On Monday, 29 April, I have joined to Book Launch of "Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry" by The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology.
I'd like to express my thankfulness for the invitation to presentation of the long-awaited book Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry. Resourcing Theory and Practice, edited by Elizabeth Phillips, Férdia J. Stone-Davis!
It is an important development on the field of the theology in practice. As a representative of Ukraine in the International Catholic Commission of Prison Pastoral Care I have attended the event with assistance of chief representative of the ICCPCC-Europe Doris Schäfer. Many Christian denominations in my country in the Pastoral Council of Religious Assistance in Prison under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine find great support in the Social doctrine of the Catholic Church.
I’d like to express my gratitude and respect to all the speakers, co-authors and researchers, who have contributed significantly to this publication. Thanks for the words of introduction to His Excellency Bishop Richard Moth (Lead Bishop for Prisons for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales)! With great interest I listened to Most Reverend Fr. Dr Patrick Riordan’s (SJ) comments on his chapter 2 Common Good and Prison. Many Thanks for the presentations of Dr. Alice Ievins on Chapter 5 Hope, Despair, and Desistance and Dr. Keith Adams on Chapter 9 Catholic Social Thought and Prisons. All these topics are of great importance to prison chaplains and voluntary assistants.
Social teaching of the Church is very helpful especially in time of tribulation which we have in our country now. At least 18,000 prisoners find themselves on the occupied parts of Donbas and Crimea in the first phase of the war since 2014 and more than 3,000 prisoners after the full-scale invasion. They were immediately deprived of all rights and some were tortured to death, some were forcibly transported to the territory of the aggressor country. During a full-scale war that is genocidal in nature, we faced huge challenges, such as the need to evacuate prisoners of various categories. Such evacuation affected more than 11,000 prisoners in Ukraine.
We faced new challenges when the aggressor country attracted the most dangerous criminals to private military companies, using the imitation of amnesty. Dozens thousands of such former prisoners were thrown into the so-called ‘meat assaults’ and died. The Social doctrine of the Church has all the points related to this kind of events, but they need even more detailed verbalization as a response to the dangers and abuses that are recognized as war crimes. But at the same time we need a pastoral response! Another problem is also the pastoral care of prisoners of war.
Constantin Panteley
