“We’re here with you today to say that the Church in Camden loves you and wants to accompany you in your struggles and your life,” said Bishop Dennis Sullivan as he opened a Mass on Nov. 5 for incarcerated men and women and staff at Salem County Correctional Facility in Mannington Township.
The bishop celebrated Mass on an oak altar built specifically for the occasion by inmates who volunteered for the task. Religious artwork by inmates decorated the walls of the group recreation area basketball court where Mass was held. About 22 men and 16 women of the facility’s 400 incarcerated attended the Mass.
The first Bible reading was from St. Paul to the Philippians. Bishop Sullivan reminded attendees that St. Paul had himself been a prisoner.
“He wrote those words from a prison,” Bishop Sullivan said. “He still has freedom as a son of God to express himself so beautifully. He’s saying, ‘I’m in prison, but I’m still filled with the joy of God, even though prison is a difficult experience.’”
The bishop shook every attendee’s hand as they left and thanked them for their presence. He then took a tour of the facility.
“I want to send a message of how important it is for the diocese to have a ministry to the imprisoned, and not just to the imprisoned but also to the staff. I don’t think it’s an easy job,” Bishop Sullivan said.
Catholic Charities prison ministry coordinator Sister Mary Lou Lafferty organized the bishop’s visit, working with the facility’s co-chaplain, diaconate candidate Joe Farro.
“I think the bishop coming here is a great example of what the pope is calling the new evangelization,” Farro said. “He’s coming to where the people are to meet them and lead them to an encounter with Jesus.”
The jail offers around 30 multi-denominational religious programs a week run by approximately 26 volunteers, including two Catholic fellowship and Bible study groups, one for men and one for women.
“I believe personally it gives them some hope,” said Warden Ray Skradzinski of the facility’s religious programming. “Being locked up in a correctional facility you can really be in a position of hopelessness and I think they turn toward faith at that time.”
“I’m in hopes that it affects recidivism,” said County Sheriff Charles Miller. “The hope is that those encounters with Jesus make a change in their lives for the better and that they’ll carry that back out on the street when they’re released.”
The Diocese of Camden contains one federal, three state, and five county prisons. The bishop will have visited all nine of them by April of next year and plans to visit each prison annually. Sister Lafferty estimated that about 30 percent of the incarcerated population in the diocese’s six southern New Jersey counties is Catholic.
Bishop Sullivan will visit the federal prison in Fairton in December.
“We consider [the prisons] part of our parish, part of our ministry,” said Father Charles Colozzi, pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Salem County.
He was joined in concelebrating the Mass by other priests from Salem and Gloucester county parishes, the two counties served by the detention facility: Father Robert Ngageno and Father Rene Canales, also of St. Gabriel’s; and Father Dave Grover of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Swedesboro.
Religious artwork on the walls contained verses from the Bible and religious-inspired quotes. One read “Jesus Christ has set me free,” a quote from St. Paul.
Officer Gloria Warren, group recreation officer for the facility, organized the artwork project.
“It was an honor to get to work on this with them,” Warren said. “There are a lot of good people in here. They’re not just inmates; they’re human beings.”
Catholic Charities prison ministry under the coordination of Sister Lafferty incorporates approximately 80 volunteers throughout the diocese. Her role, created a year ago, is to grow the Catholic presence in the diocese’s prisons.
After a 40-year career in Catholic education, Sister Lafferty says her new work is both challenging and energizing.
“There’s so much in our social doctrines about human dignity and respect for life in our church. That’s what keeps me going. You’re never too old to bring the Gospel message. And sometimes it’s just your presence that’s needed,” Sister Lafferty said.