bayside State in Cumberland County entails a lengthy security process to enter.
After passing through the metal detectors and scanners, we’re led by an officer toward a floor-to-ceiling gate of metal bars. It slowly slides open to admit us into a square enclosure with only enough space for a small security kiosk, and it slides shut behind us with a clang. For a few brief moments, we are surrounded by bars. No going forward, no going back.
We hand in our driver’s licenses, the last of the personal possessions we’ve been allowed to bring in with us. Our keys have remained at the front desk, our phones in our cars, and now even our identities are replaced with the uniform guest badge. The gate opposite opens and we walk down more hallways, through courtyards where inmates in khaki uniforms shovel snow, and suddenly into a radically different kind of space.
The chapel is high-ceilinged and expansive, with six walls that give it a less angular shape. At the front is an altar and windows with light streaming in. But all eyes are immediately drawn to the huge wooden crucifix that hangs on the front wall, gazing down on the worshippers.
It is formed by a hundred jagged pieces of wood that give it the look of something shattered and put back together again. The shape of Christ is visible, but it is a broken Christ, hanging on a broken cross.
“In the Eucharist, the savior gives us his broken body,” Bishop Sullivan said in a homily to the 35 inmates who attended the first of two liturgies he celebrated on Feb. 20 at Bayside State Prison.
“That broken body mixes with our brokenness, whatever that might be, and Christ brings us his healing,” he said. “By uniting our suffering to his, we know we don’t have to stay suffering forever; we don’t have to stay dead. We can be lifted to life.”
The crucifix has its own story to tell. By the estimate of Father Bill Bleiler, who concelebrated the Masses with Bishop Sullivan that day, it has hung in the prison chapel for at least 30 years.
Father Bleiler is pastor emeritus of St. Michael Church in Cedarville, now part of the Parish of the Holy Cross in Bridgeton. The crucifix was donated to the prison by the pastor before him and he learned its story from long-time parishioners.
It was built by a man who had suffered a long illness and saw his own suffering in light of the suffering of Christ. Although he wasn’t a member, he donated the cross to the parish. Within a month, the parishioners had persuaded the pastor to donate it to the prison.
Father Bleiler celebrated Mass twice a week under the crucifix during his 15 years as pastor of the parish, which included the prison.
“The meaning of the crucifix is ideal because it represents the mystical body of Christ. As St. Paul said, Christ is the head and we all become incorporated through baptism into his mystical body,” Father Bleiler said. “The wood chips represent our brokenness — that we’re all wounded through our sin.”
The current pastor of the Parish of the Holy Cross, Father Vincent Guest, was also present to concelebrate Mass with the bishop. His parish contains three state, one federal, and one county facility — five correctional institutions in total.
“During Lent, it’s especially meaningful for the bishop to be here, because we all recognize our own brokenness and our need for healing from the risen Lord,” Father Guest said.
Working with Catholic Charities’ prison ministry coordinator, Sister Mary Lou Lafferty, OSF, Bishop Sullivan has made pastoral visits to six of the nine penal institutions in the Camden Diocese within the last 10 months. He’s scheduled to celebrate Mass at Southern State, Delmont, in April and the remaining two facilities in the fall. In January, he visited the Atlantic County Justice Facility, celebrating two separate liturgies for women and men.
Later in the day the bishop travelled by prison bus to the minimum security side of Bayside State to celebrate a second Mass.
“It is heartwarming to witness the inmates’ participation and appreciation of Bishop’s Sullivan’s celebrating the liturgy with them,” Sister Lafferty said. “They read, they sing, they respond. The bishop’s visit says to them ‘You are somebody.’”
Prison Ministry is supported by the House of Charity — Bishop’s Annual Appeal.
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